tv The Cycle MSNBC May 6, 2014 12:00pm-1:01pm PDT
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bang. "american idol" versus a crowded field. >> now, the inconvenient truth. i'm toure. bombshell new report confirms, abbie, climate change is happening now. >> today's "spin cycle" promises to spill into your dinner table. i'm jonathan capehart. we're going to dig into a report, more like a school report from a college freshman whose aim is to -- >> we know "the odd couple" as a legendary sitcom. these days it's a real show i thought it was my day to rant. the 2014 midterm election
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psych sl now officially under way, not just because we're using the music but because the first primary ballots have been cast. voters are coming onto the polls in indiana, north carolina, and. it's the tea party versus the republican establishment among the three top candidates. the mainstream party is behind this man, state house speaker t thom tillis. plus the chamber of commerce, mitch mcconnell and a guy you might know, mitt romney. dr. greg is the tea party favorite he's had help from both free doms works and the tea party favorite citizens funds. the national organization for marriage concerned women for america in the family research
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council's action pac are also throwing their power behind harris. but whoever wins, they need to get 40% of the vote to avoid a costly runoff in july. 20% of registered voters have come out meaning the key race may be decided by a result actively small number of people. they'll take on kay hagan in november. the republicans need a net gain of six seats this fall to tip the balance in their favor, just six seats. the republicans are further ahead than they were at this point in the 94 and 2010 wave elections. to help break this down, we start with jake sherman, thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> so there's a lot of talk in this north carolina senate gop primary about the tea party versus the establishment and the quote/unquote candidate thom tillis. the big question is whether or not he'll get the 40% he needs
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to avoid the runoff. i look at this guy and he's no moderate. he was the speaker of the house, north carolina, a house that went dramatically toy the right and face add voter backlash, nation voter rights, on a range of issues. so it seems to me to the extent that the establish hasn't has figured out to beat the tea party, it's essentially by adopting all of the tea parties' ideology. >> right. not only is the runoff or potential going to be costly money-wise but it politically is going to be costly because you're going to see the two candidates dash further to the right, which kay hagan who's incredibly endamage jer ngered,d love to see. it would be good for hagan who's otherwise in some pretty big trouble. >> jake, congratulations on getting engaged.
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>> she' >> there's lots of outside money flowing into this north carolina rate. kay hagan's getting lion's share of the cycle. that's because it has not been chosen yet. can you talk about how the crush of money coming in from outside a state shape as race? does it mean that different sorts of issues are focused on as opposed to other races? >> i mean it mean as whole host of things. first of all, the candidates have a little bit less of an ability to control the message. some of these outside groups, they're obviously not allowed to coordinate but it's going to be incredibly costly. as you see, democrats are gaining a little bit of momentum. propping that side up will be an
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equal priority. there's going to be no shortage of money going into november in this race. >> so he doesn't have a primary challenge. i'm wondering if there's a gop runoff, does that help senator hagan or hurt senator hagan? >> it helps her immueasurably. some of it played out when mr. tillis was in control of the house. that ee what these runoffs do. they become a push to the right you notice in north carolina, north carolina was a battleground state in 2008 and there are 2000 house democrats, mike macintyre and larry kissell who held on for a long time. right now democrats are basically dead in the water in this state. the state is very hostile to democrats. the only democrats that really exist in places like charlotte and it's become an incredibly red state where it was once a
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moderate -- a state that barack obama put in play in 2008 and was a battleground state even a little bit in 2012. so this has become a very red state due to very savvy republican maneuvers when they were redrawing the district lines for 2010. so the state's plitt cliel mat has changed in a big way and you're going to see that and come to kind of roost here. >> there's so much going on in the state of north carolina. another race, the second district, i know you've been following clay aiken's race. i'm actually a fan of his, maybe not of his politics but of his voice. what are the chances he's up against a crowded field and if he gets up to the battle, it might be more difficult. what are the chances we'll have a clay aiken as a congressman and if it's not him, what is the chance someone can win this district? >> i think this needs to imagine it over and over. >> do you want to say it or sing
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it? >> i'm going do you all a favor and say it. this man is not going to be a member of congress from this dis strict. mitt romney won by 16 points, john mccain won by 12 points. so this is not a district that president obama -- he was never able to put in play. rene ail mercy is the citying member of congress. immigration is playing a part in the race. we have a story in politico on that. put simply, a democrat is not going to win this. >> looking back, how much did we make of the results. should we be looking at the results of whether it's establishment or the tea party that has the upper hand right now? >> yes, we should be to a certain extent but endorsements
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don't mean as much as we'd like it to mean. rand paul came in basically at the last minute for him and he came in. he campaigned yesterday, but this isn't somebody he's hitched his wagon to. tim lis is no doubt their choice but as you said, at the beginning, this is all going to play out in a potential runoff. we have a story up on politico today from one of our reporters in the ground for north carolina. tillis is even trying to shed that establishment, kind of lachbl he doesn't want to be known as the establishment candidate. he says, that's not who i am. it's not who i have been. so you're right. the tea party is still dragging the establishment or so-called establishments to the right and we see that in north carolina. >> another big piece of news. the white house released their 800-page climate assessment report and they've really turned their focus to climate challenge.
