to hold on to the senate. it was, of course, just two weeks ago when conservatives on the court ruled that an old law defending people's religious freedom now applies to corporations and exempts some of them from providing contraception coverage. the bill was backed by democratic senators patty murry and mark udall. while both parties recently agreed that the federal law in question, something called the religious freedom restoration act, only applied to human beings, the court's ruling has shifted many republicans calculus here. now they accuse democrats of playing politics today. >> make no mistake, religious liberty is under attack today. it's amazing to me the democrats want to make a public issue of this and do it for political purposes. >> when senator kennedy and congressman schumer and president clinton all said religious freedom is an essential part of the american character, this is a political

move today that is very unfortunate because it tramples on religious freedom. >> let's go to john stanton, washington bureau chief at buzzfeed. good day to you. >> good to see you. >> let's start with this idea that justice alito has completely shifted the republican caucus. maybe we should call him senate minority leader alito. a few weeks ago and for the past several years, everyone in congress agreed that law referred to human religious rights. now suddenly the republicans are walking away from the law they helped write. now they think it applies to corporations too. >> well, you know, republicans for a while have been sort of pushing this notion of what they're calling religious liberty and that the law was impinging on that. it's been building more and more. i think the hobby lobby decision certainly has crystallized that for them and provided them with a bit of a boost on this.

senator mckoconnell started talking about this a few years ago. john boehner has been a big proponent of this. so it has been bubbling up. but it certainly has become a much more focused thing for all of them right now. >> let's dig into that. what you're referring to is certainly true. for years, anything negative you could find about obamacare coming in on the side was welcome, open season, right? obamacare is bad for religion. it's bad for the free market. all of that. yet, it seems to me what we have right now in breaking news is the senate going on record here, the main reason being offered against this is an endorsement, an embrace of this freedom religious act. >> yeah, i think it's certainly expanding into this. this is their reason for voting against it that they're offering up. i think obviously this vote was pretty political for both sides. you know, you draft legislation and have it on the floor of the senate in two weeks. it's pretty quick.

i think this whole thing -- you're seeing a bit of, as you said, you know, the play out we're going to see all during the fall of a fight over whether it's women's rights or religious freedom. they're going to find ways to do this battle, i think, until november at least. >> john, over the past few days we've seen the border crisis issue grow to include jose antonio vargas, the famous undocumented american/journalist who went down to texas to report on the border crisis and then ended up himself detained because he's an undocumented american. he was almost immediately released, though. a day after, which is pretty fast in this situation. which seems to tie into why the president did not go to the border. the white house nor republicans want to put human faces on this. they don't want to create martyrs. they don't want to have us sort of be able to name these folks caught up in this because that would change the conversation immensely. >> yeah, this is not the first

time that the administration has frankly made a decision to not hold somebody. there's been a number of protests where dreamers have gone down to fences outside of nogales, arizona, outside of tijuana and have essentially tried to get arrested. they've tried to get arrested or have crossed over and come back. border patrol is standing there and they just watch. there is this realization, i think, amongst administration officials that if they were to have held him indefinitely or really put him into the deportation process t would have exploded. it would have given the movement a single leader of sorts. then that would not have been hopeful to democrats or republicans, frankly. they want to avoid photo ops at all costs. >> well, in this situation, it seems the president is being judged harshly. there's new polling showing 58% disapprove of his handling of this border crisis. unless you think those are all

people coming from the right saying we're not sending folks home quickly enough. that number includes 54% of latinos. there seems to be a good bit of criticism of the president's handling coming from the left, coming from immigration activists. you've even seen, you know, potential presidential candidates like martin o'malley coming out to the left of where the president is. >> yeah, it's interesting. you're starting to see that a lot on the hill. you have members of congress, minority leader pelosi, for instance, has said she believes if they change the 2008 law, they should make it possible for mexican children to stay longer and to get into the asylum process. then really starting to become at odds with the administration. you know, you're also seeing rank and file moderate, white democrats in the midwest are also looking at this and saying, you need to send the kids back. it has become much more of a left of politics versus the right and the large part of the middle, frankly, which is i think a remarkable change in how people are looking at the issue of immigration. >> yeah, i think that's right.

