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tv   Weekends With Alex Witt  MSNBC  April 26, 2014 4:00am-5:01am PDT

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ge! seed your lawn. seed it! president obama overseas. he delivers a message to u.s. troops with sharp words for one country. a live report next. dangerous weekend weather. storms sweep through parts of the mid-atlantic but more is on the way so where is it headed? hitting the jackpot. why are a lot of people headed to new jersey just to stay in their hotel rooms? the answer in big money headlines. in office politics, chris hayes, he talks about his latest politics on climate change and his interesting take on the keystone pipeline. good morning, everyone. welcome to weekends with alex
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witt. here's what's happening, president obama issuing sharp words for north korea. he's in malaysia arriving in the country two hours ago. before touching down in kuala lumpur, he wrapped up his visit with south korea by meeting with u.s. service members thanking them for their service. he also said this about north korea. >> north korea and its people have a choice, they can choose to continue down a lonely road of isolation or they can choose to join the rest of the world, seek a future of greater opportunity and greater security and greater respect. >> nbc's kristin welker is at the white house for us with a good morning to you. what more did the president say about north korea and what did he accomplish on his visit to south korea? >> reporter: well, his goal in south korea, alex, is to reaffirm the united states support and alliance with south korea. the broader goal of this entire trip is a part of the administration's attempt to pivot to the asia pacific region, particularly as it draws down the wars in iraq and
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afghanistan. so that was really a part of his goal in south korea. as you say, alex, he had strong words for north korea reiterated a warning that we have heard from him in the past that north korea will only become more isolated if it continues to engage in provocative actions. if, for example, it launches another nuclear test. here's a little bit more of what president obama had to say during his stop in south korea. take a listen. >> north korea's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons is a path that leads only to more isolation. that's not a sign of strength. anybody can make threats. anyone can move an army. anyone can show off a missile. that doesn't make you strong. it does not lead to security or opportunity or respect. those things don't come through force, they have to be earned. >> reporter: now, alex, as you pointed out, president obama also visited with american troops who are stationed in south korea and also during his
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stop there he expressed his condolences to the families who are suffering so much in the wake of that ferry accident in south korea. >> i'm sure that's very much on his mind. kristin welker, thank you very much for that. >> thank you. 32 million people from texas to the carolinas will be in the path of some violent weather. several twisters were spotted in eastern kentucky. farther west, some police officers were hurt in the line of fire from hail. huge hail falling from the sky. about 1,000 people had to seek shelter. a tornado touched down nearby damaging some homes and trees. >> porches are gone, roofs are gone but i still have somewhere to stay. >> it's supposed to gets worse today. meteorologist dylan dreyer is here with how bad it's going to get. >> good morning, alex. it will be a busy weekend especially on sunday. we started off with heavy rain
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in the northeast. we have very strong storms move through north carolina where at least one reported tornado was confirmed and it did produce some damage. no one was injured. you can see we have some leftover showers across the northeast. it's clearing out across new york city. new england will be in it for another couple of hours. eventually it will basically move out over the atlantic. that becomes less of an issue. we'll see more storms fire up later this afternoon. you ee the strip of yellow all the way down into southwestern texas. that's where we could see some very strong storms today. tornadoes would be isolated. we're looking for strong wind damage and also hail with these storms that develop but as we go into sunday, that's when we're going to increase our risk of very strong storms in red from southwestern missouri pretty much encompassing all of arkansas and stretching down into eastern portions of texas and northern portions of louisiana. that's an area especially on sunday afternoon where we could see an outbreak of very strong
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super cells that could produce tornadoes. that's an area we have to keep an eye on. still looking at the yellow area from iowa down into texas, that's where we could see strong storms. those have the capability of producing large hail and damaging winds. tornadoes are not out of the question. our best chance of tornadoes will be across the area in red especially in arkansas. we'll be keeping a close eye on that. alex. >> thanks for the heads up. police in milford, connecticut, are trying to determine if a 16-year-old girl was stabbed to death because she turned down an invitation to the prom. the headline in this morning's "hartford courant." calls her a gifted student. yesterday friends and family still reeling from the news held a vigil releasing purple balloons in her honor. on friday morning the day of her junior prom police say sanchez was stabbed to death in the school hallway by one of her classmates, a 16-year-old boy
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who is now in police custody. >> this is a difficult day for milford. it's a very difficult day for the jonathan law high school community. any time there's a death, it's tragic. it's especially difficult when it's a young person. >> that 16-year-old suspect is due in court on monday. right now he is being charged as a juvenile with murder. the secret service doesn't only protect the president. surveillance video shows the dramatic moments agents jumped into action when a tourist collapsed just down the street from the white house. the woman from dallas was having an apparent heart attack. fortunately one of the secret service agents was an emt. she got breathing again. no word on her condition. well, college sports may never be the same. football players at northwestern university became the first student athletes to vote on whether to unionize. the national labor relations board took a vote. they asked the nlrv to review whether players have the right
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to unionize in the way workers can in the private sector. the votes are impounded until that question is decided. it is the number one book on amazon.com. why do some say it could change the way america looks at the economy? and the big makeover for ronald mcdonald. it's in our headlines coming up. l gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? salesperson #2: exactly. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.