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they've brought on john podesta. one of the things they're initially doing is giving interviews to a lot of local meteorologists. ichb cluding al roker and five to try to penetrate those local markets and really get the word out. what do you make of their turn and attention to focus and climate change. >> >> it's an effort to juice up the base, there's no question about it. i don't think it matters how much tom stier, how many millions of dollars he pours in or candidates who do or do not believe in climate change. climate change is not even the tellth moat important across to voters. i haven't seen this play a role, even a minor role to juice up the base. the republicans are more willing and excited to come out to the
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ballot box. i think this is a way to get the democrats to come out to the ballot box. as you any it issed at the top of the segment, this is looking like it's shaping up. >> i would say it's maybe an issue the base is very excited about. it's also an issue that the president has demonstrated a deep concernen and one that is important to the country. >> thanks guys. >> we're just getting started. up next, heartbreaking new details in the search for hundreds of kidnapped girls tarjd new boom in america seen through the eyes of oscar & felix. it's tuesday, may 6th. this is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location.
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seriously, if you're not white, you're missing out because this is [ bleep ] good. let me be clear by the wachl i'm not saying that white people are better. i'm saying that being white is clearly better. who could even argue with that. >> oh, i love louie c.k. white privilege is like air. it's all around us. it impacts everything but usually it's unseen. it's visible and knox us. suddenly famous white privileged
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denier is a princeton freshman. yes, krystal, a princeton freshman. he condemns people from ascribing to all the food i reap, not the seeds s i sow bu some patron saint who spins it out for me. we're going have to spin this out. it's two kinds of messed up. that was like a straw man who said something really racist and we kick them and make them go away. here we get to the crux of american races and we talk about white races and people's inability or perhaps imperative to not see it and say it doesn't actually exit. patty macintosh wrote a famous essay. she calls white privilege.
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white prish ledge is like an invisible waitless backpack of special provisions, map, passports, code books, visa, clothes, tools, and blank checks. it doesn't mean your life will be beautiful and perfect and puppy sunshine every day but you have a get out of jail-free card that helps you in almost every situation and whu you have people actively denying its original analyst, that's an attack of racial justice. and america and this idea if we had the old folks die off, racism will be other, is clearly off. >> you all know me. i'm not some racial grassy knoller. but when i read this piece, my head was about to explode i watched you read the piece that and i want to read a quote directly from the piece. he's talking about -- he says the wonders of the united states and he does a little list.
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he says, and second that such a place was one -- he's talking about his grand parents, one where they could legally enter, learn a language and it was a society they were allowed to flourish. it was a privilege that grants equal law that cares not about the race. my head explode. while his grand parents had the privilege of coming on the country dirt poor as he said and help create the american dream, at the same time they were doing that, there were african-americans in this country who were prohibited by law, by that same government that promises equal protection under the law from enjoying and doing the same things his grandparents had -- were able to do. and none of that is reflected in this piece at all. and that's what i found so incredibly offensive about what he wrote. >> yeah. i actually disagree with your
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kmelkt about whites almost always getting this out of jail free-card. i think it's comments like that doesn't advance the conversation. i don't think that's the reality either. full discloser. we're all open. talking about race is not an easy thing to do. it's not an easy thing for me. i am privileged. i grew up lucky. i'm white. i went to an ivy league school. but i have that as the others. he missed a huge part of that in not acknowledges that race and gender, discrimination still exists when clearly we have some major hurdles and we've got to keep fighting this. that being said i don't think he should be the spokesperson clearly for this conversation. >> clearly. >> and what i wish he would have said if i were in this position is we nuld to look pete.
