ghana to portugal. nbc's katy tur is live at a world cup party in chicago. okay, katy, so is it bedlam? looks like people are actually feeling it. they're not upset about the gore scoring. >> reporter: it's so hard to hear you over these guys. >> i think you should just jump up and down with them because we can't hear you. >> reporter: i already tried that and got elbows in the head. they've never been more excited for a loss. even though they did lose, they're still advancing to next round because portugal beat ghana by 2-1 and with the goal differential, that means we what? >> we won! >> reporter: we didn't win, but we get to advance. are you guys ready for the next match? >> yes, we are! >> yeah, we are! >> reporter: have you ever been more excited to lose a game? >> no! >> reporter: even though the germans played a lot better than we did. >> that's right. we still won, we still won. even though we lost --

>> woo! >> reporter: the moral of the story is we are advancing. everyone is very excited about it. >> cutting to the heart of the matter. nbc's katy tur who i can't hear anything you said but it all sounded very excited. never have i thought i'd see americans -- hear americans say we won even though we lost. that is maybe an advancement toward our emergence as members of the international community. judy coe judah is a retired soc player. explain what katy was sigh iayi why did the u.s. still win even though we lost? >> it's a great day for u.s. soccer going 1-1-1 in the group of death is an amazing feat. moving on at this level is really all you want to do and we accomplished that today. >> so it's a combination of your standings meaning how many games you won or lost but also the

goal different shial, how many goals you scored on the other team versus the people in the group. is that a right explanation for that. >> correct. you know, scoring, beating -- winning against ghana 2-1 and tieing portugal really has set us up so that we could lose this last game versus germany. you know, they played an extremely talented team today, but played them well. >> the thing is, i think for americans, because people are surprised to learn soccer is extremely popular among kids. my kids play. a lot of kids play. kids tend to age out of it and go into other sports. why do you think soccer overall has not caught on as much? we're seeing americans very excited about it this year. is there a reason americans have not caught on to it as much overall? >> i believe that we've all caught on. it's just -- we compete with basketball, football, baseball here in this country, but as you said, the younger ages are playing it. we now have the largest fan base

at the world cup in brazil. so we're there, but, and we're only going to grow. >> i think the interesting thing, people should realize, because, you know, europe, south america, central america, football as it's called around the rest of the world is to popular that people should realize it. for u.s. to play at the level where they could beat a ghana, where they could be even one point down to a team like germany, that's actually a pretty big deal, right? >> oh, huge deal. huge deal. i think that this has been our most successful tournament even though we haven't won every game. just the way the fans are into it, the social media. our country is aware of what's going on. and that's a big step for us coming from past world cups. >> okay. tell us what happens next. we have survived the group of death. the u.s. ranks second now in the group of death meaning we and germany both advance. now, who do we play next? >> it looks like it's going to be belgium. they're going to win their group, so we will play them

next. belgium is a team with a lot of world-class players, but hasn't really played to their top level yet, either. so it's a game that i think we can win. >> so, yeah, and just for folks at home who are keeping track, the team hat finishes second in our group plays the team that finished first in a group belgium's in. number one plays number two, vice versa. that's a weird wrinkle with soccer. we've had fifa sanction a player for biting, mr. suarez, public enemy number one for soccer/football fans. >> luis suarez is one of the top three players in the world but he's got some issues. definitely. i hope that he can get some help during these months off and take care of this biting problem. >> yeah. indeed. then i guess last but not least, how far do you think this team can go? you've now watched them play. they've played everyone in the group which, again, was called the group of death and survived

it. how far do you think the u.s. can go this year? >> i mean, realistically, i think semifinal would be an unbelievable world cup for us. you know, belgium is a very good team with a lot of world class players. but, you know, we'll see. i think that the fighting spirit of this usa team could take us, you know, who knows. maybe to the final. >> indeed. lot of excited americans. paying attention to football/soccer today. thank you very much. appreciate you being here, judah cooks. thanks. >> thank you. coming up, remember the unitary executive? the all powerful president who ruled by signing statements with complete congressional support? yeah, well, that's over. first, republicans in congre congress, now a major decision from the supreme court both targeting the power of the current president. plus we'll talk about the high court's ruling on protesters outside abortion clinics. is the court protecting harassment as free speech? coming up. as easy as it gets. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters

