tv Ronan Farrow Daily MSNBC July 9, 2014 10:00am-11:01am PDT
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people's relationship with germans. which is, you know, forgetting some history. >> the israeli military launched air attack s against nearly 200 sites in gaza. >> hamas is firing more rockets into southern israel. >> the call-up of about 40,000 reserve soldiers has people thinking there could be a ground invasion. >> president obama arriving in texas today. but won't visit the border. >> the white house doesn't like to present optics. >> the optics of that are bad. >> they feel, you know, we're all about substance, we're not about optics. >> it's not a good image. >> i think optics do matter. >> impeachment is a message that should be send to the president. let's get going on that. you don't bring a lawsuit to a gun fight. they don't have the cajones to do it. >> dropped jaws and left an entire nation in tears. >> look at the crying. >> the last tie they hosted the world cup, brazil, 1950, they
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lost to uruguay, and those players were pariahs. this loss is so much bigger. >> when obama visits colorado and texas, he's taking time to meet with people who have written him letters. the people in texas wrote letters. in colorado, they wrote, what's up on a white castle napkin. >> so would you believe me if i told you that last week, as everyone was heading off for their holiday weekends, not paying attention to stuff, the house ethics committee got together behind closed doors and quietly deleted a requirement that privately sponsored travel be included on house disclosures, like those paid for by lobbyists. sound a little less than ethical to you? well, it happened. reversing three decades of president. it has to be noted, they didn't eliminate the only way to report some trips, this was reported, an outrage was started, and they
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did reverse the decision, but what possible reason would they have to weaken the disclosures. not a ton of news outlets reporting on this, which also gets another uh-huh. but someone who is sounding the alarm, unlikely but perfect suspect, jackabramoff, a former d.c. lobbyist, calling foul on money running amuck in washington. jack, thank you for being here. you wrote this really quite striking piece in the daily beast last week. in it, you said other than just declaring these folks the dumbest bunch of knuckleheads on the planet, it's hard to explain the events that have come to light in the past week. how would you explain it? can you unpack for the audience that isn't familiar what these trips that we're talking about consist of. >> trips with members of congress and their staff, trips taken by lobbyists, the gold letter activity of a lobbyist, a
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lobbyist wants to spend as much time as possible and convey as much resources as possible on members of congress, and trips with the members of congress are really the gold standard. so it's very important for lobbyists to do this, and frankly, for lobbyists to hide it because americans are sick and tired of this. >> on the subject of hiding it, how often do you think these under the radar closed door ethics meetings happen that are maybe rolling back protections rather than increasing them? >> i think it's actually astonishing and it's rare that the ethics committee would act in this manner, especially given the fact that congress is so unpopular. in polls, congress is less popular than root canal surgery. yet, for some reason, they think it's -- they'll go unnoticed by eliminating a very important part of transparency, of their activities. it's very rare, but it's utterly incredibly stupid.
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>> i'll be honest, jack, it feels much more like the kind of reporting you would get out of a developing country with lax corruption standards than something you would or should see in america. you have served time in prison for a corruption case and were released in 2010. how does morality in washington today compare to the washington you were wheeling and dealing in? >> i think it's the same. basisically, they reshuffled the deck, they changed the rules that are not really meaningful. they acted to allegedly get rid of the corruption i was involved in. there were so many loopholes in this, including now with the travel, if i were still a lobbyist and that person as a lobbyist, i would have no problem running right thou these things. >> another big issue you have taken a stand on to the surprise of many, but honestly to my deep admiration is pac spending gone amuck, which is another symbol of corruption and democracy hijacked by big money.