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people. we have to understand everyone has their own story to tell. mine might be less of a struggle than someone else's but everyone has their struggles. i bring this up because we're very close, toure, and we have a lot of heated discussions on and off the screen about race and i've learned so much in getting to know you. but i will say we know each other and we know where we're coming from and that matter as whole lot. we have that respect. we can still disagree and get to the next place. i hope society continues to talk about race in that way with ultimately the respect for each other. >> what you do at least is you are open. you have a good heart. tell me what you think and i will listen. the thing that's so offensive -- one of the many things he's so young and so close-minded and he calls race. and sexism conspiracies like we made these things up and they don't exist.
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the patron saint of white privilege. >> i mean one of the things he misses is when people are saying to him check your privilege, he feels that that's a personal attack on him and the work he's done with his family. it's not. it's about a systemic problem. it's not racist so say white people have benefitted in our system. that's just a fact. that says everything you need to know about his privilege. the biggest indignity he's suffered is to check his privilege. i'm really reminded of jfk's quote from the bible which is to whom much is given, much is required. if you don't know you've been given anything, that lets you off the hook. that might be an easier kwa out and it's lacier. >> to be fair, he did acknowledge that he is
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privilege. i think he miss add huge part of this. >> well, he acknowledged that he was privileged to live in a country where he thinks racism doesn't exist. >> the one thing he did not do in this piece that we're doing here right now is respecting what everyone else has to say. and the whole vantage point of this piece, check your white privilege, but he's not taking the time to step back and say what exactly does that mean and am i open to listening to that. >> absolutely. >> that entimer piece was saying i don't care what you think, i don't kale what your issues are. >> which makes it very hart for us to fear. >> he talks about it like it's a white hair tock kracy. the conversation continues as we preview the anniversary of a
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there's a lot going on in the new cycle. they hinted they would go along with the select committee on benghazi but minority leader nancy pelosi insists it must be a bipartisan probe. stay tuned for that. >> members of congress will soon be on the steps of the capitol wearing red to pray for hundreds of nigerian girls kidnapped by terrorists. the white house, the state department, hillary clinton, and various celebrities have joined the fight for their release. and the hash tag bring back our girls is now trending worldwide. the nigerian government has drawn harsh criticism for its lack of a strong response. >> and two decades after her affair, monica lewinsky is dishing in a new "vanity fair" that is coming out tomorrow.
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she acknowledges clinton took advantage of her but it was consensu consensual. she said it's time to bury the blue dress. she said how difficult it is to gain work. >> maybe monica could find a job at the nsa, jochblt the nsa sent out this crip it tweyptic tweet. they're only looking for the best and the brightest. >> moving on, this month marks the 60th anniversary of the historic supreme court ruling on brown versus board of education, declaring unconstitutional the notion of separate but equal, ushering a new era in the civil rights movement but according to our next guest it was a powerful blow. her new book "the indicted south" assistant professor of
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southern studies she examines three key moments that exposed the south to intense public criticism and shaped the political and cultural conservatism we see to this day. angie maxwell joins us now. angie, one of the things you posit in this book is the south in this region essentially surfers from an inferiority complex. what do you mean by that and what the roots of that complex? >> first of all, thanks for having me on. it's great question. it's very pervasive in the south and it has shaped white conservati conservatism. when we go to the original concept of the intear yort complex to the psychologist, we see there has to be two things in order to create this consciousen, this complex. first there has to be some type of public criticism or realization that you're being deemed in some way, in an
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individual it can be a parent or a bully. in culture it can be intense media scrutiny. and then there has to be something for that community or person to overcome that criticism and the most on obvious ones are lack of education, poverty, and religion. all of that was discussed. we see those conditions in the south pretty often. >> professor, really fascinating book. you talk about how tony morison and friends. you have talked about how whiteness and blackness are mutually constructed. but southern whiteness is unique in that it's constructed by the oppression of a black other and that feeds into the roots of southern conservatism. there's a recent study that talks about the concentration, the proportion of slaves that were in a given southern county in 1860 correlates with the
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amount of con conservative tichl in the county. the more slaves there were, the more conservative that county is. >> absolutely. in order to -- i mean that kind of triangular shape where you have a few people at the top trying to oppress the people at the bottom, the stricter the conservatism has to be in order to maintain that power and that authority. so that concept, you know, inferiority and the way in which it's manipulated politically, this is why i think this idea is so important is because we see it now still with politicians. we talk about more modern times. we talk about the southern strategy in the 1960s and how it used race bathe to drive southern democrats into the gop. but if you dig underneath that race baiting, it really is inferiority baiting and you can use race or women's liberation or the war on christmas, anything. if you dig into that sense of
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inferiority, that plays really well among white southerners. it's a pattern and rhetorical strategy that's happened over and over and over again. >> yeah. and angie, the brown versus board of education was one of the biggest decisions that defined and shaped race. and you write about how it's just as higgs torically significant. talk to us more about that. >> sure. well, you know, i don't understand a lot about white southerner, we really don't. and part of what we don't understand is the impact that that kind of criticism, though completely deserved has long term on that community. so for example, in virginia, which is one of the places i look at, there was a commission called the grey commission that was formed in order to kind of create a moderate response for virginia, a moderate initial reaction to brown. when it comes down, when it
