tv The Cycle MSNBC March 31, 2014 12:00pm-1:01pm PDT
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and we start with obama care, there's just a few hours left to sign up for health insurance, but potential signees like luke russert waking up to find healthcare.gov down again. people were told they would get an e-mail alert when they could go back down. now the website is fully operational. 6 million people have already signed up with just one million to go to meet those original projections, with the big day for the president's health care law, and opponents ready to pounce on any missteps, let's bring in washington bureau chief for buzz feed, the numbers are better than expected, a lot of people now have the health care that the president wanted them to have and those sort of options. but the challenge to implementation, the difficulty in getting this things up and running has, i think, prejudiced people against this law, so the
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sting of it not working on day one, not working today, is sort of making people feel like this isn't working? >> i think they made a bad calculation to not come out when cbo came out with that 11 million number, instead of saying at the beginning accepting that and when they weren't going to get there, they should have said at it the out set, we would love to have 7 million, we think it's going to be 3 million or 4 million, so when they came in ahead of that, they could call it a success. a lot of their problems have been simple messaging problems. today they inexplicably aren't prepared to have people signing up at the end of this enrollment period. it's been plagued by small but, it's a death by 1,000 cuts situation for the who is right now. >> and john, regardless of how
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people feel about the law, what it does do is provide insurance for people who would normally not be able to afford it. remember, there's still roughly 35 million people that still don't have health insurance. but because there have been so many set backs and so many problems, both on the technical front and on the messaging front, this more positive aspect of the law halfback somewhat overshadowed and chuck todd was on the "today" show talking about the political implications for this and what it might mean for democrats. >> does that mean seven months downing the road as the midterm elections come around, that this will be any less of an issue in close races in congressional districts? >> at this point the law is so embedded as a political negative for the democrats and a political negative overall that i don't think anything it's going to change by november. this is going to take maybe two years for the politics of this to work itself out and that's assuming everything continues to go as the administration has
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claimed that it would. right now you've got the 7 million you're signing up and then over time, they get more and more. >> when you look at where we're at, will the costs be greater than the reward, or is that something we won't be able to figure out for another decade? >> it's something we won't be able to tell for years at least. there's some folks that are saying we won't know if it's really working until 2020. you look at those kind of numbers and politically the costs if that is true are going to outweigh the benefits for the democrats. because chuck's right, this is a ship you're not going to be able to turn around between now and november, and potentially even 2016. if things continue to go well, but not extremely well and not change the public's perception of this law, i don't see how politically this weighs well for them for the foreseeable future. >> john, piggy backing off of that, we know today that 95 million people who were
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previously uninsured are now insured. that's a sizable voting bloc, if that could ever be cull vated by democrats or those in favor of the health care law. but what can democrats do to get that 9.5 million people, that voting bloc and get them to the polls in the coming year? >> i think, you're right, the problem for them is that a lot of those people are poor or young. and those two demographics generally don't vote in large numbers, particularly in offyear elections, and right now the problem the president is having is that even people on both sides are feeling affected by those issues. that is driving down intensity on their side. the white house had a story about latinos not looking to go out and vote because of the immigration fight. they need those people to come out. they need the youth vote to come out. they have to try to do that. they're trying to take some
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steps now in terms of a ground game, to organize those voters to try to replicate at some level what they did in 2008 and 2012. without him at the top of the ticket, it's tough to get people to go out and vote. >> i think the democrats' messaging on the health care law from the beginning are very important. rather than enforcing the fact that their opponents want to take away the health care all together, something that is very unpopular. they want to go forward with the problems with obama care and how they're going to fix it, which i don't think works very well. but you know, john, in terms of the policy landscape, i think we have seen a remarkable shift in that now i think there's a broad recognition that universal health care should be the-goal and that's a new state of affairs, that is a new reality in the policy landscape. we used to have this debate over whether we should have health
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care for all. now we're in a place where that has been broadly accepted, so regardless of what happens in the midterm elections is an incredibly progressive goal. >> republicans particularly are coming to terms with the fact that the law is not going to be repealed, at least in total. >> can you say that again? i missed that. can you say that again? >> republicans really, i think when you talk to them, they understand that they're not going to be able to repeal the entire law, they'. some of them are returning to the point before the debate over obama care started where a lot of conservatives and a lot of republicans did believe in the idea of some kind of universal health care system, obviously not a government run one from their perspective. but it was a broad goal that a lot of people on the right and the -- >> they used to support this very law. look admit romney. >> exactly.