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to politics this morning. the national rifle association kicking off day two of its annual meeting with sarah palin set to address the crowd tonight. the convention is in indianapolis. on friday some possible gop presidential contenders spoke. >> we must continue to move. because this right we gather to defend it's so important to who we are as a nation. >> you've seen the left for a
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long time and what they've tried to do to erode the second ame amendme amendment. every member of my family is an nra member. even bella is an nra member. >> by the by, when it comes to the state of louisiana, we are proud to be clinging to our guns and religion and we are not bitter about it at all. >> senator rand paul reached out to younger voters last night speaking at the institute of politics. he spoke about the importance of broadening the gop base. >> what i've said repeatedly, the republican party will adapt, evolve or die. they're not big enough. they have to be bigger. they have to include more people. i tell people that the republican party needs to look like the rest of america to have a chance.
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>> in new york law enforcement sources tell nbc affiliate wnbc that republican congressman michael grimp is m is expected face federal charges next week. they're expected to center on a private business deal before he was elected to congress. the congressman's attorney issued a statement in part saying congressman grimm asserts his innocence of any wrongdoing. when the dust settles he will be vindicated. joining me now washington bureau chief lynn sweet and congressional reporter for the washington post, ed o'keefe. ed, let's go to you first the situation with congressman grimm because many of them remember him for the heated confrontation. it happened a few months ago. he has since apologized for that. you write about the legal trouble he's facing in your latest article. talk to me about this expected indictment and what he's accused of doing. you actually write that there may already have been some action taken, yeah? >> yes. as we understand it, there's a
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grand jury in brooklyn that's already indicted him and everything is going to be unsealed at some point next week. there may have been talks between his lawyers and federal prosecutors. frankly, that's been going on since this investigation began in 2012 but the lawyer got out ahead of it on friday that it looks like the indictment is forthcoming. his former girlfriend was arrested in january and was indicted on friday on three different charges related to campaign fund violations and lying to the fbi. what we expect to happen next is, you know, this will come out. he says in his statement from his attorney that he'll stay in office and it's going to cause some trouble for the republicans because the new york filing deadline has already passed. so if he doesn't resign and continues to face this, his name remains on the ballot. if he resigns, governor cuomo might have to appoint a special replacement or the spot will go unfilled and conceivably the democrat could pick up the spot. it's a bit of a mess. this has been anticipated for a
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long time. now it looks like the wheels are turning on potential charges. >> of course you're talking about the potential fallout politically. let's move on, lynn, to senator rand paul's comments saying the republican party will adapt, evolve or die. here's that again. >> that means with tattoos and without tattoos, with ear ridges, without earrings. black, white, brown. did you to a republican event and be it's all white people. not because we're excluding people, because we haven't done a good enough job of encouraging people to come into our party. >> is this easier said than done, lynn? how do republicans broaden their base, encourage others to come into the party. >> he described the problem. paul is on a college turf. earlier he was at the institute of politics at the university of chicago talking on similar matters. one of the things he can do and is doing is demonstrating an appeal to younger people so at least that's a start with one
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demographic. i think what he did not do and what's telling is say, so what will you do to get those different groups into the party? so we all know and we've heard for years about the republican big tent. well, he hasn't told exactly how you fill it. he just said we need one. >> alex, i would actually turn that a little bit on its head and say he's doing something by showing up. and by showing up and delivering the same message he delivers elsewhere on the theory that there actually are people in places where republicans don't go that agree with him. he spoke at howard university here in washington. he went to a high school in washington and talked about school choice. he went out to berkeley. he was never booed out of these places. he shared his libertarian messages. if you read the reports. people say i appreciate him showing up and there are things he said. take the republican message as he sees it to these places, talk to people, score some points for showing up and maybe people begin to realize, wait, there's