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explodes in '55, oh the course of about three months, that commission changes on a dime and ends up voting for a doctor of interposition, to block implementation of brown shutting down public schools in virginia, public criticism, modern community can create this reaction. we talk a lot, write a story about the change makers and the heroes in the story, but if we don't understand the resistance and how it functions, then we can't be surprised when it bubbles up again over and over. >> fascinating book. how can we shift away the talk about the south? >>. deal with health care policy in the south, get the uninsured
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covered. we'll be the liter in that. use the interior complex and flip it on its head. the way it is uses now is one of the reasons that i think the lower economic white southerners are voting against their economic self-interest. >> indeed. it's a fascinating book. well written. thanks so much. coming up, "the odd couple" is back. wait, is r.j. joining us today? >> look at this desk. >> hold stuff. hold stuff. it's all set.
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we get married, we have kids. the kids leave. and the husband dies. is that some kind of a test? you don't work that hard, you don't go through everything you go through to be left alone. wre alone, dorothy, we really are. our families are gone, and we're alone. and there are too many years left, and i don't know what to do. >> get a poodle. >> back now with part 2 of our unintentional and frankly unplanned 50 and fabulous series. that was a hilarious scene from the classic comedy "the golden girls." the show was ahead of it time in so many ways. now 30 years later that hollywood script is actually playing out. as the american baby boomers, all 76 million of them are increasingly rooming with each other. the high cost of living is behind the trend.
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companionship is considered as well. now they're looking for roommates for their parents. the nonprofit organization, affordable living for the ageing in los angeles, introduces potential roommates to each other. rachel is the vice president of programs and services. and, rachel, it's great to have you here. this is really the first i'm hearing about this. why are we seeing this increase and how much of it is and how much is wanting a little of it? >> i think we're seeing both. there's financial reasons and there's always been a core group of people as they grow older they're more likely to be isolate and lonely. . we have a lot of people are aging who have never been
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married. >> nigh question is one since i'm close to home. the only child of a senior citizen. hoff much is related to the fact is related to the fact. they live in the same city. moving in with another senior and home sharing is one way to be independent while living near nearby. >> rachel, is it hard convincing some seniors that this would be a viable option, mine probably the last thing they expected as they head into their golden years is to have to have a roommate like they did when they
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were young potentially and is it hard to find the right personality match that's going to work living well together? >> yeah. i think the biggest and initial hurdle that you have to overcome is people's hesitation. they've not share add home with anyone other than their family members. there's a fear of the unknown, a change, the adjustment. but really the paradox of home sharing is by taking someone in to help you financially or with help around the home, you're allowing for greater continuity and you're able to stay in the home and neighbored you love and are familiar with. >> more than that, it's about helping you live longer and keeping people from sliding down a slope into an earlier death. the divorce rate for people over 50 mass doubled since 1990 and there's a much higher risk for seniors dying if you don't socialize regularly. so having somebody living with you who you care about and cares
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about you helping you have longer days on this earth. >> absolutely. the interaction is really huge and there's a big quality of life to home sharing where you wake up in the morning. you have someone to share a cup of coffee with. when you come home in the eveninging, you have someone to ask how your day was. >> you've seen this first hand. tell us some of the stories you've seen. >> sure, yeah. we have one client whose husband passed away. she was living alone. one of the activities for staying engaged and getting out of the house was go to theater. she would go every saturday evening. she could no longer drive. she came to ala and was looking for someone to share a home with her and she was looking for a rhyme mate with the car who could drive her. now they're able to go out to din e before the show and make it to the theater every saturday. >> how are seniors finding people to be their roommates? is there a service? >> craigslist, right? >> there's actually -- so ala
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serves seniors in los angeles county. there's a resource center we're a part of you. duo onto their website and look at their program directly. this isn't easy to do. if it were easy too do, ala would pt need to exist. there's a lot of work up front in terms of screening, finding quality candidate, making sure they're appropriate for the program and then facilitating the whole introduction process and making sure that there's someone who can help them throughout the life of the match. >> mayor bill de blasio has made affordable housing a priority and is looking for ways to make housing more affordable and accessful for seniors. what are sort of the public policy changes we need to look at as we do have the boomer generation increasingly facing problems with expensive housing? >> yeah. well, i think -- i mean there's a record number of americans who can't afford their rend. a lot of the people in los angeles can't afford a one bedroom apartment so they decide to home share as a way to stake
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hour and we have to make sure there aren't policies that are too restrictive or preventing people from being able to use their homes in that way. and then i think we have to dedicate more resources toward developing new housing units. you can't address a shortage of affordable housing without building new units. >> thanks for being with us. >> very interesting trend. up next, what if you didn't recognize your house or yourself. combat veterans are fighting a new war on home turf. >> so i didn't really get used to it. i'd look in the mirror and be mad at it and cry about it and think, oh, my god. this is what i look like. i would have days that i just, i'm like, oh, my god. i'm a monster. let mom shine. thirty percent off our best gifts for mom now through sunday. at zales.