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today, the supreme court's more liberal justices joined swing justice anthony kennedy to deal president obama a major setback when it comes to presidential power. however, their decision on recess appointments may have saved mr. obama from a more stringent opinion from the court's more conservative justices. nbc's pete williams joins me live from the supreme court to explain. okay, pete, explain these rulings today. >> reporter: they both were unanimous and the first ruling about the recess appointment power basically all but dooms it for practical purposes because if you think about it, a president is most likely to do these recess appointments when he can't get his nominees through the senate because it's in the hands of the opposing party. and it's the opposing parties who have come up with this strategy to try to defeat a president's recess appointment power by every three days during

the christmas holiday or the summer vacation or whatever. having what they call proforma sessions where they gavel it to order. a new seconds later, gavel into recess. and they say that shows that the recesses are only lasting, like, two or three days and the supreme court said that's going to work. that a recess has to last at least ten days for a president to be able to use the recess appointment power. so, for all practical purposes, while it's not formally dead, it's practically dead. >> yeah, that's -- go on. >> reporter: yeah, go ahead. >> no, go on. >> reporter: okay. and on the second decision involving the right of abortion protests, the court said this is all about the public sidewalks. that that is the one place in america the courts said where a person cannot necessarily assume they're speaking to the choir, where you can come up to people and say whatever you want. it's sort of the ground zero of free expression and the problem with the massachusetts law that the court ruled on today is that it set up a fixed 35 foot no-protest zone around entrances

to abortion clinics. and what the courts said the problem with that is that people who want to just talk quietly and try to persuade women not to have an abortion have to stand 35 feet away and in order to be heard, they have to yell at them and it's not an effective kind of communication. they ought to be able to get closer. so it's a unanimous decision on the specific 35-foot zone in massachusetts. the question here is, what can a state do now? would a smaller no-protest zone work? what about the so-called floating bubble zones that colorado uses that says you can't approach more than, say, six feet from a patient as they move toward the entrance? are those still okay? the supreme court upheld those about a decade ago and didn't address that today, so presumably they're still okay. but this is a -- the language in this ruling is kind of casts a cloud, i think, over a lot of the sort of restrictions that cities and states have used to try to keep their clinic entrances safe for patients. >> well, that's the question i really had, pete, because you do

have the competing interests here. the reason these buffer zones were set up is that there have been histories, instances of violence. people sometimes do feel afraid and intimidated. how broad is this ruling? does it go beyond massachusetts? is this something that's applicable beyond their specific law? or is this something that could actually jeopardize the idea of buffer zones outside of massachusetts? >> reporter: by the reasoning of the court, itself, it certainly applies to massachusetts, and it probably dooms restrictions that are in five other cities. i'll see if i can remember them. san francisco, santa barbara, pittsburgh, burlington, vermont, and portland, maine. they all had city ordinances that were similar to the massachusetts state law. so while it doesn't directly strike them down, it certainly -- it probably dooms them and then you have to look at the other restrictions that cities, there are probably, you know, about a -- i don't know, a handful of other, a dozen or so other similar but not as strict

restrictions. you know, i think we're going to see another round of court battles over those because today's decision doesn't really resolve those others. >> really quickly, pete, i want to circle back to recesses for a moment. the decision could have been broader, i guess, if some of the more conservative justices had their way. what was avoided here by this ruling? >> reporter: what was avoided, what really would have totally doomed this power, because there were two questions here. the constitution says the president shall have the authority to fill up vacancies that occurred during recess of the senate. question, what's a recess? today's decision answered that. has to be at least ten days. therefore, the recesses president obama made that were at the heart of this case during three-day recesses, those don't count. but does the power only apply to vacancies that arise during a recess? the more conservative members of the court would have said the answer to that is yes. the full court didn't go, though, that far. >> wow. they went pretty far.