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you have joined an effort to get a pac maybe to end pacs. tell us about how you came to that effort. >> i think it's actually completely consistent with the anti-corruption stuff. i come at this issue a little differently than the professor and others in the sense i believe anybody who is a lobbyist or special interest, anybody who wants something back from government, especially for them, should be barred from giving any money. okay, most of the money, the big money in politics are people and corporations and unions who want something back. and i don't believe that the court, the current court, would agree to a bar of all people giving money. by the way, personally, i'm against that anyway, but let's go after the actual problem, the disease is people giving money for the purpose of manipulating the government to get things back for themselves. if we can eliminate that, we'll eliminate 90% plus of the problem. that's the tact i take. >> the idea of the pac to end pac is the moneys will go to
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candidates trying to stymie corruption. so far, irr raised over $5 million. it's catching on. are there candidates you see out there right now who deserve some of that money? >> sure. the problem in washington isn't necessarily that there aren't candidates coming to town or new freshman candidates coming to town who aren't wanting to do the right thing. the plb is the atmosphere in washington converts the people who arrive there into the standard congressmen behaving in the standard way. that association, that environment is what we have to go after. >> it's something a lot of our viewers share your frustration with, and you doing an about face and weighing in on this issue is something people are really going to pay attention to and take a stand on. thank you. >> thanks. now i want to hash out some of the issues with our political panel for today. we have krystal ball, and a former congressional nominee. she knows the nitty-gritty. >> i wish i didn't know as much
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as i do. >> also john theory is back thank you both of you. we're talking about how dysfunctional this congress is, how people are fed up. how rampant do you see this problem as being? is this a kruptd system on the whole? >> it's an entirely corrosive system. jack is right to point out the fact as members of congress are going about their day to day, their week to week, every single day has multiple hours carved out for talking to donors. and even the best intentioned, i don't think there are a lot of members of congress who are actually engaging in the direct quid pro quo, but these are the folks you're talking to. you're hearing their concerns over and over. you're deeply steeped in this donor culture, so you're much more responsive to their needs than you are to even your own constituents you're spending a lot less time with and less time dealing with. campaigns these days are about putting up enough of a sort of front of campaign events to show the public that you're out doing
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stuff, and carving out as much time as possible to actually be on the phones or at fund-raisers. that's the real campaign activity, not the grassroots events. >> and we're selecting for people who can entice big money, not people who can necessarily lead. it's troubling. john, when you look at that and the inactivity on the hill that's resulting, how do you push through reform on specific issues that are now just sitting desperately needing action and not getting any? let's take immigration as an example? who's the stronger lobbyer in the debate right now and how do you cut through the dysfunction? >> look at immigration for example. the big money is in favor of passing immigration reform. it's actually the grassroots that has been able to stymie it. i think the problem with the campaign laws, and i think they are broken, is members of congress spend a lot of their time raising money and not enough time legislating. it's a distraction. i don't think the system is necessarily corrupt. i think there is a distraction
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there that members need to focus more of their time, and this is really an outgrowth of the mccain-fine goeingold laws whic more money into politics, took a lot of power away from the political parties and has kind of completely made throwing the system up for grabs. >> i have to push back on that. mccain-feingold entered what was a void of regulation on campaign finance, and while impercht, did put in restrictions. >> it completely destroyed the power of the political parties to raise money. >> what completely destroyed the power of the political parties is the supreme court which has viewed corruption in a narrow manner and has opened the flo floodgates. >> citizens united, mccutchen. >> to the question of whether the system overall is corrosive, it shows the voice of ordinary citizens literally have no impact on our legislative