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those scars are a painful reminder that the wars in iraq and afghanistan are not over. they never will be. it will last beyond any politician's declaration or home parade. for the soldiers who fought there and the families who loved them, coming home after war is war. in a powerful three-part series airing on pbs next week tells the personal stories of nine iraq and afghanistan veterans as they struggle to blend into a society and family life they no longer recognize, humanizing their struggles, fears, and triumphs. here with us is the executive producer. thanks so much for being here. >> it's pleasure. thank you so much. >> as we saw from the clip, you tell the incredible stories of these veterans. and one in particular is army sergeant andy clark who just came home from afghanistan and is struggling to find his way, find a civilian job. let's take a look at this.
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>> good morning. >> good morning, everybody. >> this is andrew, correct? >> yes, ma'am. >> you just got back from after gap stan, right? >> yes, sir. sure did. just a few days ago. >> i think that will help me transition a little bit easier into the civilian life. kind of amically mate to a more corporate tiedier world. >> in your years of experience and hearing these veteran stories, how difficult has it been for veterans to transfer their way from the battlefield to the corporate environment? >> it's very challenging simply because, you know, when you're in a -- when you're locked into a mindset for so long, you know, a lot of the basic things you don't even thing about can become real obstacles in makes back. i remember when i came back, i had a transition issue with
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lights. when you're in a combat zone, you're 100% disciplined and you can only use green and red lights. to be in coast one week and two weeks later you're in times square, it does real tricks on you. so i think there are a significant amount of transition issues that a lot of veterans are facing. and one of the reasons we wanted to high light these nine in particular is not because they're all extraordinary people in their own ways, but in many ways all of their stories individually are so typical. they represent tens of thousands of people who are coming up behind them. and as we come to the end of combat operation this year, i simply wanted to ask the question, what does that mean to the 2.5 million people that have been out there fighting these wars. >> and i want to highlight sergeant stacy parasal. she started a project to take photos of war vets to put a face to the stories but also to help herself heal. can we take a look at that? >> stacy now travels the country taking portraits of american warriors. >> i remember telling him that i
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think we're going to die here. >> what i found was it was a two-way exchange. so while i was feeling validated and empowered by the photograph to, they were feeling the same way. so what started as a way for know start the healing process within myself really became a way for me to help others in theirs. >> these vets being able to tell their story, how important is that for them to heal and also for all of us to better understand what they're going through? >> it's incredibly important because we have to make sure we're humanizing this process for the mesh population. this is a war where less than one half of 1% of people in this country have any direct involvement with iraq and afghanistan, which is ironic because these have been the longest wars in our nation's history. so as we're having these debates about what's happening in terms of care, what's happening in terms of suicide rate, what's happening if phoenix and colorado right now with the v.a., it's important for me that
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people just don't understand the numbers but they see stacy and bobby. >> they're real people. >> these are real people and as we're having these bigger conversations about the transition issues, it's really important that people understand that while we have veterans who need and deserve our support that it's also not the whole story. we've got veterans who are coming back with extraordinary skill sets and doing amazing things that we have to be able to better profile and highlight within our own culture as well. >> i want to talk about the ones who are here. you mentioned the suicide rate. 22 vets are killing themselves a day. why is that rate so high? >> it's a multitiered reason. that means we need to have a multitiered reaction to it which i think has been part of the issue. we have to do a better job of being able to provide mental health support and guidance for all veterans coming back, not just the ones who say they need it, butter single veteran has to go through a resbi griggs process. we have to do a better job with everything from housing and employment. one thing with see is if you look at the unemployment rate of
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younger veterans and the suicide rate of younger veterans, they track each other. so if we're not doing a better job of coming up with the other assets we'll continue watching these issues and, frankly, there needs to be a greater sense of accountability from the top on down as to how exactly we can administer those services. currently right now they're debating a bill, the veterans management act, and it's basically looking at how can we give more just doix the v.a. secretary and all of the leaders within the v.a. about hiring and firing practices to make sure the people providing the services to our veterans actual have the flexibility to do the job they can do. >> mesmerizing series that you've done, i'm looking forward to see. >> it it's our pleasure. thank you so much. >> up next, a sequel to crystal's animal farm production last week. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trading inspires your life.