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exactly. so i think on the policy side, you're definitely starting to see that, but politically, they want to keep their policy positions and their political positions separate. >> so if we move one step forward from the idea that maybe it can be repealed and we row move that, we still have to deal with the idea that it does need to be negotiated and worked on, any gigantic change to a complex american system will require work. i don't think anything this large that we have tried to do ever in the history of america has rolled out without problems. >> and 2016, to not expand medicaid coverage ether. >> obstruction has been a huge part of why the implementation does not work well. if you ask the president and the dems to say let's negotiate with the republicans to fix the
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problems, the problems that reasonable republicans may be pointing out and that you've got the other side that are not being honest brokers and what they really want to do is destroy the whole thing. >> a lot of republicans don't want to open help revisions now because they're afraid to do that, they put their position on this law works and they don't want to have a debate over it. the administration is a little nervous about opening up parts of the law because it was created in such a way that you tinker with one thing and you're going to have to tinker with other parts of it. it's a spider web, they're a little nervous about it politically, they want people to think that the law is a success and if they say yes, let's start opening up parts of this, then they're going to have to dial that back a bit. so i think both sides have reasons for not doing it, but republicans clearly are nervous about at this point at least a wholesale effort to try to
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reform the law. >> the best pundit in all of d.c., being here with us, no more of that, luke, we're going to retire that officially. up next, a weekend of false leads and frustration in the search for flight 370. but australia's prime minister says this is far from over and the cycle is far from over, it's monday, march 31st. the annual company retreat. planned, as usual, by this guy. nature lover... people person. ♪ and you put up with it all... because he also booked you a room... at this place. planet earth's number one accomodation site: booking.com booking.yeah! put it on my capital one i earn unlimited double miles. hey, you're not the charles barkley? yes i am. nah charles barkley is way taller. there's my picture on the wall. yeah that could be anyone.
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decreasing. until we locate some actual wreckage from the aircraft, and then do the regression analysis that might tell us where the aircraft went into the ocean, we'll be operating on guesstima guesstimates. but nevertheless, this is the best we can do. >> relying on guesstimates, that is the best that search teams can do right now, 24 days after malaysia flight 370 went down in the indian ocean. the search area is now the size of new mexico. it's moved and it's grown since last week. but if this is where the plane sunk, the good news is that the seabed here is more conducive for an junked water search. the towed hanger device is now en route, but it's behind schedule. 550 people helping support efforts on land. 100 aviators are in the air,
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plus countless scientists, engineers and satellite operators trying to triangulate a crash zone. that's why australia just opened a daily operations center. the only debris pulled from the water so far turned out to be old fishing gear. as for the families, you can only imagine, their lack of trust in the malaysian government is growing after they were shown a slide of the plane looping animal laround malaysiae government refuses to show it to the press. >> reporter: behind me, leaving western australia is the latest ship to join the search, the australian vessel ocean sheelie leaving with some interesting equipment, but also some problems. the machine it's carrying is a small submarine, equipped with cameras that can see down into this ocean. it's also bringing up black box
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locators, something they will tow behind it so that can listen under water for the pings that the black box emits. it's like the eyes and the ears of the underwater search. but nobody knows exactly where it should be going, because the debris that's been found, none of it is linked to the plane, so it has no clear target to aim more. which is why one navy captain said the search for the plane could take years. the search was on today, it's finished now, ten planes were in the air, ten ships were at sea. from what we know they didn't discover anything of significance. so this ship is leaving more in hope than an expectation, trying to solve what the british prime minister called today this
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extraordinary mystery. >> tom costello is in washington with the latest on the search. >> let's just drive home this point, day 24, 24 days since this plane went missing and we have no trace of it whatsoever. there was one new development today out of malaysia, and that is yet another contradiction. the final words via radio by they believe the co-pilot, were not good night, but good night malaysia 370. cont contradicting what the malaysians said yes. let's understand more of what bill is talking about here. we are talking about an area the size of new mexico. that's the condensed search zone, that's the focused search