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some things that i could conceivably agree with. it's pro actively going out and finding new voters whereas others go to the nra convention. >> he may be the republican to broaden that base. >> right. ed, i want to talk to one of the latest articles which focuses on john boehner and he's, quote, theatrically mocking his republican colleagues. let's take a look at that. >> oh, don't make me do this. oh, this is too hard. >> i don't know, i think some people in theater might take offense to it, that it's theatrically done. what is that all about? >> he's felt this way. he was merely expressing to constituents what he felt all a long. he personally believes that the republican party, he and president obama need to work on immigration but he's being told not right now. this is the same guy who told republicans last fall, don't plunge us into a government shutdown. he said, no, we want to do if. okay, fine, we'll do it.
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he understands in order to be a leader you have to stick with the people you are supposed to be leading. he's adapted. for now he's willing to put this off. i suspect either later this year or if republicans win and hold onto the majority in november, he will turn to them and say now is the time for the good of the party and the good of the country. we'll see. >> lynn, has there been any reaction to this and do you think this will help immigration reform move forward? >> no. there's pressure building within some segments of the republican community from within the republican establishment, especially the business establishment that is pressuring some of their own. i agree with ed. i don't see movement before the mid-term election because it's -- no matter what you do, it's risky. boehner is frustrated because he would like to do something. that's what you do when you're speaker is figure out a path. he's stymied. he can't figure it out now and his cry baby mocking is kind of fun and interesting, but i don't think it foreshadows any new
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position. >> yeah. can i ask you both real quickly before we let you go the situation with the nevada rancher, clyve bundy. are there any good options? >> i don't know what the government is going to do but i think when people go out and stick their necks out to support him without knowing who he is and what he stands for with this terrible racist language. maybe people will think twice about sticking up for someone who don't want to pay their federal bills. >> that's what harry reid said. he deserves to be punished still even if his cattle has been removed from federal property. we'll see whether federal -- whether the bureau of land management follows through on that or not. the issue of federal control of western lands is a bigger one. i think a lot of people were putting stock in this guy hoping he might be able to perfect sonny phi a year's long struggle. we'll see if that changes or if anyone finds a way to discuss it. it's a big concern. >> ed o'keefe, lynn sweet.
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>> what should happen next in the nevada rancher situation? you can talk to me on twitter. i'm @alexwitt. tomorrow the catholic church will make history when they claim saint hood. pope john paul ii led the church and pope john xxiii led it from 1958 to 1983. they're set to draw a million people to vatican square. anne thompson is there with us. good afternoon. let's put this all into perspective for us, this big event. >> well, first of all, alex, this area is just jammed with people. they're expecting, as you said, 1 million. it seems like half of them are already here today. as far as perspective goes, john xxiii and john paul ii are arguably two of the most
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influential popes of the 20th century. john paul ii, most people don't remember him. he served for five years but they were five dramatic years in the history of the church because he initiated the secretary vatican council and that is the process that reformed the church, that modernized the church. you can see it if you've ever gone to catholic mass. it's said in english today. before vatican 2 it was said in latin. vatican 2 turned him around and had him face the congregation instead of giving the mass with his back to the masses. conservative catholics say it was the beginning of the downfall of the church. that's the controversy surrounding his sainthood. john paul ii, as you said, was an influential player. they say, look, for all the good
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he did in leading the catholic church, he failed miserably when it came to the crisis of priest sexual abuse because he did almost nothing to stop it they claim. while there will be great celebration here tomorrow when these two men are made saints, there is also controversy surrounding both of them. alex. >> okay. anne thompson, good to see you in rome there. thank you very much for the live report. we invite all of you to join our coverage of the historic canonizations beginning tomorrow morning airing at 4:00 eastern here on msnbc. office politics with chris hayes. chris tells me what could put the world into, quote, terrifying unchartered territ y territory. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers.