all right. pete williams, thank you very much. appreciate you being here. >> reporter: you bet. for more, i'm joined by senior congressional reporter for can talking points memo" and jonathan capehart for the "washington post" and msnbc contributor. i want to start you. pete explained it beautifully. for all intents and purposes, what the supreme court has said is the congress can prevent any recess appointment at all by simply refusing to be out of -- to be in recess for ten days. >> joy, i think that's exactly right and i think the implications of this ruling will be minimal for the rest of this year because democrats, remember, changed the rules to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for all nominees other than the supreme court. while democrats have a majority, they can pretty much confirm anybody that president obama wants. if republicans take back the majority no novembin november, power in january, that's going to get tricky and difficult for the president. theoretically not only would president obama have to deal

with mitch mcconnell any time he wants someone confirmed, he won't be able to go around congress and fill positions when a hypothetical republican senator refuses to act. that's what the stakes are and that's the power of the presidency that the supreme court curtailed pretty drastically. i think pete nailed it when he said the power isn't technically doomed. the ruling could have gone a lot further. for all intents and purposes, there's nothing stopping a hypothetical republican majority from defining every recess as a pro forma session and having someone gavel in and out every couple days to make sure for the expressed purpose of making sure the president doesn't recess appoint anyone. knowing senator mcconnell and m.o., if the power is available to him, tvs a bad bet to assume he's not going to use it against the president. >> yeah, indeed. jonathan, so, you know, i think generally as a constitutional matter, the branch is the first branch of government, the congress, the second branch of government, the presidency, are meant to have a tug-of-war for

respective powers and jealously guard their own powers. that's built into the system. it does feel like there is a difference when we've had a republican president who the congress, itself, gave expansive power. we heard this term unitary executive thrown around. and there wasn't this sense that the president acting with executive authority was lawless. i want to read you a little bit of the reaction from speaker john boehner on the other side of the congress to this appointment ruling today. he said "this decision offers enkurnlgsment to americans who have watched with concern as the president declined to falaitfuly execute our laws. the house will take action to defend the constitution and protect our system of government and economy from continued executive abuse." this language about faithfully executing our laws which is part of the oath that the president actually takes, you have a column this week that you feel like this is a rehearsal for something very specific and very familiar to democrats. >> oh, absolutely. speaker boehner has been talks about suing the president. taking him to court to ensure

that he faithfully executes the laws of the country, abides by the constitution, one, and, two, he's doing this because he wants to preserve the prerogatives of the legislative branch to check the executive. but when you look at this case, and you look at that statement, i wrote yesterday, this lawsuit is a prelude to dress rehearsal for i think the eventual impeachment of the president. we've been hearing impeachment talk coming from republicans since basically 2009/2010. back then, it was's easily dismissed as a few cranks on the right who were, you know, exercising their right to free speech to slam the president, but since last summer, the town hall meetings that republicans were having and people were coming to them saying, how can we get rid of this president, how can we impeach him for breaking the law? because they didn't believe -- still don't believe that his

birth certificate is real and that he's occupying the oval office illegally. you had members of congress, silting members of the house saying that while they could impeach him in the house, they wouldn't be able to convict him in the senate because democrats have the senate so why even bother? senator cruz made the same point. but, you know, what you're seeing happen here, and what the speaker is proposing here, is giving some air to the yahoos within his conference where they could basically put the president on trial here for something that the president is doing which is exercising his authority precisely because republicans, primarily in the house, but also in the senate, are in wathwarting the presidenm doing the job the american people elected him twice to do. >> if you look at the substance of the things the republicans say the president is doing that are lawless, there's nothing