shifting gears a little bit here, john, to an interview that i'm sure you saw last night. hillary clinton was on "john stewart." he, of course, took the opportunity to ask her about running for office only like john stewart can. here's how it went. >> let me ask you a question. do you like commuting to work or do you like a home office? >> no, i've spent so many years commuting. i kind of prefer a home office. >> do you have a favorite shape for that home office? do you like that office -- let's say, would you like that office -- would you like it to have corners or not to have corners? i don't know. >> you know, i think the world is so complicated. the fewer corners that you can have, the better. >> some pretty good stuff there. really creative way to ask that question. as they got more into the interview, john, she quickly made a pivot to income inequality, something she's really trying to get right

especially after some of the gaffes that were made about the clintons being dead broke. her response was, actually, we've been very, very lucky in our life. it seems like she's doing her very best to try to connect with the american people to try to prove that she does understand them. i think back on a moment when i remember her being so real and so authentic. it was the morning after the new hampshire primary where she broke down and got really emotional. she shed a tear. i think it was a time for many of us where we saw the real hillary clinton. i'm not saying that she needs to sit here and cry in front of the cameras, but i think when she tries to be so perfect, that's exactly when she becomes very distant to the american people. >> this has been a problem for her, i think, throughout her career. she becomes a bit defensive sometimes, and she starts to sort of enclose on herself. when she lets that go and she acts sort of like herself, that's when people really start to like her. i think that sort of famous video of her dancing in south africa and drinking shots of whiskey, right, that really humanized her. people really liked that.

they like to see that in their politicians. for someone like hillary clinton who everybody is aware of, they sort of know her, most people have already got an opinion of her, getting those opinions to change is going to -- she's going to have to rely on sort of these humanizing efforts to try to change anybody out there that may not, you know, be solid in their ways on how they look at her. >> does it always come back to shots of whiskey for you? >> absolutely. >> there's also the structural piece to this. we spent so much time talking about hillary as a human being. the structural landscape here she has decided, her team has decided to put her out here on the book tour. there aren't any other candidates or potential would-be candidates doing the same kind of tour. and at a certain point, you got to wonder whether no matter how many books have been sold whether this was the right thing for someone that's faced criticism for trying to be over inevitable last time. >> there's definitely some of that. her book tour hasn't gone as well as they hoped. it's been eclipsed by the border crisis and what's going on niz

real and gaza strip. she's probably looking at this and having some second thoughts. we're still so far out from the election, i'm not sure if it helps or hurts in the end. >> i mean, john stewart made the good point last night that no one really wants to read the book. ale we want to know is, are you running for president or not? which i think is funny. also, there's truth to that as well. >> fair point, abby. i've been reading the book. i'm not done with it. i'll reserve my commentary until i finish what is a long book. john stanton, thank you. >> good to be here. >> up next, forget cease-fire. israel is intensifying its air strikes in gaza at this hour. we'll get to the latest as "the cycle" rolls on for this wednesday, july 16th. e pride in. so when my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis was also on display, i'd had it. i finally had a serious talk with my dermatologist. this time, he prescribed humira-adalimumab. humira helps to clear the surface of my skin

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violence is intensifying today in the mideast as the cease-fire continues to crumble. israel is stepping up its air and artillery strikes on gaza while hamas continues to fire rockets. according to officials in gaza, four children were killed today during just one air strike. in all, more than 200 people have been killed on both sides of this conflict. the majority are palestinian civilians. right now secretary of state john kerry is meeting with president obama after publicly addressing the growing crisis this morning. >> our concern is to have a legitimate cease-fire and see if we can find a way to stop the conflict killing so we can get to the real issues that are underlying it. and we're doing everything in our power. >> joining us now from tel aviv

is nbc's keir simmons. are both sides any closer to a cease-fire deal that will actually stick? >> reporter: abby, it's really difficult to tell. what we are hearing from a number of international media outlets is seeing the israeli defense official has briefed journalists so say that, quote, a likely ground move by israeli forces into gaza is, quote, very likely. so that is ratcheting up the tension, suggesting that israel will send ground troops in. it's partly because after nine days of this bombardment, it doesn't seem to be having an effect. we heard that news today of those four children killed. just to be clear about the numbers, more than 200 palestinians killed in gaza, one israeli killed here, partly of course because of that iron dome protection that they have here that hits those hamas missiles before they have a chance to hit the ground. but at the same time, of course, the sense of fear is pervasive