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process. what we see coming out of congress is much more consistent with the desires of the wealthiest part of america. they're essentially the only ones who really have a voice in our system at this point. that's according to recent research. >> this is an important debate, no matter where you stand on mccain-feingold, it wasn't adequate. >> certainly. >> let's go over to this question of immigration a little more. we're dealing with a lot of breaking news on this right now. the president is arriving in texas today around 5:00 p.m. he's still not scheduled to go to the border, and there's been a lot of blow back on that. he's been actually talking ability immigration all day. let's listen to his latest statements on this. >> congress just said no to fixing our broken immigration system in a way that strengthens our borders and our businesses despite the fact everybody from law enforcement to corporations to evangelicals, there's a coalition around immigration reform that is unprecedented,
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they can't get their act together. >> this goes back to the debate on where to point the finger. do you think he's right in pointing at congress? >> i think there's plenty of blame to go around. i think the system is fundamentally broken. what is happening at the border is a humanitarian refugee crisis which is a failure on the president's part, and the president by offering some false promises has encouraged some of this action. i think that security of the border has to be done in a right way that allows for transportation between areas. the fact of the matter is we need workers in america. there's a lot of jobs that have been unfulfilled and what we also need to do is fix the immigration system, but this system -- this crisis on the border is not necessarily -- should not be lumped in with immigration reform. >> i certainly agree with that point, this is a refugee crisis, it is a humanitarian crisis separate from the immigration
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reform problem, but on the question of -- >> is it worth $4 billion to fix? >> it's worth more than that in my view, but just on this question of whether or not the president encouraged this crisis with his actions, the facts just don't bear that out. the timing of when this surge started is not consistent with a reality where the deferred action program you're talking ability, john, let to this. this is driven by violence and death and rape and murder in the countries that these children are fleeing. >> which by the way, u.s. policies in the '90s contributed to. we were sending gang members central america. >> we still contribute it to on the war on drugs. that's what the gangs are all about, drug cartels. >> i think you're right about the drug culture in the central american countries. the fact the reason the president bears some responsibility is there's no diplomacy with the countries. there's a lot of confusion on the docket program that rumors have flooded in if you come to america now, you can get citizenship, and the drug gangs
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have facilitated this transport through mexico and make the crisis a real problem for the american people. >> we have a gridlocked congress on this particular issue, a lot of controversy swirling around and accusations on the hill about the president and maybe his failure to visit the border. that's something we'll have to hash out later because we're almost out of time, but certainly, things are not getting better on the hill. crystal rr, we'll hear from you in a few minutes because we have a jam packed day today, including look at this, scenes of the worst violence in years throughout the middle east. israel's aerial offensive is intensifying. is the u.s. powerless to do anything but sid on the sidelines. should we be doing more in the first place? that's all coming up.
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intervene? developing news right now this hour. as the conflict generations of u.s. leadership have failed to crack in israel is intensifying. that's because their offensive against hamas is getting more and more deadly. all signs point to continuing escalation, even from here. with no stop to this dangerous and deadly exchange of rocket fire on both sides. israel's iron dome missile defense system intercepted rockets fired deep wins israel from gaza, and israel bombarded hamas rockets in gaza last night. neary 50 palestinians have been killed since the start of this offensive, so what are the implications of this for the u.s. administration? how much should we get involved if at all? joining me to discuss, aaron david miller, he's also served as agadviser to six different secretaries of state. also with us, is nura, a palestinian human rights attorney.
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thank you both of you for being here. aaron, you have a fascinating piece on foreign policy where you say that the u.s. should stay out of this conflict, at least for now. you write, there's a real danger that u.s. credibility, already badly undermined by the failure of kerry's efforts so far, could be harmed even more by yet another failed attempt at making peace. >> first of all, this is going to be a cruel and unforgiving humanitarian situation, largely for palestinians. although if hamas does make good on its threats to launch high trajectory weapons into densely populated weapons like tel aviv, it could literally change the game, but the reality is we have seen this movie twice before between israel and hamas. once in 2008 and 2009. israelis spend two weeks including a significant ground incursion, did a lot of damage, maybe some deterrence, but failed essentially to stop the acquisition of high trajectory weapons. they tried again in 2012.