there. if you look at the executive orders, for instance, this is a president who actually had historically low numbers of executive orders. fewer than his predecessors. fewer than george w. bush. fewer than bill clinton. fewer than any president since grover cleveland. the scale of the slope if you look at the numbers of the presidents, he's at the bottom. there's not the substance of it, but i think jonathan gets to the desire on the part of base republicans to delegitimize the whole enterprise, the whole fact that he's president is the problem. and greg sergeant, sahil, has a theory on john boehner's lawsuit that essentially it's meant to sort of scratch the impeachment itch on the right, to give them something that has the appearance of a lawful checking of the president. what you've seen overall, we're not going to let you pass anything, going to stop everything in its tracks, two to the supreme court and say you can't exercise the normal powers of the president, can't do executive orders which are lawful but you can't do them. box him in so he essentially can't be president. >> will this push by speaker boehner who, by way, said the

supreme court decision offered encourageme encouragement, the word he used, to the lawsuit it's bringing up. the question is, does this lawsuit or will this lawsuit placate the hard right that really wants to go all the way and impeachment president and especially has a very strong hunger for a confrontation? will it placate them or embolden them? i suspect speaker boehner is not going to get all the orders or all the executive actions that the president overturned. what does he do next? he's going to have to follow through and say, mr. president, if i really believe what i'm saying, that he is breaking the law and trampling on the constitution, what else is available to him impeachment? we know speaker boehner is capable of getting overrun by the right flank of his party when they demand he follow through and when he's saying things like this president is doing horrible things. he's going to have to do aef everything in his power to stop that. it's an open question. >> we're really out of time. i want to give you one more word. you don't think he'll be able to stop? >> once you scratch an itch, once you bitten by a mosquito,

once you start scratching the itch, you keep scratching that itch. speaker boehner will not be able to control his conference, especially if republicans take the senate in november. >> yeah. i think that's very real. real talk. john than capehart, and sahil kapur, thank you both. reid alert. on the president who is right now in minneapolis, minnesota. the first stop on his day in the life cross-country summer initiative. in about an hour from now, the president will lead a town hall meeting to champion democratic economic policies. he feels will help boost the middle class. this is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. during the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. at night and when it's cloudy, we use more natural gas. this ensures we can produce clean electricity whenever our customers need it. ♪

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merciless retaliation if released. seth rogen responded, "people usually don't want to kill me for a movie until after they've paid 12 bucks for it." north korea is a nuclear power. you're sending tweets like this, "remember the time the people from pineapple express started world war iii?" you're sending hilarious tweets on the #makearappersoft, sending 75,000 tweets in total. a celebration of jay-z's and beyonce's new couples tour. >> nothing is more hardcore than riding around on a bus and playing shows with your family. tonight's hash tag i is #makearappersoft. examples, lil' wayne brady, 50 cent of a woman, or will.iam

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it could psoriatic arthritis a chronic inflammatory disease that attacks your joints on the inside and your skin on the outside. if you've been hit by... find out more about psoriatic arthritis. take the symptom quiz at doublewhammy.com and talk to your doctor. in a unanimous, yes, unanimous opinion, the supreme court today struck down a massachusetts law that set up a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics. in his opinion citing infringement on the first amendment, chief justice john roberts writes, "the buffer zone's burden substantially more speech than necessary. impose serious burdens on petitioners' speech, depriving them of close personal conversations and distribution of literature." this is a woman behind the supreme court case. eleanor mccullen, a 77-year-old grandmother who stands outside a