in this part of israel. worried about those hamas rockets. that is one of the reasons why the government is under pressure to launch this ground invasion to try to stop the missiles from hamas. on the other hand, i think, this potential cease-fire brokered by egypt, as long as that's a possibility and the door does still seem to be open to that, i think they won't move in. but there has to be a question of how many days they can resist while that negotiation continues, but there is no cease-fire. >> all right. nbc's keir simmons, thanks so much and stay safe. a new report is out showing just how destabilizing this conflict is. according to foreign policy's an july fragile states indegs, israel and the west bank rank 67th out of 178 countries. the list aims to provide a snapshot of countries in relation to one another and the degree to which they face conditions that threaten the livelihood of their citizens. the rankings go from most fragile, this year south sudan,

to the mouth stable, which is once again finland. the u.s. landed a disappointing 159th on the list this year thanks in large part to d.c. dysfunction. joining us now is the executive editor of "foreign policy." ben, if you look at the past year, we had the government shutdown, we had the edward snowden leaks and boston bombing, all of which are part of the reasons the u.s. lost some of its standing. is 2014 looking any better for us? >> well, let's remember that the u.s. still a very stable state. 159 is actually pretty good. number one is the worst on the rankings. you have to invert that. but 2014 looks to see a lot of the same problems that we saw back in 2013. we have the problem of factionalized elites. we have political dysfunction. there are certain things we see now in the u.s. periphery, whether it's the undocumented migrants and this humanitarian crisis on the southern border. we have a very -- what looks to be a very nasty election coming up in 2014.

so it doesn't look to get a whole lot better this year. we'll have to wait and see for the numbers. >> ben, what are some of the specific factors you consider in making this list? >> well, this list looks at -- we do this list in conjunction with the fund for peace. they're really the engine that driv drives the data. they look at 12 indicators and about 100 subindicators. so everything from group grievances to factionalized elites to economic performance. so it's really across the board to get a holistic picture of how states are doing. >> ben, let's talk about the top of the list. seven of the eight topmost fragile states are in central and eastern africa. all bunched together there. so when you look at africa on your global map, that middle part of africa is all red. why is africa, that part of africa in so much trouble? does proximity to other fragile states damage its neighbors? >> you know, that's a really

great point. and we've been doing this list now for ten years. though we do see some improvements. sierra leone this year went from the most dangerous category and finally graduated into a lesser high-risk category. but from central african republic to congo to somalia to chad to south sudan, which is at the top of this list, we still see great dysfunction in the states. and i think your point is quite accurate. this ranking looks at states individually. but you have to look at the proximity of states. conflict in one state destabilizes another, as we've seen in the congo wars, as we know see in the central african republic. you have soldiers, you have ethnic and tribal issues pouring in that don't respect borders. >> and you write that one of the most improved states there is bosnia. that's a place the u.s. put a lot of time and political energy. how much of that has to do with that outside intervention and other factors?

does it reflect anything about our foreign policy goals when we seem to be pulling back from so many other countries like iraq that, are obviously not doing well? >> it's not just the u.s. that was instrumental in sort of making theball chance as stable as they are. that's not to say there aren't serious issues of ethnic and political grievances that remain. but, you know, the europe and the united states put significant resources in there. this was a war with a dissolution of yugoslavia in '91 and '92. you saw wars break out all over. it became seven different states. now two of them are in nato and many of them are doing considerably better. that is in large part due to the efforts of big multinational institutions and governments that saw conflict close to home and made the effort to do nation building. and and we just don't see that now in places like iraq, syria.