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better quality products is bringing manufacturing back to the united states. there's a term for it called reshoring. after years of outsourcing or off shoring we are now seeing manufacturers, whether they're domestic manufacturers bringing jobs back or over seas companies taking advantage of a much, much lower energy cost german petrochemical companies, auto companies coming to the u.s. because a lot of these other companies china and much of our region have lost their competitive advantage with respect to wages, currency devaluations and the cost of energy is so considerably higher overseas. >> your summarization is that the u.s. is going to become the only u.s. economic super power? >> if you look at the energy revolution it gives us a competitive advantage we have not had. if you look now the competitive wage structures, the quality of the products we're turning out and a host of other factors, technological innovation also being key among those, it makes the united states look that much better than the rest of the world. the study itself shows there are only a handful of countries
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around the world much unlike the last 30 years that have any advantages over the united states when it comes to advanced manufacturing. it's not getting a lot of press but it's apparent in the next several years and this is the process underway. >> i'm glad you bring it to our attention. let's bring it to new jersey. folks are flocking to that state. it is the legendary jersey shore for some but for others it's like let's just go to the hotel and stay inside. what is this all about? you knee what ow what i'm sayin? >> there are a host of things happening in new jersey from online gaming which is something, quite frankly, that i worry about a fair amount. it does allow people to bet at home, which is i think a slightly dangerous proposition. now i happen to be a fan of governor christie's. this is one i think might be different. new jersey has a lot of features that many people don't even know about, not the least of which is some of the attractions, whether it is in atlantic city or
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elsewhere, that make it a competitive state for leisure. i just got back from las vegas. this party poker is something that's a bit of a phenomenon that's drawing people to the garden state. >> you have to be in the state to do the online gambling. >> you have to be omnipresent. >> what about mcmakeover, the new look for mcdonald's? >> they've had a minor struggle over the last year or so. its stock prices languished a bit. it's having some competitive issues when it comes to breakfast where it's dominated that category for quite some time. they're freshening the brand. i happen to think that mcdonalds is one of the strongest companies in the united states that has overseas exposure. since 1971 it's been one of the best performing stocks in the market so i think it's freshening the brand and will coincide with a turn around that they're taking. >> ron, good to see you. thanks for weighing in. >> thank you. >> made in the u.s.a., why you
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. welcome back to weekends with alex wilt. let's go to the crisis in the ukraine. ben rhodes said this morning that new sanctions with rich sha will come early next week. it will hold an emergency meeting on monday to discuss the sanctions. this comes as the pentagon says russian fighter jets have flown into air space and that they are amping up operations on one of the tensest borders. joining me in donetsk is jim ma
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se maceda. does it feel like the preparations for war on the ground? >> reporter: hi, alex. good to be with you. it does. you certainly feel there are preparations for some conflict. both sides, pro russian and pro ukrainian are beefing up their check points. we're seeing the ukrainian military strategy for dealing with the pro russian obligations for towns. the ukrainian special forces late yesterday setting up a massive concrete roadblock five miles north of sloviensk. that's the key strong hold for pro russian militants. there are similar roadblocks to the south, southeast, southwest. rather than launch a major attack and risk not only many casualties but also risk giving president putin an excuse to send in the russian military over the border, the ukrainians have opted, kiev have started to
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shut off the towns starting there with reinforcements, supplies and weapons. while the osce military observers are going to go and negotiate or try to negotiate a peaceful surrender. that is already in trouble. on friday pro russian militants abducted 13 members of the ce team and are holding them still today in a building run by the successor of the kgb claiming that there's a spy among them. now today moscow said that it's taking steps to resolve the situation but elsewhere, alex, russia is escalating the tension. in addition to those ground maneuvers you mentioned close to the boirter, there is now -- they're now showcasing state of the art s 300 antimissile systems, russian jet fighters are crossing -- have crossed several times in the past 24 hours and according to the pentagon russian troops are doing what they call, pulsing. that's fainting an invasion only