planned parenthood in boston twice a week. rain or shine. now, she insists her friendly message must be conveyed from a conversational distance. but the problem is, not all antiabortion protests are kindly grandmas. as this msnbc.com article reports, other regular protesters wore boston police department hats and shirts and stationed themselves carrying clipboards at the garage entrance. they demanded contact information from people trying to get into the building. and the buffer zones were enacted in the first place because of violence, disruption, and congestion at some of the state's 11 reproductive health clinics. in 1994, two clinic employees were shot and killed. miss mccullen released a statement today saying she's delighted and thankful to god that the court prengted h eprot rights. that feeling might not be universal including among the families of the two clinic employees. elizabeth plank, executive social director of mike.com and

a national reporter for msnbc.com. i thi i think, les start with that. the question of whether or not someone has a right to have a conversation with you at closed quarters. apparently the court says they do. >> the court previously upheld you can have sort of eight foot no-approach zones. they tried that in massachusetts. when they did that, protesters would stand in the way so that clinic patients had no choice but to walk toward them. and say, hey, that person approached me, it's a consensual conversation. you see the antiabortion protesters in this decision. justice roberts say it's a consensual personal conversation. they have chose this 80-year-old grandmother to represent the face of the protesters. but the reality is the law covers nice grandmothers and also covers people screaming in your face. it also covers people taking your personal information, following you places. it covers things that are profoundly intimidating, and this is the only kind of health care, reproductive health care for women, including and not

limited to abortion that is subject to this kind of harassment. >> i mean, were you surprised, elizabeth, at the unanimity here? because essentially that point made, that you obtaining health care subjects you to the rights of someone else to have a conversation with you. it sort of -- it does seem to sort of skirt over personal privacy zone, the idea that somebody can get very close to you. and i think as you said, as irin just said, we're not talking just about grandmothers. i remember when operation rescue and other groups used to be very, very intimidating, very vocal. >> they're still out there. >> they're still there. >> i mean, i did -- two years ago in north carolina, there were no buffer zones. i was totally shocked. i couldn't believe what i saw. i had not just sort of the people who are defending the clinics being harassed, intimidated, photographed, their license plates taken and put on websites, their photos being put on websites. them being followed home. also the women who, again, need the care. like news flash, abortion is legal. women need to get this service.

what's the point of having the service even be legal if you can't get to it? >> there are a lot of ironies in this case. national organization for women has called on chief justice roberts to remove his own buffer zone. apparently he has one. their statement says "the roberts' court's disregard for women's safety is made even worse by the court's hypocrisy in maintaining its own 100 foot buffer zone which the chief justice has defended as necessary to preserve proper order and decorum in the vicinity of the supreme court building in washington, d.c." an article been lauren rankin, it says "justice scalia's dilemma because his wife is a pro-life advocate who was a board member of the nurturing network, a crisis pregnancy organization." a lot of ironies here. >> it's clear not all speech is created equal when it comes to the supreme court. so while the court could have issued a more universal ruling, they could have even struck

down, you know, some of the earlier laws that they upheld, what they still did was put the people going in and out of massachusetts clinics, at further risk than they are now. it's already a very volatile situation. the political leanings of certain members of the court become more clear every year. i mean, when it comes to scalia, he's become even more robustly sort of defending what he says is constitutional originalism, but somehow always seems to line up with what fox news is saying. >> yeah. >> he actually wrote a concurrence in this decision in which he claimed that, you know, not only was this law unconstitutional, but it discriminated against antiabortion viewpoints. he wanted the court to go even further. while we think this will probably invalidate other buffer zones around the country, if challenges are brought to those, scalia wanted all of the protections to be gone. >> yeah. it is sort of surprising that there is no, i guess, ethical requirement that justices s ree themselves.