>> well, and we were just putting the rankings there up on the screen. in fact, if you look at the middle east, look at some of the countries we've been involved to greater or lesser extent, they're not doing well. afghanistan is seven. iraq is 13. i mean, in a way, it's surprising that syria is as high as 15 considering what's going on there. so lessons to be taken from, you know, places that we have intervened recently? they aren't faring so well. >> no, they're certainly not faring so well. let's remember, these are rankings from the past year. the data cuts off in december 2013. what we've seen in iraq and syria is a war spilling across those borders. iraq is now in crisis. syria doesn't look to be any better. we've got conflict in israel and gaza right now. and afghanistan is taking a turn for the worse, it seems. so the states that the u.s. has been heavily invested in aren't looking too good. >> yeah, sadly those numbers

probably won't go up any time soon. ben parker, thank you so much. coming up next, what is the deal with that polar invasion? it is mid-july, isn't it? plus, where they would take any kind of weather, particularly a bit of rain. you're in the storm cycle. that's next. we always have the right hotel, in the right place, at the right time. 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. like ramada, you do your thing and leave the rest to us. save up to 15 percent and earn bonus points when you book at wyndhamrewards.com

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fly to florida. win an award. close a deal. hire an intern. and still have time to spare. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business. built for business. we are back now in the storm cycle tracking a summertime version of the polar vortex moving in and bringing relief from the recent high humidity and sweltering sun. the cool air is expanding in the plains and midwest, where temperatures are expected near record lows throughout thursday morning. as that system slows, expect more heavy rain and thunderstorms if you're in new england. the east coast is already cleaning up from last night's drenching storms. we saw some of that, including as much as 10 inches of rain. there was widespread street flooding. thousands were left without power. backyards were littered with toppled trees and broken power

lines. out west, you could say it is precisely the lack of water causing a problem in california. officials are taking drastic action now fining up to $500 a day for people found to be wasting water. violations include washing a car without a shut-off nozzle on the hose, allowing unchecked run-off from sprinklers and hosing down sidewalks or driveways, which is just wasteful. some are encouraging citizens to report on their neighbors who are wasting water. >> this is just weeds. very sad. we're in a water shortage. i think we all need to be aware. >> the drought has also cost the state more than $2 billion and 17,000 jobs. but it is the so-called drought shaming that's got a lot of people talking right now. we're going to spin on this. abby, we were talking about this earlier today in the meeting. people who are getting fined are also getting in trouble with their neighbors. >> yeah, i think the takeaway from this is not what the government is doing. they can always fine people for using too much water. but this is about drought shaming, which is literally

neighbors peeking over the fence and seeing if their neighbors are using too much water. the local cbs station in sacramento described it this way. they said, it's knnot about who has the greenest anymore, it's about whose lawn is the brownest. no one really wants an ugly yard. if they can sneak around it and find a way to water their trees or water their yard, they're going to do that knowing that everyone else is hopefully doing that. so they'll be okay. this is what one woman said. she said, i think my husband has been guilty of coming out late at night and doing a little secretive watering underneath the trees. to which i would say, all right, even if you aren't caught, if you have a greener lawn than everyone else in your neighborhood, people are going to know you're speaking in the middle of the night. >> we know you're watering. >> the bigger question here is, what's most effective? is it a $500 fine or people snooping on other people? i think it's the latter. >> the shaming part is so interesting. this is a classic tragedy of the commons. this is a situation where people

can understand, we are literally running out of water. we have to get through this together. we need the water for the big things, not hosing down your sidewalk. i want to read from a study that looks at this stuff. researchers from the university of british columbia write, social dilemmas arise through the consumption of common resources such as clean water and translate into a tragedy of the commons. research often confirms that pessimistic promise brings freedom in the commons to all to ruin. the researchers said, what if you reward people? or what if you try to shame them publicly? we've got this chart up here. you'll see the actual shame treatment was more effective than the reward kind of treatment.

so t this was just one study. if you can go out to people and demonstrate to them that their community doesn't like what they're doing, that's more effective than a government program. >> it is effective. i understand the value of communal policing and the importance of us all to work together in these situations because the police cannot be everywhere, government cannot be everywhere. but in other communities, this behavior would be called snitching. that could be very dangerous, can break down the bonds of trust within a community, can make it difficult for people to even create relationships with others in the community because they don't know who's going to snitch on who. and even though we may do what we need to do as californians, you know, to get through this water shortage, the long-term bonds of the community will be broken and out of doing this sort of snitching or shaming. >> although, a part of what you've talked about before too, toure s the need for citizens to feel like the laws and the fines that they're dealing with are legitimate themselves. >> sure.