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this time, the operation lasted a week. no ground incursion. limited air strikes with a lot of civilian casualties on the palestinian side. the reality is there is no end game here. unless the israelis are prepared to reoccupy gaza, which they're not, or to literally extrapate the government there, it's just a question of how much destruction, how many people are going to die until the egyptians and/or the israelis perhaps aided by the u.s. as we did in november 2012, imposes, not imposes, negotiates a cease fire. there is no end game and no solution to this. >> aaron just mentioned and many have made this argument the role egypt could play, and the one thing aaron advocates is on america relying on the egyptian connection. this is a regime that has escalates its prison of political ammonants. it's moan down political
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protesters. should america be thinking twice before relying on that particular alliance? >> egypt that negotiated a cease-fire in 2008 and 2012, and both times israel has violated the cease-fires, i just wanted to point out it's actually misleading to say that this is an attack on hamas. it's actually an attack on the palestinian civilian population within the gaza strip where 15,000 members of hamas live, but which is home to 1.9 million palestinians. as far as the suggestion that the u.s. stay on the sidelines, that's hard for the u.s. to do when it's already neck deep in this conflict. it provides israel with $3.1 billion annually. it has protected israel from any type of accountability in the u.n. system, within legal systems abroad and the u.s. legal system here at home. it's because of this u.s.-provided impunity, because of this unequivtle financial and
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military support that we see what you call a movie, but what amounts to a massacre, repeating itself every few years, and in fact, for the u.s. to be involved, i say either suspend aid to israel per its own laws, the foreign assistance act or the military trade agreements with israel that it has to abide by human rights law, or that it remove itself all together and get out of the way so that the international system can hold israel accountability -- >> the point is one that -- >> we can have an analytical discussi discussion, a moral one, we can try to combine the two. meanwhile, back on planet earth, there is a problem. >> that's not fair. this is planet earth. >> can i finish. >> the point she made there as to whether they're attacking hamas or civilians, that is the million dollar question right now. these are heavily densely populated areas we're talking
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about. so where do you fall on that, aaron? can they legitimately make the claim they're making that it's just hamas. >> that is more than unfortunate. that's a tragic implication and consequence of operating in densely populated civilian areas. the reality is the israelis have a problem. the problem right now is high trajectory fire coming from hamas. full stop. and there's no question that before we're done, there are going to be a lot of innocent civilians who are going to be killed. no question about that. the question is how to diffuse the current crisis. and if we want to have a discussion about the reason this is happening at all is because the united states provides $3.1 billion in military assistance to the state of israel, we could have that discussion. the reality is israel is a close american ally. we don't agree with everything it does. public support in this country is deep and broad for the continuation of this relationship. the reality right now, though,
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is simply different. we need to figure out a way, and i don't think right now john kerry has the kind of leverage, nor it seems to me is the timing right for a significant american intervention. the last thing we need is john kerry in israel or in cairo with israeli haair strikes under way and hamas' high trajectory weapons with the u.s. unable to stop it. that demonstrates weakness and it demonstrates a lack of capacity. we don't need this right now. >> that seems like a fair assessment. >> there's one right now between israel and hamas. and i'm afraid that this is going to have to play out for a little while longer before there's going to be relief. >> this has played out. you said we have seen this movie twice before. with respect to john kerry's efforts, we have seen it 11 times before. he's made trip to trip to this region, but none have worked in practice. when we look at that u.s.
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policy, how sustainable is it right now? josh earnest just came out and defended, as is the typical talking point, that's important value held by many americans, but with nearly 50 dead palestinians at this point, including women, children, is there a point where it's going to get politically more difficult for the u.s. to make the defense of israel's offensive right now? >> it's already quite difficult. the obama administration has tried to do this, and has been unable, even when it was willing to actually stop providing impunity to israel, to continue its expansion, even in the absence of kinetic violence. since we have been talking about reality, let's discuss a little built of reality. israel has achieved the most calm in terms of kinetic violence in diplomatically achieved cease fires in 2008 and again in 2012. and yet has been the one to violate these cease-fires. it immediately violated the 2012