potentially, justice scalia could have been rule in favor of his wife's right to go up and conversations with women who don't want them. >> right. it's important to remember why this law was passed in the first place. there was two clinics in massachusetts that were, yoz as you mentioned, killed two people, injured five people. at the time this case was even debated, actually, there was a clinic in montana that was vandalized to the point it's not even open right now. it's crazy they came to this decision, and it's, especially when we look at where they're leaning. and how that decision was made. it's disastrous for women -- >> it is. right, so i have my own theories about the unanimity, of course, the court is so untransparent that we can all have our theories and not necessarily know what the case is. we have this case coming up on monday, hobby lobby which is seeking corporations seeking religious exemptions just like churches get from not covering contraception on their employee health plans. we cannot know, but i wonder

whether, you know, i went to oral argument in this clinic buffer zone case and i saw justice ginsburg and sotomayor signaling they saw a real justification for this law. yet they didn't even write a concurrence saying, you know, maybe this goes too far, but here's the valid reason. >> are you suggesting maybe horse trading, we'll go your way on something -- >> maybe horse trading. we won't know what happens. we'll see what happens on monday with hobby lobby. i was surprised it was unanimous because justice ginsburg in particular is a very strong defender of women's access to abortion. >> yeah, that's what surprised me, too. i was expecting a 5-4. i wasn't surprised by the result. just the numbers. elizabeth plank, and of course, irin carmon, our in-house expert all on all these issues. it feels like we're sliding backwards. irin carmon from msnbc. news to pass along. former senate majority leader howard baker has died at the age of 88.

the republican from tennessee was the vice chairman of the senate watergate committee. during the hearings he famously asked what did the president know and when did he know it? he earned the respect of republicans and democrats during his 18 years in the senate and also served as the white house chief of staff and u.s. ambassador to japan. we'll be right back. ups is a global company, but most of our employees live in the same communities that we serve. people here know that our operations have an impact locally. we're using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. the trucks are reliable, that's good for business. but they also reduce emissions, and that's good for everyone. it makes me feel very good about the future of our company. ♪

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so instead of wasting time, wasting time, suing the president, should do the work of the nation to pass comprehensive immigration reform. >> today on this one-year anniversary, we say to the speaker, give us a sign. give us a vote. >> we demand, we plead, we ask. bring this comprehensive immigration bill to the floor. >> that was congressional democratic leaders on capitol hill today marking tomorrow's

one-year anniversary of the passage of a bipartisan senate immigration reform bill. lawmakers are trying to put pressure on house speaker john boehner who under constant political pressure from the far right has refused to take up the senate bill or even put a house version up for a vote. yesterday, illinois congressman luis gutierrez, one of the leading house democrats backing reform weaved world cup terminology into a fiery rebuke of house republicans. >> i gave you the warning three months ago, and now i have no other choice. you're done. hit the showers. it's the red card. the president now has no other choice but to act within existing law to ensure that our deportation policies are humane. >> as the obama administration faces increasing pressure over headlines like this one on the cover of "the huffington post" today, which reports, "immigration and customs enforcement last year carried out more than 75,000 deportations of parents who said they had u.s.-born children." at a time when an increased wave of unaccompanied minors continue

to stream across the southwest border from central america, in fleeing drug cartel violence, the question is, would executive action by president obama go far enough? white house press secretary josh ernest told my colleague chuck todd this morning that the president is looking for ways to act but offered this reminder. >> any executive action the president would take is not a substitute for robust congressional action. we're focused on trying to get that done. >> joining me now, alex wagner, host of "now with alex wagner," airs at 4:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc, and interviewed congressman gutierrez on the unaccompanied kids and the crisis at our southern border. let's start with that question, alex. you have this pressure from pro-immigration reform groups saying to the president, congress isn't going toing inau act. you have the house threatening to not impeach, but sue the president if he steps one foot beyond what they think are the borders of his power. >> the unaccompanied minors issue is separate to that.