>> so i think in california, it's obvious that the need to conserve right now is legitimate, which i would say puts this in a bit of a different category. i was thinking -- i mean, back to some of the social science on this, i was thinking of something they talk about in freakanomics about how powerful shaming is and how much more powerful it is than regulation. they talk about these researchers who approached a day care that was having a problem where parents weren't showing is up on time. they're like, here's what we should do. we need to change their incentives. we're going to fine them for every minute they're late and see what happens. actually, what happened was then parents started to be late more frequently. the fine took the shame out of it. they just felt like, oh, i can pay a little extra and they'll watch my kids longer. whereas, when it was, oh, the teachers are going to have to stay late and the other parents are going to see me coming in late, that was more powerful to them than just the letter of the law saying, you can't do it or you'll be fined.

>> i love you brought this up in the meeting of when people take their dogs out to poop on the street and have a fine, obviously, to pick it up. you always run into those people that leave it there. you slip on it. it affects everybody. >> in some neighborhoods, though, it's effective. people are going to really judge you harshly if you let your dog do their business. >> oh, that's the one person that never cleans up the dog poop. >> social shaming, i think, is what keeps society together. >> your point about people feeling like they're paying the price, right, so they don't have to worry about their obligation to the community, right. we had a debate about this a couple weeks back. >> businesses do this all the time. the price of doing business. >> as we are taught to think more like consumers and less like citizens or less like, if i can say this, brothers and sisters -- >> very thoughtful. >> then we say, oh, okay. i paid for that, that's fine. or i have a big house, i can afford to buy more water. that's almost always true. if you're rich in california right now, that's not the end of the problem. >> it isn't about that.

>> it's want a the community. >> the piece you were talking about before, the social science part of it. when a community thinks as a community, then they're going to be stronger than if everybody thinks as individuals. but i wonder how long this will last before it starts to break it down and everybody starts to feel like individuals. krystal called the cops on me about watering, when it wasn't actually krystal, it was abby, but i'm mad at krystal because of something she did to me years ago. >> it was me the whole time. >> i'm glad -- you know what? i'm glad we were able to role play some drought shaming on the show today. >> now we all hate each other. >> up next, picking beets, scrubbing toilets, an eye opening look at what some people are doing with their retirement here in america. two medium cappuccinos!

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we're changing the way we do . business, with startup ny. we've created tax free zones throughout the state. and startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. no property tax. no business tax. and no sales tax. which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. it's not just business as usual. see how new york can help your business grow, at startup.ny.gov one of the many lingering nightmares to come out of the economic collapse is that millions of older americans are

unable to survive without working. nearly 8 million americans over 65 were still employed last year, up 60% from a decade ago. many of them live in rvs, traveling the country doing seasonal work, maybe picking raspberries in vermont and gardening in texas. they're called work campers. a story about them says they are one injury or broken axle away from true homelessness. the author of "the end of retirement" is jessica brewder. a beautiful article. it's a heartbreaking article. the story begins with somebody contemplating suicide and then finding her way into how to live in this work camper world. but you know, surely all these folks know you cannot work much longer at this age. so is there a huge sense of fear out of these folks? >> there's fear, but there's also hope. and that's what impressed me so much about linda may, the woman

i had the honor of writing about in this story. she's out there doing it. she didn't want to be stuck in a home depot putting all of her, you know, wages right back into rent. she knew she couldn't do that forever. she decided to shake it up, get in an rv, go out on the road. it's hard out there. i mean, you saw she's still wearing the arm brace from doing the amazon work, but her attitude is amazing. the economy is pretty messed up, but she's found a family out there. what that means when she can't work anymore is the big scary question. >> and before that, she thought about taking her life. >> she did. with that dark sense of humor, which is what i love so much about linda. she went to thanksgiving dinner instead. >> part of the way you tell this story is the cultural implications of this shifting economy, right. people generally want to be employed during their lives and then be unemployed by choice during the end of their lives. that's how we think about it. you write, ageing just isn't what it used to be in an era of disappearing pensions, wage,