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zone, the massive search zone, if you include the entirety of the area, is the size of the state of alaska. we have talked a lot about the fact that there is so much debris out there. listen to this stat, there are 45,000 pieces of debris floating in the ocean in this area per mile. 45 ,000 pieces of debris per mile in this area. there is so much trash out there in the water, that makes this so difficult. so here is one piece of something that was spotted by a n n new zealand. this is a tight shot, this was taken from the monitor, a television viewing monitor, if you will, inside the plane, excuse me for that, let's go back to this page. you can see it's very difficult
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to make out any definition whatsoever. that's the challenge, they look at this, they think it may be something, it's yellow, the definition is hard to define, it's hard to see what it is. and so they call it in, they drop a flare marker on it. the trouble is, by the time the ship gets to the area, the flare has already gone out, the smoke's gone out. they sometimes will try to get an electronic device on it, a gps locator on it so they can mark the area, but then it drifts, you know, the object drifts so far. so they're in this incredibly challenging environment, they're still about 1,100 miles away from perth, australia, in the middle of this vast ocean, there's one of those smoke bombs that they drop, and then they go out before a ship gets there because it's in a water environment. and 45,000 pieces of debris every square mile that really gives you a sense of what they're up against. they will take off again in a few hours, about three or four hours when sunlight hits, we're talking about ten ships, pardon
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me, ten planes, 11 ships rejoining this operation, yet again on day 25 of the search form for malaysia 370. >> michael goldstaff, as we were just hearing from tom, massive amounts of debris in the water in this particular part of the ocean, the search efforts trying to find a piece of debris that actually came from that missing airplane. how important is it to the investigation to have that physical evidence? >> i think dean's trying to find a needle in a haystack and we have a debris field, we don't have a debris field. we're bringing in the a-team resources, both with the malaysians and the investigation and the top flight world class capability, but honestly now, i think most experts believe that we're going to be lucky to find
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any piece of that debris, and that may have nothing to do with the debris field, let alone those so-called black boxes that were at the end of their battery life. >> if your team was in the fourth quarter and down four touchdown, your team would be highly depressed and demoralized. the australian prime minister tony abbott spoke about that. >> they're tired, sure, but this is what they are trained for and this is what they live for. i think they feel a great weight of responsibility, but also a great challenge of professional purpose. >> he's saying is that, as people are expecting, it is getting emotionally different for these searchers. >> these people are going to give their all to find that. but let's look at what happened here, we lost this recovery,
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almost before the plane took off by malaysia air's decision, not to buy an app for their acars system. the aircraft was sold by boeing to malaysia air with a basic avionics suite that don't provide the upgrade that would have provided the same kind of information air france provided that would allow the investigators to within a week to at least know the area of the debris field they're looking for. the thought that a jumbo jet -- that would allowed this stream of information. so all those pings that we heard, we would have had a load of information, even if acars had gone down that would help us. that's number one. but number two, this is how not to conduct an investigation. >> let's talk a little bit about
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this search effort you have chuck hagel that's in hawaii this week with defense ministers and malaysia hopes these country also commit to sending more aid. but then you have the prime minister of australia saying these efforts are ramping up, not winding down. but we're talking about searching for something in the area the side of alaska, this could take year. but what about malaysia, who says we have given this everything we have got, we're going to want to start pulling back. >> they don't want to say that for obvious reasons, but there's forces meeting in hawaii, we're a little too late for this time afraid. we must find a piece of debris, finding a piece of debris would give the families some sense of closure that the plane in fact crashed. two, it will tell the ntsb, the british board and malaysian authorities pretty much what happened to that aircraft.