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cease-fire by not easing the siege and reducing the nautical miles for fishermen in gaza for fishermen to fish for their livelihoods. nevertheless, there's been no rocket fire for 15 months. consider also between 2004 and 2008, 26 israelis have been killed by hamas rocket fire, and seven of those or 1 out of 4 have been killed during israel's operations that are quote/unquote for defense. because of these operations -- >> i have to wrap you there. a quick last word. >> we have a president who cares more about the middle class, rightly in my jumptdgment, thane middle east. >> this is a middle class issue. >> this is why we don't see an end to it on the ground either. these are incredibly tough issues. you make some valid points, but on the other hand, this cycle of vile olence was also instigated
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the other side. america should be extremely careful about wading into more. aaron and nura, i appreciate your insights. >> glad to be here. >> up next, brazil is grasping for explanations in inwake of a slightly less serious loss than we have been talking about. this one to germany in the world cup. some fans have gone as far as to blame mick jagger for this defeat, seriously. we're going to explain, next. in the nation, it's not always pretty. but add brand new belongings from nationwide insurance... ...and we'll replace destroyed or stolen items with brand-new versions. we take care of the heat, so you don't get burned. just another way we put members first, because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪
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fun with it. this image made the rounds, showing a celebratory german chancellor merkel replacing brazil's iconic christ the redeemer statue. a number of people posted this pic of what brazil's hopeful second half strategy might have been. and some even brought back last week's meme of #things tim howard could have saved. and what about mick jagger? a parptly almost every team he supported lost after he threw his love their way. it's the jagger curse, leading brazilians to label him the jinx. poor mick. up ahead, gloria allred is joining us. she knows tv. she'll be here to talk about a case that is riveting the nation with its own special unexpected digital angle. don't go away. so what's this? check it out. i just saved 15% on car insurance in 15 minutes, so i took a selfie to show everyone how happy i am.
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why a father allegedly left his 22-month-old child alone to die in a scorching suv? police are hoping so. they're digging through justin ross harris' computer drive, thumb drives, and more. they're looking for a motive, and especially for searches about hot car deaths. harris' wife who has also been reportedly accused of making the similar searches, visited the jail where her husband is being held after pleading guilty. she did seem visibly upset. this is a brave new world for prosecutors. all these digital histories that don't necessarily amount to actions in and of themselves persuasive in court? joining me now is someone who knows the issue well. attorney gloria allred. what are they searching for on the harddrives and how persuaves is this evidence. >> they're going to be searching for anything that might help them to either amend the
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charges, to prove malice murder. right now, it's felony murder. we can talk about the difference. and/or to prove motive. of course, it's not necessary to prove motive, but it's always helpful to prove motive. with the life insurance that you mentioned, it might have been on the hard drive. there might have been a financial benefit. the sexting, that's something they might be looking for as well. any information about his searches. >> explain the sexting component of this. >> the sexting that he is alleged to have been sexting while his little child, his toddler was dying within the car, what was going on there? they may not know where they're going with all of this right now. it's felony murder that is alleged. and that is the murder during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony. that felony is second degree child cruelty in georgia. so they may amend it again to
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first degree murder malice. >> if they do find he's consistently searched for this set of key words related to child car deaths, can you really infer premeditation. what if he was trying to stop that, as he's been purported to have claimed. >> that, of course, is going to be the defense. why else would he be looking for it? how many people do and why would they? not just once, more than once, look for that. in fact, if they do look for that, wouldn't that make them more cautious about leaving a child in a hot car rather than less cautious? so i think what they want to do is just search for whatever they can find and they'll see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. >> his wife, of course, wasn't present for the crime, but she's alleged to have made similar searches. if that's indeed the case, is there any vicarious liability for her. >> i right now, she's not charged, i don't know if she will be charged. if in fact she is charged, maybe there's going to be a chance or
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an attempt to flip her. that is to try to turn her against her husband. right now, she seems solidly in support of her husband. but there doesn't appear to be any evidence that we know of right now such that she should be charged with a crime. >> let's look at another digital frontier in an old school kind of story. police are using a pretty unconventional approach to thwart what is alleged to be a $20 billion child porn industry in rhode island. they're using dogs to sniff out hard drives. >> and of course, the hard drives don't have aroma or scent to them. >> there's no distinctive child porn scent. >> there is no child porn scent, but there is a scent for the hard drive. so they are looking for them, and apparently, using the dogs with some success. in other words, those who involve themselves in watching child porn, that is consume child porn, may attempt to hide the hard drive from law enforcement if they think law