jeh johnson, dhs secretary, says we don't have a policy to deal with these kids from central america. we can't just send them back as of this moment because of our lack of agreements with these countries. the issue about comprehensive immigration reform, it's sort of played out weirdly well for the republicans insofar as the democrats are left to say take up the bill, bring the bill to a house floor vote, and boehner just gets the same thing, kevin mccarthy get to keep his door locked. in the meantime, democrats, immigration advocates, immigr t immigrants themselves are saying if the house is doing nothing, it's incumbent for the president to two something. the president is put into a position where he must take action and republicans get to say he's overstepping his bounds. >> i want to play a piece of your special. you are doing some really great reporting, special reporting. actually going out there where this is happening and looking at what's happening. because this is a human story. this is a process story. let's take a look. >> trying to cross the rio

grande, you probably want to find the calmest water possible. for a lot of illegal immigrants, that's the water by this gigantic dam here. once you've made it to this shore, you can see there's a path up from the water. and then you walk up this trail and right here is the beginning of a new life. this is plymouth rock for the 21st century. unlike the border in arizona or new mexico, a desert split by a hulking rusting fence, in south texas, the rio grande divides america from mexico. >> i mean, look at that water. i'm afraid of deep water. i can't imagine as a little kid trying to swim that out of sheer december pla k desperation. >> visually, sir mounting that fence seems harder. there are other parts of the river which look calmer. i talk to people who intubed

their children across. part of that has to do with border facilities and border patrols. but part of it is just the facility. you kcan see mexico, the united states. it's right there in front of you. and the smuggling strategy. these coyotes have made a concerted and coordinated decision to say, look, if you bing your kids here, if you don't have your men with you, if it's women and minors, children by themselves, you are not going to get sent back. that word has traveled through these countries and no uncertain terms exacerbated, the situation has been exacerbated by the fact the violence, drug cartels, the degradation of the sort of fabric of society in these other -- in guatemala, honduras, and el salvador. it's a huge motivation to come to the united states. >> i lived in miami for 14 years. we have a policy when it comes to cuban migrants who similarly take incredible risks to get across the florida straits, sometimes with children. we remember the saga about a child who lost his mother on the way. we have a policy for cuban

migrants. is it because we don't have enough of a hostile relationship with these governments? >> we have an agreement with mexico. so the majority of these kids are coming from central america where we don't have agreements with these governments. vice president biden was down in guatemala. there have been bilateral tensions. the guatemalans, when told by the united states, you have to do something about the kids coming across the border. they say, you've exacerbated the wars because of your failed drug policy. work on comprehensive reform. the system is broken. the o us nus lies on both sides the border. >> 52,000 unaccompanied children. 39,000 adults are children. >> a lot qualify for humanitarian sort of refugee status because of the situation at home. >> what was your big takeaway from going down there and being able to physically be in the space and look at the problem head-on? >> when i met the people who had lost their mothers or children trying to get to the united states who now live in the shadows who have -- who are living literally day to day,

fund to fund, dollar to dollar. what shocked many and some ways really reassuring in terms of what america means, day were not going to mean. they have children who were born here. they will sacrifice a lot. they will stay until something gets fixed. they're americans in their minds. >> it's confounding. as a parent, it's horrifying and hopefully somebody will day attention, do something about it. you'll be doing this all this week. of course, everyone watch alex wagner "now with alex." this is a special time to watch. thank you so much. it's called "the invisible us." it will be today at 4:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. alex wagner, you're great. thank you. >> thanks, joy. a reid alert on a humanitarian crisis, not what we in the west delightfully call the third world but in the united states in the city of detroit. the united states has been called on to address a water crisis. 150,000 detroit households have had their water disconnected for owing as little as $150.

the cutoffs have disproportionately affected the city's poor and at-risk families. it is meant to help recoup funds for the cash-strapped city. it's not clear what, if anything, the u.n. could even do, but experts have responded saying the shutoffs could constitution a violation of the human right to water. we'll keep you updated on that story as it develops. ♪