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to stop short of the border and peel off north and south. it's apparently a way to test ukraine's reaction in case of a real invasion. of course, alex, finally with all of this going on, the worry is that with president obama and putin no longer talking to each other, the chances of any resolution of this crisis are low but the chances of a dangerous miscalculation on either side are very high. alex, back to you. >> okay, jim maceda. when we next speak i'd like to talk to you about what you found when you went to the ukrainian monastery. we'll get to that next time. thanks so much. more details are emerging today about the deadly attack that killed three americans at a children's hospital in afghanistan. pediatrician jerry umanos was one of the ones killed. we now know the identities of the other two victims. health clinic administrator john gable and his visiting father, gary. all three were from the chicago area. this is the second time this
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month a member of the afghan security forces has turned a gun on civilian forces. let's go to the hunt for the missing malaysian flight 370. the unmanned submarine is ending its search. blue fin 21 has scoured nearly 95% of the narrow down search zone. so far turned up nothing. nbc's katie tur has more for us where it's after 7:30 in the evening. katie, with a good evening, what happens next? >> reporter: well, what happens next, if they don't find anything in this initial area that they've been searching, they're going to move out to a broader area. they're searching a six mile radius location out of pinger location number two. that's where they had the strongest of the four signals. if they don't find anything, 95% in and so far they haven't seen anything. if they don't do that they're going to widen their search area. they will bring in sophisticated submarine that can go deeper and
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send real time data up to the shift. it depends whether you're an optomist or pessimist. if you're an optomist you'll say it took 18 missions to find air france. if you're a pessimist. it will take years. they don't have any idea. it's a big educated guess, series of mathematical equations. we are only on mission 14 for blue fin 21. if you're going to take the optomist side, that's four more missions until they found air france, potentially for more missions until they find this plane. they did have a lot better idea where air france was. they had a flight path and a debris field. this is a very educated guess with a lot of scientific technology and big brains trying to figure out where in the world this plane could be. alex. >> i'm looking at the video. you see the blue fin 21 being put in the water and it seems so small compared to the massive area that it has to look around. i'm curious, do you get a sense
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from those that are leading up the investigation, katie, of which way they're leaning, pessimist or optomist? >> you do not get a sense of that at all. they are very tight-lipped out here. the head of the j.a.c.c. is a guy named angus houston. he's an australian official. he does not say anything unless he's 100% sure about it. he won't come out with a press conference unless they have something to tell you. the malaysians who come out with news conferences every few days just to update status quo things and not really say too much. angus houston will not confirm anything until he knows for sure. there's been a very tight circle around him that just really hasn't been telling the news media anything. there is a reuter's report that's citing an unnamed i believe u.s. official that's calling this a year's long process. certainly nobody on the ground in australia is even hinting that they're thinking that. i would say more so along the lines that they're being more
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optimistic about it, that they are in the right area, and that they will find the plane sooner rather than later. it's hard coming when you search the location that you have the best hopes for and so far nothing is coming zblup katie tur, also on a personal note i'm glad to see your arm out of the sling. good to see that. let's go to the economy that in a surprise the talk of the amazon.com best seller list. this book is called "capital in the 21st century" and its main focus is income inequality and what's driving that. joining me is jared bernstein, former chief economist for joe biden. good morning to you. >> good morning, alex. >> what is it about this book that's attracted so much attention do you think? >> i think it's because it presents such a wealth of evidence and it does so in a very clear manner but it also does so in an historical manner that i've found and i've been digging into the data for decades, have never seen before.