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enforcement might be coming. they want to hide the evidence, and so this way, the dogs can sniff it out. you did mention that it is a $20 billion porn industry. people should also remember besides a profit motive that real children are being hurt. that real children are being used to make this child porn. that's somebody's son or daughter who is being exploited and harmed for the rest of their life, and those who consume child porn should remember that. >> i appreciate your weighing in on this. and especially so because that's the subcorrect of our call to action this week. we're looking at this issue of trafficking, and particularly sex trafficking. there have been billed that have been stymied in the house on this. we're looking to harness the power of the audience to get one passed. >> important, thank you. >> we have a huge response to exactly that call. three days in and we're pushing 500 signatures on our petition to the senate. we're urging them to pass the bipartisan justice for victims of trafficking act. patricia told us on facebook, we should be treating this children
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as the refugees they are and remembering all the countries including ours that turned away the jewish people in the 1930s. never again should the u.s. be the people who do nothing. deb told us, as long as we willfully ignore the root of any problem, the problem will never be resolved, and esi added, prosecute buyers of enslaved trafficked children to the fullest extent of the law. they feed demand. join our call, sign our petition. head to our website. do your part. all right, thank you, all of you, for participating. we'll keep you posted on that. up ahead, something a little more fun. that's no moon. remember that line? star wars is coming to life inside the real life international space station. the extremely cool, extremely nerdy details right ahead. (son) oh no...
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stretch out with your feelings. see? you can do it. >> i call it luck. in my experience, there's no such thing as luck. >> no such thing as luck? maybe, but nasa in conjunction with google's project tango is working to develop devices for the international space station that look and act a lot like that trainingdroid. this is scalled sphere, an acronym for something more complicated, but the point is when fully operational, it's supposed to do tasks that humans perform but are considered time intensive and time wasting in a setting like the iss. it's actually kind of a big
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deal. joining me now is chris, the project manager at nasa aim's research center on this, and derrick pitts. chris, let's start with you. what's up with nasa developing this and what are the intended applications of these spheres? >> the spheres are satellite test beds on the space station. they have been up there since 2006. what we're doing is enabling them for robot blgs tested using smart phones. >> can you give background on how this technology came to be? i understand it may have been inspired in part by star wars. >> it was developed a while ago, and i believe it was inspired by the floating orbs on star wars. >> what do you know about the project tango and its use here? >> project tango is a really cool program that allows a person or an object in this case, the spheres, to be able to
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navigate a 3-d space, so rather than having sort of like a google map application that identifies a point in 2-d, what this program allows you to do, it allows a device to actually map a space in 3-d. in three different orientations, by sensing data 250,000 times a second so it can identify where it is in 3-d space, and then it can map the space and allow the person to navigate not just left and dolight, but in and out and different directions. >> seems similar to the gaming industry with oculus, but are there other more pract icical implications on the earth bound space rather than in space? >> absolutely. imagine you want to go to a particular office in a building. you could use a program like this to show you not only where
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the map is in 2-d space, but it can actually show you where in the building that office is, which floor it is, how high up it is, where it is. so this kind of navigation allows such more capability to see places you have never been, even help a visually impaired person find their way around the world much better. >> i for one welcome this. chris, you mentioned you're on this project right now. what's next for it? >> the tango smartphones will be launching on friday, and our plan is to launch them with spheres to test navigation in the space station. what we want is sarobot that can fly around and do mobile sensor tests. you can provide views to the control center in houston. if you have an air quality tester, you could measure the air quality.
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any center attached to a mobile free flyer you is do. what we would like to off-load some of the tasks to robots so the astronauts can focus more on the science and the critical activities for their missions. >> what you guys are doing is changing the face of space flight. thank you for joining us. also, derrick, you have been a terrific astronomer. stick around, next, we're going to tunisia, specifically where they filmed the tattooing scenes from star wars? why? they're not too happy with jj abrams. we'll explain it after the break. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease... if grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home... the gap begins to close. so let's simplify things.