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it won't say why it crashed but a lot of causal information. we're losesing that window to find that little piece of debris. as small as it might be, investigators are really able to -- when you get on a 777 tomorrow morning, you need to know that that plane is safe, you need to know that what happened to that other aircraft didn't bleed over into the other aircraft and we might have a problem with the fleet worldwide. >> malaysia airlines could have made this search easier by giving more information to search operations. the battery is only required to last 30 days, some can last as long as 15 days longer, so 45 days, what can be done or anything you feel should be put into position about making these black boxes have to last 45 days at least and what other technological things can be done to make sure this never happens
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again? >> we have enough technology in our cockpit to communicate to the -- all air photographic communication is still voice, they don't do text, they don't do data communication, number one. those to-called black boxes could be uploaded to a data station. it all has to do with cost. but look at the cost to malaysia airlines in terms of public relations and prestige and look at what will be billions of dollars spent on this recovery. going forward, it has to be an absolutely modern -- also to provide a black box that is either floatable or can be retrieved through a data stream to the ground. up next, when it comes to politics, what happens in vegas does not stay in vegas. that's next. [ male announcer ] sponges take your mark. ♪ [ female announcer ] one drop of ultra dawn
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the rain has backed off and now they're facing new challenges, like household chemicals. four hours, that is how long secretary of state john kerry spent behind closed doors with his russian counterpart yet. not much came from the meeting, the united states still considers russia's actions illegal and insists ukrainians must be on the same page when it comes to the road ahead. >> it could be a big step forward when it comes to backing up, the feds are going to require backup cameras on all vehicles, before long everything from compact cars to heavy trucks, in 2010 alone, 2000 people were killed after being run over by people in reverse. a lot of moms i'm sure are happy to hear that.
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another weekend of surprises in the ncaa tournament. uconn is in the final four, they knocked off michigan state, a favorite to win it all. the huskies will face florida on saturday, the winner of that will take on the other winner of the semifinal game this weekend between wisconsin and kentucky. all right, now on to the spin cycle where what happens in vegas doesn't always stay in vegas. ♪ no one knows how much i care ♪ when you put your arms around me ♪ >> what the [ bleep ] happened last night. >> am i missing a tooth? >> okay, so maybe it wasn't as bad as "the hangover" for some of the 2016 republican presidential contenders this past week, but i'm sure there's a few things they wish would remain in sin city.