stagnation and widespread foreclosures, americans are working harder than ever and leaning more heavily on social security. for many, surviving the golden years requires creative lifestyle adjustments. you said you were both inspired by some of those adjustments but worried about what the consequences would be for the people you talked to. >> absolutely. they're all incredible. so many of them -- you know, they've worked all their lives. they've done exactly what everybody told them to do. ever since the new deal, the idea was, you know, you work hard and then you get a little time to chill out. they're not getting that time. >> yeah, i mean, as toure mentioned, many of those folks are an injury away from homelessness, but these are people that are 60, well above 60. these stories are incredibly heartbreaking. it's not just that they're low-paying jobs, but they're labor-intensive jobs where they're an injury away from breaking their backs or injuring themselves so they can't work ever again. you mentioned picking apples in washington or blueberries in kentucky. really sad situations here. >> the amazon stuff is hard work too. i met a gentleman who in the

'70s for a few years was the head of product development for mcdonald's. he's now flipping burgers. really cool, really sweet, really smart guy. but he was a picker on the amazon, which means you're going and loading those holiday gifts into those boxes. a lot of them wear pedometers. they're logging maybe 15 miles a day. >> you wrote he had, what, 200k in savings. >> it got obliterated. >> it wasn't that he hadn't saved. >> no, he was living in a home on a golf course in myrtle beach. >> the demands on amazon warehouse workers has been documented, just how intensively physical it is, how they just go through workers like it's nothing because they know they can bring someone else in. they found work campers to be a very reliable source of labor for them. they also like the fact that they're there when they need them. and not there when they don't need them, right. so they're convenient for them. so all of that is on the negative side. but on the more hopeful side,

they have found this community and this sort of support system. they found out -- figured out a way to live and to be a bit happier with their lives as well. >> and these people are very proud of the work that they do. they're really proud of the work that they do. they're glad to have the job. they're not angry at amazon. do you foe what i mean? they don't see themselves as victims. that makes them so inspiring. >> but in a way, they are victims of the economic collapse. >> they are. absolutely victims. >> one of the people you wrote about had three homes. >> yeah. >> that's got to possemess with mind a little bit and the confidence. >> absolutely, but people find agency in whatever their circumstances are. if they're out there, it's going to be an adventure. if you don't have that attitude, you can't survive. >> so is it a sad story to you or a hopeful story in that these folks have adapted or both? >> it's both. that's the complicated part. that's why it's a relief to have done it for a magazine and get to write long because you can deal with those contradictory

forces, and i don't have to reconcile them. >> we actually need to know whether it's thumbs up or thumbs down. >> are they hopeful, though? are they hopeful they'll get out of the situation? >> they are really living in the day. so it's really just what am i going to do tomorrow? linda has a plan. she wants to build a house. she's formerly in construction. >> is this a movement you see as sort of on the right, or was it something that was sparked by the great recession and a legacy of that? >> i think because social security is such a huge issue, that this is going to continue. uh be the other problem is robots are coming in. amazon warehouses are being automated. so the question is, i think there will be a growing demand for jobs like these. at the same time, there's going to be a lot of stress on the pool of jobs because they're being supplemented by other technologies. >> you know, i love the details that you get when these people make these rvs so homey.

they set up their heat and water and sewer. they set up their wind chimes, the lawn chairs. it's sort of that human instinct. whatever it is, wherever it is, we will make something homey out of it. >> yeah, the overall message is people are awesome and the economy sucks. now you don't need to read the story, but i hope you will. >> they should definitely read it. so beautifully written. >> it is an extraordinary story. congratulations to you. hope to see more from you. thank you so much. up next, at the time it was heralded as a victory in the war on terror. now hbo is going past the headlines, raising questions about whether a dramatic fbi sting was a win for law enforcement or entrapment. your first look here coming up next. you're driving along,