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here's another piece of trivia. tunisia is actually where the scenes on luke skywalker's home planet was filmed. decade later, at least two local mayors hope that could be a key to bringing tourists back to tunisia. we introduce you to "star wars" tourism with the help of our friends at vocativ. ♪ >> these guys dressed in "star wars" outfits are from tunisia. they made this video to lure tourists back to the troubled country that luke skywalker called home. >> do you understand why george lucas chose that location? there's no way this place is on planet earth. >> actually, this planet is in southern tunisia, in the middle of the sahara desert. >> "star wars" has been filmed
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at least a decade ago, and it's still an attraction. >> since the arab spring kicked off by overthrowing their government, not too many fans are showing up here anymore. >> i can assure you that the area, the region is safe. we are in the middle of the desert. i can see no tanks, no bullets, no airplanes above. nothing. >> these guys it may look like jedis, but they're actually the mayors of the two towns neighboring the film locations. >> this is the weapon of a jedi. >> "star wars" fans think of bringing gadgets like this. they can relive a battle using
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these light sabers. they can bring, what's the robot's name? d2c -- r2d2. >> so we'd like them to get more money to restore the site. unfortunately, this year they chose abu dhabi. we're kind of disappointed. and we blame our government for not taking care of such places in tunisia. >> he says that we're having half the number of tourists. this is because of what happened after the revolution. but he thanks god. >> so the hardcore "star wars" fans have gone online and are trying to preserve the sites and maybe get "star wars" back. >> i'd be very happy to come
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back and show the tour. trilogy, three movies, right? so why not four? that would help. i would be very happy. >> you know, the "star wars" culture part of this is fun, but actually it really does overlay serious issues. tunisia has been in shamble s since the uprising. where do you fall on this since watching the testimonials? >> i'm ready to go. i think it would be a great trip. you know, i think it would be a great site for the next comic-con convention, perhaps. when you think about this particular location, the scene that people saw in the "star wars" movie, they saw two suns setting over the scenery there. and it really stands as one of the most iconic scenes in film history. very much like seeing the big gorilla, king kong, atop the
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empire state building. >> we all remember how it was massacred in the special editions. oh, yes. i'll get nerdy with you on this. >> so i think it would be a great place for people to really get behind to support. i'm not sure if it should be seen as a world heritage site or something of that status, but it certainly is one of those sites that does deserve preservation and tourism i think would be a great industry, a great way to convince j.j. abrams to go back to that location. everybody's in love with that. and an online effort to try to raise that awareness, i think, is going to go a long way to maybe convince him to come back. >> all right. derek pitts, super serious astronomer with a super serious pitch for the location of the next comic-con. thank you so much. thank you to all of our guests today and to everybody at home. that wraps things up. may the force be with my favorite jedi. she's up next. it's joy reid. do i have you there? are you good with a light saber? >> first of all, i'm so jealous
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you had derek pitts on. it's going to take me a minute to get over that. i am a serious nerd. i love derek pitts. anyway, getting over that, not hating. thank you very much. appreciate it, man. next on "the reid report," immigration optics. president obama's trip to texas but not to the border draws the ire of lawmakers. some of whom we'll hear from live in this hour. plus, texas state senator and lieutenant governor candidate leticia van depute will weigh in on the politics of the border crisis and other major hot-button issues. and we continue our series generation to generation on sparking community and civil rights activism then and now. "the reid report" is next. expe. that would be my daughter -- hi dad. she's a dietitian. and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein
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thousands of undocumented children and adults streaming into the u.s. with the president's trip to the lone star state, he's added immigration, a round table discussion to the agenda, but still no trip to the border. >> who are those local leaders? they're certainly not the local leaders from the border. >> i sent a letter to the president more than two weeks ago. >> the white house formally sent its $3.7 billion emergency request. >> yet, he's not followed any of those recommendations. >> the way to stop this is to have the first plane load of children returned to their home. >> we need to treat them right but ship them back to their countries. >> right now senator john mccain is on the senate floor, and he and other republicans are blasting the administration for their decision to go to texas but not to the border. let's listen in. >> legislation that has encouraged the people from -- to come here. he said, i quote him, kids all over the world have it tough, he said, even children in america who live in dangerous
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