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address the spring leadership meeting of the republican jewish coalition and sit down of course with billionaire sheldon adelson. i will say this is the epitome of what is wrong with money and politics. to think in a democracy that one individual has so much power and so much influence over an election, in fact it's the opposite of what our founding fathers intended for. this is where we're at, right? if you want to be a contender, if you want to be in the mix, if you want to be taken seriously and be paid for by this guy in 2016, you're going to go to this party. last week he spent $92 million on mostly losing candidates in 2012. so now he's looking for a more moderate voice, someone who could actually win in a general election. i don't think he sees rand paul as someone who could win a
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general election. >> he and rand call can't come together. this is a disgusting manifestation of inequality. where you see millions of folks are searching for work and wealth is pooling in a few hands where a couple of people, sheldon adelson being one of them can -- kiss my ring, sing my song about israel or whatever else he cares about this month. and this is happening nakedly and publicly. no shame about this happening. it reminds me of what kanye west said, no one man should have all that power. and we should be outraged that one man has that much party in this world. >> i think we're making a big deal of something that on the presidential level is not that
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significant. let's go to the results back in 2012, adelson, foster freeze, they got behind rick santorum, they kept these guys afloat longer than they should have been kept afloat. in fact it helped out the republican party. it doesn't work out too well when you have this money from one or two people. this kissing the king makers, that's done on both sides. what i will say, however, whether you have a real argument on the state level, if you go back to 2010, one of the things that does not get enough attention in the media, is the amount of money that was put in by various right wing billionaires in trying to determine the outcomes of state houses and those state senate races that have a substantial impact on what happens in various states regarding all types of regulations, they ultimately end up benefiting the
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business interests of those donors. >> that's really well said. an i think there's an argument to be made that on the presidential level, there's already so much money involved, the addition of a sheldon adelson or a foster freeze doesn't matter that much. but, you know, one other thing i would point out, it's not just at the state level, i mean our whole federal politics and the whole policy landscape is essentially dictated by the wealthy donors who are funding candidates on both sides. that's why it's so hard to get a minimum wage increase, that the overwhelming majority of america supports, that's why it's so hard to get action on climate change. that is why our whole policy change is obsessed with deficit reduction because those are the interests of the very, very top 1% that totally dictate our policy at all levels. so sheldon adelson and the presidential primary, that is a
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very big manifestation of what's rotten throughout our entire system. >> you say it didn't work out in 2012 so it's not a big deal, in 2016, it will have even more power. >> we have all said this is a problem on both sides. democrats don't have a sheldon adelson. >> all right, we'll end it there. before we take a break, though, we must and i say must, congratulate our very own for winning on saturday. >> i love it. >> the round is over, the game is over and the one left standing is crystal ball with 900 points. >> we're so proud of her, she now goes on to saturday's final. and is odds maker in vegas have
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i dunno, i just ah woke up today and i said i need something sportier. annnd done. ok maxwell, just need to ah contact your insurance company with the vin number. oh, i just did it. with my geico app. vin # is up to the loaded. ok well then jerry here will take you through all of the features then. why don't weeeeeeeeeeee go out to the car. ok, i'll just be outside... ok, yeah. his dad is my boss. yeah. vin scanning to add a car. just a tap away on the geico app. worst morning ever. [ angelic music plays ] ♪ toaster strudel! best morning ever! [ hans ] warm, flaky, gooey. toaster strudel!
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tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 turn inspiration into action. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 we have intuitive platforms tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 to help you discover what's trending. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and seasoned market experts to help sharpen your instincts. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so you can take charge tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 of your trading. but really it comes down to this. why does everybody think republicans have such a good chance? if they simply win democratic house seats in these seven seats that mitt romney carried, we call this the romney road, they'll win. 6 of 7, they'll have the majority. >> a wakeup call from them seven months out from the midterm.
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some candidates decide whether to run away or embrace obama care, some feel they haven't delivered a key -- because of the failure to pass reforms, the "new york times" today declares that latinos are frustrated and poised to reject the ballot box in november and turn out in lower numbers. president obama recently ordered an internal review of the the administration's enforcement policy. here to discuss nbc news contributor, ron tornado -- last time was very optimistic, nothing wrong with being optimistic, but immigration did not get done this year or next year. we're going to have to look into the next administration, but even if you want to say the
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democrats are ineffective on this issue, you cannot argue with the fact that republicans have been 40s style and unsympathetic to what the latino community needs. and i think they have damageled themselves long-term. latinos are turned off by the to top. >> stayed home, there were 12 million who were eligible voters who didn't check out. if you want to be optimistic, you can always look at it as an untapped trove. >> president obama got the r --
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however now he has leaders, at of these immigration reform groups that are calling for that, saying he's the deporter in chief. there's a lot of daylight between the administration and these republicans say benefits them greatly because it's now sort of pox orb both your houses. how much of a risk is it for the democratic party that these deportations stay where they are and this has not gotten done and latinos are apathetic, not only in the 2014 mitt terms, but moving forward in 2016. >> that's a real danger, but the challenge for the president, i think he's still holding back, this is we're in the discharge petition that was recently -- i think the president's just waiting it out and this summer
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we will start looking at executive answers. there are real parallels between his struggle and what's going on now, he stood up for marginalized people. he i think there are some parallels and some inspiration. >> i think you have written about this, the five top states for hispanic population, you have california, texas, florida, new york and illinois, three of which are blue states, one is solid red and one is a battleground state. >> he's sister-in-law part of it because they're not invested in those states. when you look at these stat this
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is ticks, it does tend to have higher latino participation, because every vote matters and that's something unfortunately, because demographics, we don't see that in new york. >> there's a way that we're going to turning texas purple. >> same thing could be said for arizona, same thing could be said for colorado. >> georgia. >> the problem is that the republicans don't know how to do this type of latino outreach and the -- >> voting democratic, it might not be purple texas so quickly. >> your nationalses are playing, what are you doing here? >> straight ahead, we go beyond the majors for an inside look at a game the bands don't normally get to see.