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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about xarelto® today. for more information including savings options, download the xarelto® patient center app, call 1-888-xarelto, or visit teamxarelto.com. the spiraling situation in iraq has renewed the debate over whether the government's actions in the war on terror have actually made a safer or made things worse. now one of the first homegrown terror plots that was foiled under president obama is receiving fresh scrutiny. it was the connection of four men in new berg, new york, for trying to bomb jewish synagogues and u.s. military supply planes back in 2009. with never before seen fbi under cover video, a new hbo documentary is asking a provocative question. were these men really terrorists, or were they unwitting victims of government entrapment? >> automatically, i knew this

whole thing was manufactured. >> this is a small city just soaking and drowning in poverty. somebody offers you a large chunk of change, what do we got to do? >> this operation was specifically designed to turn them into terrorists. >> you read what you want to read. you believe what you want to believe. i know my child. >> this is not a game. this is real life. how could you prey on your own american people? >> the hbo documentary film "the newburgh sting" premieres july 21st. the filmmaker is here with us. congratulations. the film is really eye opening. i want to start with kind of the beginning of the story here. tell us who these four men who have now been convicted, tell us who they were before they were the newburgh four? >> the four guys were four

african-american men living in one of the most impoverished towns in all of new york state. has probably a 30% unemployment rate. most of the houses are not even lived in. they're boarded up. they're a mess. and into this community comes a paid fbi undercover informant offering $250,000 to anyone who will come and help him commit a terrorist act. you know, he trolls this destitute, really desperate community and eventually after six months finds one guy who will go along. that's how the story begins. >> i have one more piece of the film want to show to let folks know how it actually begins, why they were drawn in. let's show them that. >> i told you, i can make you $250,000. >> what did shock me was when i heard that the informant had offered james $250,000. that kind of inducement seems on its face to be entrapment.

usually when the fbi had a hit for hire undercover operation, you're talking $5,000, $10,000 for a murder. the idea of $250,000, that's change your life money. >> that is change-your-life money for almost anyone in america. so with this change-your-life money, these men were led into a terror plot they had no interest in being part of. they had no experience in terrorism. they had no access to weapons or the sort of weapons that they're using. they had no money. they had no cars. all of this was given to them by the fbi informant or agent. there's an agent in the picture, in the movie, who says this is not just sort of one rogue person goes out and creates this. this goes up the chain quite high. >> yes, it does. >> does this sort of police behavior help keep us safe? that these sort of people who would have been on the corner, as you say, speaking reefer and drinking beer are now doing time? >> no, not only does it not make

it safer, it erodes the fundamental trust in law enforcement. this case was worse than entrapment. this case is outright fraud. these four muslim terrorists, this ring that the fbi has gone to congress and the public selling as having busted, they didn't know each other. they're not political. they had no plan to commit a crime. they had no access to the weapons, no access to the money. they didn't even have driver's licenses. the fbi comes in and assembles four guys who don't know each other, have to plan, gives them stinger missiles, tells them where to go, and stages this elaborate bust. you've seen the film. 100 cops. they have a bomb squad there, and they know the bombs are fake because the fbi provided them. so this is theater. and the fbi is using it to sell their own importance to congress teen the american public. >> and yet, these guys did go along with the plot. they thought the bombs were real. and they were willing to do it. so the other argument is, you know, they are also in the wrong here. >> no question. these are bad guys.

i spoke to their defense lawyers. i said, you know, what do you think of the case? he said, first of all, my client is an absolute idiot. nobody is going to say these guys are angels. this is not but i think they should be be pardoned at this point because they're entrapped in such egregious ways. but it's not that they're innocent. what is going on, the fbi is using people vulnerable in our society as pawns in a pr game for themselves. and it's a really chilling prospect. when the fbi's mission is to ferret out crime and instead finds impoverished people, dangled money in front of them, fake creates a fake terrorist ring, you're in trouble. >> one of the fbi guys featured talks about the mood in the building right after 9/11, there was an understanding that they had to do whatever it took to make sure another event never happened again even if it meant