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he has collected data, with colleagues, by the way, back a couple of centuries, documenting the accumulation of income and wealth over numerous countries. so the weight of the evidence and the authority gives the book a really solid credibility. he's tabing into so many of us. certain folks are doing so much better than others. >> i think the most startling aspect is really his kind of key conclusion. the accumulation of wealth at a certain point. it's large enough. when you get to that point his prediction is that it becomes self-reinforcing, that as the economy grows, a larger and even more narrow slice of that growth
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in terms of wealth concentrates at the top. so in a sense it's a somewhat pessimistic diagnosis unless we take action to push back on these kind of almost immutable dynamics that he describes. >> i know you're familiar with the "new york times" this week, the piece they had about middle class in america and how the world in some places has caught up. the authors look at the study that was conducted over the last 35 years and for one thing, it finds that middle class incomes in canada are now higher than those in the u.s. does that surprise you? >> not so much because i track these data carefully, but it's a very important linkage to what we were just talking about. when the economy grows, and by the way we've been growing faster than many other advanced economies, when the economy grows in terms of gdp, just the overall growth rate, yet most of that growth does an end run around the middle class or lower income families, you see precisely the kind of results that the times documented where the u.s. is getting ahead of all
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of these countries, very top of the scale where we're falling behind is at the middle and the bottom. >> so there's one chart in the article that really jumps out. it's about the increase in the median income since 2000. in the u.k. and canada it has increased 20%. even spain with all of its economic problems is outpacing the u.s. income is practically unchanged here. what is the rest of the world doing right? >> well, it's interesting. you know, you're talking about spain. spain has got an unemployment rate that's north of 20% right now so those data stop in 2010 and they've made mistakes in their economic management as well. let's be clear about that. but i really think what it comes down to, especially in that chart which i, too, was really noted it is this issue of where is the growth going. even if a country like spain or some of these more -- some of these european countries we were just talking about, even if their growth rate is slightly
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below ours but the income that that growth rate is spinning off is reaching the middle income family instead of concentrating at the top, you're going to get a pattern like that. so really it does come down to this thomas pickety idea that when growth is so inequitably distributed, the economy can do okay except for most of the people in it. >> quickly here, more surprising the poor are living better in other countries than they are here in the u.s. what's driving that? >> that's been known for a long time. a lot of that has to do with the extent of social welfare programs, the safety net. we all have progressive safety nets. we tax folks at the higher end and we provide things like nutritional support and some income supports for folks at the lower end. they just do more of that in europe and they've done so for a long time. so there are many more services that reach the poor. there's child support, there's tax credits. there's the kinds of safety net
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programs that in america many folks are trying to really hammer away at. they're kind of more embedded in european economies. that's why we get that result. >> jared bernstein, always good to talk with you. thanks so much. >> thank you, alex. why the president's recent decision not to decide on the keystone xl pipeline is neither good nor bad. chris hayes describes in "office politics." [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ my mom works at ge. we cannot let the fans down. don't worry! the united states postal service will get it there on time with priority mail flat rate shipping.