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he was a matted messiley in a small cage. ng day. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com . glorious music, the crack of the bat, the roar of a crowd, the smell of crackerjacks in the air, baseball is back, america. thousands of fans are packing stadiums across the country today as the first full day of games is under way. multimillion dollar players like cabrera and harper are returning to their lineups while some are putting on the big league
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jerseys after years in the minors. for a lucky view, the minor fors are just a stop on the way to the big leagues, all for one shot at fulfilling a life dream. in his hatest book, where nobody knows your name, life in the minor leagues of baseball u sports journalists and one of the best writers of contemporary times, blares, managers and umps are one swing or call away from the big league, john finestein, it's an honor to have you on the program, thanks so much. >> i want to ask you this, the minor leagues are something that it's obviously got many levels, you've got a through aaa. even if you're a good athlete, hitting a 98-mile-per-hour
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curveball ask not the easiest thing in the world. players come in and their -- they're often out of high school, their expectations are curtailed and the minor leagues are often to try to stunt your growth to the major leagues. >> it's not like in football or basketball where the top picks go directly to the big lesions. bryce harper, from your beloved nationals, you go to the minor leagues for a while. in most cases it's because guys aren't ready at 18, 19 or 20 to step right into the big leagues, what the minor leagues does is it weeds out that small percentage of those that can make to it the major leagues. if you get drafted, you have a 3% chance to get to the major
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leagues. once you get to aaa which is where this book is set, you're facing past major league leaguers every single night, and that's where it gets more difficult. >> alluding to in the intro, life in the minor leagues is not wonderful. living and out of western and greyhound buss. many earn less than the federal poverty level. if you know that you don't have what it takes to make it to the major leagues, why go through this? >> because they all still have that dream, that something's going to change, that they're going to find a way to hit that curveball, find a way to hit outside corner with the breaking pitch when they have to, because there are occasions where it happens. one of the guys i write about in the book, nate mclouth, with the nationals, out of baseball two years ago, released by the pittsburgh pirates, he was 30, thought his career was over. he got a chance to go to the baltimore orioles farm team, found something in his swing, ended up being the orioles'
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starting left fielder in the playoffs and now a contract for two years and $11 million. they all believe they can be that exception to the rule, because you're right, that is the rule. most of them spend their lives making way, way, under $100,000 a year whereas major league minimum is $500,000 a year. >> john, for players who do have what it takes, what does that process look like? how do they go from minors to majors? >> for most of them, it's a step by step process. it's not like they land in major leagues quickly. there are a few exceptions. they start in rookie ball or low a-ball and work up to aaa. some skip aaa and go from aa to majors, but it can take years. john lindsay waited 16 years to get his first chance to go to the major leagues. >> wow. >> he was 34 years old when the call finally came. he told his dad, when he first signed at the age of 18, if i'm not in the majors after two years, i'm coming home, i'm
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quitting. 16 years later he got his chance to go to the big leagues. >> he did get to go to bat, luke, and he did get a hit. >> john, you know, i love baseball. i love the yankees but i'm disappointed to see the sort of decline of black players in baseball. when i was young, there were great ones and now very few. i think part of the reason happens at minor league level where it costs a lot less, like a tenth of the amount to sign players from the care beer who could become great versus signing guys great athletes out of l.a., oakland, florida what have you. is that a big reason why we're seeing few and fewer black players and americans in general in the game? >> there are a couple of reasons for that. the guys who come international players, regardless where they come from, don't have to be drafted. so they can just be signed by teams when they're 15, 16, 17 years old.