throwing out the rule book. and it seems like the attitude has lasted. >> we had this theory it was by all means necessary, do what you have to do to make sure this never happens again. the thinking is al qaeda will get to these guys first. so we get to them first before al qaeda gets to them. so let's find anybody who might go along with a terrorist plot p but it's a ridiculous argument. they can do drug dealing, gun running, anything. so to create a fake terrorist ring should outrage everybody. >> and doesn't it also go to our legal counter terror incentives. if you say to cops you need to certain a certain number of people speeding in a month, a lot of people speeding. a rough way to try to give numbers and goals. and we still find when you look at the studies that you catch more people at the end of the month than the beginning of the month because they're worried about making the number. but if you say to the folks out in far away parts of the country you need to find home grown so

he physicality indicated terrorists -- >> they use informants. they're criminals who they have freed from one charge in terms of a deal. they get paid. so yeah, they will manufacture a case. it's in the unlike stop and frisk. when i was a prosecutor in manhattan, at christmastime, cops would make extra busts, they got overtime so they could buy the kid a bike. this is not new. but when it comes out, people have to call it out. it's happening at a much higher level. >> a fascinating documentary. thank you so much. up next, deep thoughts on the media's blind spot. take them on the way you always have. live healthy and take one a day men's 50+.

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>> the media has a huge blind spot. we focus on bhad new, conflict and on the newest news. so you might know a lot more about how obamacare had website problems or how republicans are suing over it again than about how it's actually working. and yet it's been law for over four years, the most sweeping domestic legislation since lbj's great society. so how is it work something really well. ed according to a new survey, the number of in-you are sured americans has been crashing.d ae number of in-you are sured americans has been crashing. ac number of in-you are sured americans has been crashing.acc number of in-you are sured americans has been crashing. it is chipping away at the core

problem, the high rate of uninsured citizens. as critics washed, obamacare needs to support lower income people who otherwise couldn't buy care and needs to pull in young unh young healthy americans. they achieved that goal, as well. the first report from the commonwealth fund counted which age groups saw insurance groups climb the most. it was young people, adults under 34. check. and the report also found the uninsured rate fell significantly for people with low and moderate incomes. check. it's not good news everywhere. those gains for lower income americans mostly happen in states where bhom care has been fully implemented. if you go in and look at the states that expanded health care through the medicaid bonus, it's bigger. a 39% drop. which is great. but in the states which didn't expand medicaid, almost no change at all.

so let's review. where obama care is actually allowed to work, it's working really well. in places where republicans have sab damagotaged the medicaid boe can you now say we know that they have sabotaged a core benefit and purpose of the law. yet even that maneuvering isn't necessari necessarily winning over their base. measu americans like it. vast majority are satisfied with it. so unlike so many other matters of opinion in american life, when you break out the numbers, they overwhelmingly are satisfied. so this law is working and working best in places where it's been fully implemented. and popular by people impacted by it rather than just people talking about it. the fact that obamacare is working, whether we cover it enough, doesn't mean you can't run against it.

many a successful politician has won on emotion or ideological blindness or telling voters what they want it believe is true. and the political standing is of course influenced by all the news coverage. it's not always an exciting story to tell. and if you follow politics, the policy story on which diverges from the politics anyway. but many more have health care. so many more families have peace of mind.anyway. but many more have health care. so many more families have peace of mind.from the politics anywa. but many more have health care. so many more families have peace of mind.the politics anyway. but many more have health care. so many more families have peace of mind. many will live longer lives. and that's not good news because it leaves republicans on the wrong side of a debate in american life. because it vindicates the president. it's good news because it's good for america. that does it for the cycpsyccyc. genuine concerns about

executive power or another way to placate the base. scratch that. we noe which one is on john boehner's mind. it's wednesday, july 16 and this is "now". >> the lawsuit is preposterous. >> grand opening of the john boehner lawsuit against president obama. >> the president has gone too far. >> today will be a sort of opening gambit of political posturing. >> the constitution does not give the president the power to rewrite the law. >> this is a partisan political stunt. >> intentional refusals to enforce laws such for example as governor romney has played. >> what i will do if elected president, i will act to repeal obamacare. >> that would violate the laws. >> is delaying the employer mandate unfaithful? >> good faith, prudent, reasonable phasing in adjustments are routine and appropriate. >> house gops ready to sue to implement a law