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[ doorbell rings ] stall them. [ imitates monkey ] stop stalling. cascade platinum fights cloudy residue 3x better than the competing gel and helps keep your dishwasher sparkling. cascade platinum. in this week's office politics, my msnbc co-host chris hayes recently worked with arnold schwarzenegger. he front two segments in this series. the first of which is rising tide. i began by asking chris what it's all about. >> it takes a look at staten island, particularly what happened in staten island, and follows the trajectory of what happened not only in staten island. they lost more people than anywhere else, 27 people died in
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staten island. huge parts of the island were just destroyed. >> you all forget that. we see the jersey shore. >> it starts out with yeven avenue right on the water and she and her husband and her 12-year-old daughter angela, when irene storm happened a year earlier, they evacuated. they came back and someone had broken into their garage and taken some of their tools. so this time around they were like, screw it. nothing happened with irene, we're going to stay here for sandy. they have dinner and the water comes in and it ends up taking all three of them out. knocks the entire house over. they go out. pat's husband and daughter were killed. she survives. it starts with that. then it looks at how congressman michael grimm who's the lone republican, how he deals with sandy but more broadly climate, right? when he's encountering what the
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front end of what a climate disaster might look like. it traces his trajectory and traces the line of influence from staten island down to washington where the politics on this are so broken. >> and so what's the resolution to all of it? >> well, i don't want to give it away. i would say that michael grimm has a really interesting arc over the course of the episode and over the course of the conversations i had with him. >> over the edge, let's talk about that one. >> rockaway is a fascinating place, both geographically and socioeconomically on the edge of new york. it's a small peninsula that juts out into the ocean. these are working class folks struggling to get by. they commute two hours each way into the city. on the line it's the last stop on the longest line in the whole city. this part of the city that was devastated by hurricane sandy was without -- they were without
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power for five months. so it's a look at what happens when climate disaster hits folks that are already on the margins of society, already on the margins of our economy. you're talking about average temperatures across the entire globe. so we've already seen .8 degree celsius rise. we are going to get 2 degrees by mid century probably, and the international consensus is that 2 degrees is kind of the limit if we want to kind of broadly stay within some kind of safe zone. once we go over 2 degrees you start getting into really terrifyingly uncharted territory, and mid century -- right now we are headed towards 2 degrees by mid century, 2050. that's not that long away. >> what is there to be done effectively right now? >> so effectively the first step is to stop the expansion of how much fossil fuel we have access
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to. the broad solution is put a price on carbon. we have to price it so that things like solar and wind become more and more competitive and more and more attractive. >> are you disappointed the president didn't make a decision on on keystone excel? >> i think every day it doesn't get built is a victory. so ultimately i hope he decides against it, but i rather he delay than say yes. if the options are don't delay, build, my preference is don't build it. if it's between saying yes and delay, i'll take delay. >> you can see all in with chris hayes here on msnbc. at noon chris and i talk about the growing income divide and why europe offers a better quality of life for its low wage citizens than people have here in the u.s. two supreme court justices of the odds and whether this is
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had week the supreme court ruled 6-2 in favor of upholding a ban on affirmative action in college admissions. with eight states now banning, are more to come? joining me is the supreme court reporter for "the huffington post." does this open the way for other states or were the specifics unique to michigan? >> i think it could potentially open the door but it's really a matter as seen as a majority rule. and potentially groups that would benefit from affirmative action will be left out of the debate. i don't know if we'll see an immediate action. >> anything in the written opinions about whether or not this case sets a press sent? they didn't really address the issue head on. this only affects public
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colleges. it's not going to affect private universities. it was unusual to see this back and forth between justices sotomayor and roberts with her accu accusing a color blind policy and not taking into account the reality of the way things stand today. >> i thought to get your thoughts on how testy it got and justice scalia countered with something else. talk about that. >> that was definitely very strange. it's something you don't commonly see. it got a little personal to a certain extent. with sotomayor bringing in her background and how race has affected her and saying she's benefitted from affirmative action and getting the benefit to rising to the court of the highest land. race does matter is what she was
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saying and it's something that comes up in the lives of people every day when they are looked at in a certain way on the street and saying that it was wrong for the court to say voters would be able to ban race as a variety of factors that they were considering. what you might see with some colleges is a shift at public university, a shift over to taking classes more of an issue and using that as a substitute for race to a certain extent because if voters would shift to deciding not to essential ly to ban affirmative action. >> the six justices stressed they weren't deciding on the meri merits, only the process by which it was banned. was that really the case? >> the wider way they are approaching this is they are not allowing basically race can be one factor that comes into this
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unless a state goes ahead and puts a voter initiative to ban it initially. >> thank you, ryan. and that's a wrap of this hour of "weekends with alex witt." straight ahead steve kornacki. d. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time d. to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out.
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and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking breo. ask your doctor about b-r-e-o for copd. first prescription free at mybreo.com south rises again for democrats. the conventional wisdom was set. republicans were licking their chops and democrats were bracing for the worse. that was turned on its head this week after near misses in 2010 and 2012, republicans opened the 2014 election cycle in decent position to finally breakthrough and win back control of the senate. then came a round of polling that significantly raised the possibility that democrats could hold on after all a