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jc boskin a big star, at 30 he didn't make the major leagues. it's easier to pluck international players now than it is to draft them out of american high schools and colleges. that's one reason. the other is, because basketball's become so popular in this country. >> absolutely. >> john feinstein author of the book, "where nobody knows your name" everybody get a copy and "season on the brink," thank you for being on the show. appreciate it. >> thanks, everybody. good to talk to you. and, the washington nationals, i believe, tied right now with the new york mets on opening day. i'll be there friday. church and state on collision course as toure is traffic cop. i've always had to keep my eye on her...
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but i didn't always watch out for myself. with so much noise about health care, i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile, not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still gonna give me a heart attack. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.
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once i was part of a panel of folks considered for jury duty -- i never made it into the box to be questioned by attorneys but one of the men who did said he couldn't be part of the jury. another man stepped up and said the same thing and dismissed when a third claimed the same, the judge wondered allowed if he was being conned and would accept no more of that excuse, a mini version of the struggle to mark how far religious liberty should extend in this country. and that is at the heart of the supreme court case involving hobby lobby and the vetoed arizona law attempting to give businesses right to not serve gay customers. folks resorting to the bible to hold off the onrush of laws or societal changes that they just don't like. since 1800s, says professor katharine franke at columbia law
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school, when opponents of expanding notions of equality have lost in the public arena, their plan b has been to seek refuge in religion. this is not to say that most religious people are intolerant, far from it, but some who are opposed to progress have hoped their bible could create a force field that would shield them from unlike parts of modernity. some say hobby lobby should be able to run their shop however they may be. but some turn us into consumers and help the best possible chance to survive so government demand businesses treat customers with the dignity of a nation of people equal under the law, that's a small price. courts and legislators have shielded religious employers from employee lawsuits, providing unemployment benefits and unionization. hobby lobby is not a religious employer, not a church but employer run by people who are religious, and it seems to be
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looking for right to borrow from the higher power. will the supreme court grant hobby lobby an exception from offering birth control, something hobby lobby offered before obamacare came down? it will probably come down anthony kennedy, writing that the procedure at issue was one many decent and civilized people find so abhorrent as to be amock the most serious of crimes against human life. i suspect kennedy will lead the court to give hobby lobby a carved out exception. those who support the argument, will win, whether it tear at fabric of obamacare, scoring against it, or loses the judgment and feels that arrogant, elitist liberals are forcing reform down their throat. as tom mass frank wrote, in every 20th reform effort conservatives see nothing but impositi imposition, the fancy full designs of man pressed down by
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the immutable way of god, aka, the free market. any retreat of god from the public scare proves to those who use the bible the heathen nature of liberals and the repressed nature of their side and you get high outrage. beware, progressives, religious liberty as attempted blockade against anything sets up a win/win for the other side. that's it for us, now is "now." the numbers say 6 million and counting. then again, if you're in the party of repeal, why believe in numbers? monday, march 31st, and this "now." >> today is the deadline. >> your last chance to sign up for private health insurance. >> open enrollment closes at midnight. >> midnight. >> midnight. >> by midnight tonight. >> deadline day. >> sort of. >> it's only kind of the deadline. >> anybody who is in line now, they are able to even, at the
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