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this building, the rayburn house office building, is named for samuel talafaro rayburn, longest serving house speaker in u.s. history. sam rayburn served as speaker for 17 years in 3 nonconsecutive terms between 1940 when fdr and harry truman was president and

period book ended by eisenhower and jfk. as a kid in the 1880s grew up on a cotton farm in springs, texas, presided over congresses that declared war multiple times during world war ii and passed major legislation including the first civil rights act since reconstruction in 1957. the creation of nasa and the admission of alaska and hawaii as the 49 th and 50th states. there have been other legendary house speakers. tip o'neill during the reagan years. and john william mccormick, a bostonian whose house during the 88th passed the civil rights act of 6 4. as well as notoriously the gulf of tonkin resolution that dragged us deeper into vietnam. columbia university historian alan brinkley called the 111th congress with the first woman

nancy pelosi as house speaker probably the most productive session of congress since at least the '60s. adding, "it's all the more impressive given how polarized the congress has been." the pelosi congress achieved passage of health care reform after 100 years of democrats trying. plus the repeal of don't ask/don't tell. the stimulus that pulled the economy out of the abyss and a new start nuclear treaty with russia. most of it in the lame duck session between congresses, despite setting the record for the most filibusters by a senate minority. which brings us to house speaker john boehner. who presides over the current congress, the 113th, which is on track to be the least productive congress ever. and it's not like there aren't things to do. as of this month, some 3 million americans are living without income because their federal long term unemployment benefits expired and congress hasn't restored them. immigration reform which passed the senate is stuck in the house. congress is doing a lot of complaining about iraq, but so

far they've refused to go on record about whether the president should take military action. we face a new potential government shutdown, this fall, believe it or not. meanwhile, speaker boehner is spending his time suing the president over the kinds of executive orders president obama has used less than any president since grover cleveland. and his household endless hearings fishing for a scandal they can sell as an impeachable defense. speaker boehner, sam rayburn, you are not. that wraps up things for "the reid report." watch us every day 2:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. watch "the cycle" is up next. one of you guys look strangely familiar from an hour ago. what do you have going on today? >> pretty much a little bit of everything. starting with the world cup. unfortunately the u.s. lost. they're going to the next round. jordan schultz. we'll tdo a little bit of

politics. we have jamie lynn seigler from "the sopranos." and i will rant about something very personal to my upbringing, my mormon faith. that should be very interesting. >> that should be really interesting, abby. definitely looking forward to that. "the cycle" as you know, comes up next. shoulder pain... ...and a choice take 6 tylenol in a day which is 2 aleve for... ...all day relief. hmm. [bell ring] "roll sound!" "action!" say "hi" rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ] i'd do anything to keep this guy happy and healthy. that's why i'm so excited about these new milk-bone brushing chews. whoa, i'm not the only one. it's a brilliant new way to take care of his teeth. clinically proven as effective as brushing. ok, here you go. have you ever seen a dog brush his own teeth? the twist and nub design cleans all the way down to the gum line, even reaching the back teeth. they taste like a treat, but they clean like a toothbrush. nothing says you care like a milk-bone brushing chew.

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big soda ban fizzles out. new york state's highest court ruled today the city health department overstepped its bounds in telling restaurants and stores they could not sell sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces. guzzlers rejoice. is hollywood about to commit an act of war? according to kim jong-un. a seth rogen movie, in which they pretend to play newscasters who are assassins out to kill north korea's president. if this is how america soccer fans react to a team usa loss, just imagine if they had won. world cup fever continues this

thursday in "the cycle." team usa survives the group of death. this was the post-game scene moments ago in washington, d.c. bethlehem, pennsylvania, and chicago. jubilation when it became clear -- despite a hard-fought 1-0 loss to germany. now to the tape. a nonstop downpour all day made for a sloppy field. the germans controlled the ball for much of the first half. but thanks to big plays by the "d" and huge saves by my favorite u.s. goalie tim howard, the first half ends in a 0-0 tie. the second half was looking a lot like the first until the 55th minute. howard came up with yet another huge save. it doesn't clear. germany right there for the follow-up. thomas muller puts it back in the back of the net. so frustrating. u.s. threatened in extra time,