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last week, a number of conservatives responded to my commentary on conservative name calling in a predictable way -- by calling me names. apparently i'm ignorant, a poe lem cyst, etc., and much merriment was made about my name like this gem from news busters who claimed "apparently she's not a stripper." you always know you're on firm ground when your argument begins by making someone's name. at issue was one line in my rant about george orwell's animal farm. animal farm, hmm, isn't that a political parable about pigs hogging up resources, telling animals they need food because they're the makers and scare up the prospect of a phony boog boogieman every time their greed is challenged? sounds familiar.
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well, conservatives lost their minds over that. orwell pigs weren't 1%ers. they were meant to be stalin and trotsky. the pig who predicts a revolution is lenin. they were communists, you liberal dog. i know orwell's novel was an allegory of soviet communism but to fixate on snowballist trotsky and napoleonist stalin is to mix the profundity of the story. it's about tyranny and the likelihood of those in n power to abuse that power. it's clear to tendency is not only found in the soviet communist experience. in fact, if you read "animal farm" today it seems to warn not of some now non-existent communist threat but of the power concentrated in the hands of the wealthy elites and corporations. the pigs cast themselves as mitt romney-style makers. they built it and deserve the rewards. the farm animals outside the elite pig circle are left to suffer and toil, working all day with little to show for it and with retirement always just out
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of reach. there is, at least at first, a theoretical political process, but the pigs rig it so that they always get their way. napoleon and snowball even have a brilliant propagandist named squealer, a frank lundst of karl rove type who convinces the animals that things are so much better under their benevolent rule that giving the pigs more tax cuts -- i mean more food -- is in everyone's best interest. "we pigs are brain workers" orwell writes. "the whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. it is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. sounds like orwell's pigs believed in trickle down. as new research shows that we already live a sort of oligarchy that the preferences of the masses literally do not matter and that the only thing that counts is the needs and desires of the elites, "animal farm" is a useful cautionary tale warning of the corruption of concentrated power. no matter in whose hands that power wrests. at the end of the book, the other farm animals look on with horror as they realize that
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their pig rulers have become exactly like the farmer who used to abuse and oppress them. or well writes "the creatures outside look from pig to man and man to pig and pig to man again but already it was impossible to say which was which." conservatives would do well to realize that tyranny can come from dictators, from an overreaching government or from corporations and wealthy individuals who run our country for their own benefit. my "animal farm" comment confused them because like orwell's farm animals conservatives have been blinded by the self-serving nonsense served up by today's pigs. all right, that does it for the cycle. "now with alex wagner" starts now. think the tea party's over? think again. it's tuesday, may 6, and this is "now." it is may 10 -- no, really,
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it plight just be mayhem. in just a few hours republican primary frenzy reaches fever pitch in indiana, ohio and north carolina and while the poll watchers have been so far focused on the establishment versus the tea party narrative, in ohio the grass-roots has adopted a different and much wilier strategy. faced with the difficulty of toppling powerful incumbents like house speaker john boehner and governor john kasich the tea party sin said the focussing its energy and resources on down ballot races. as the "wall street journal" reports, ohio conservative activists are looking beyond those long shot challenges to the goal of shaping the party from within by recruiting candidates for a host of lesser races. ah. a host of lesser races. so while today might see very few top-of-the-ticket candidates unseated, a particularly powerful strain of grass-roots fever could result
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