good afternoon. i'm toure. as we come on the air today, an entire nation, a world indeed awaits the fate of that second american journalist captured by isis, mr. steve sotloff. we're praying he won't suffer the same fate as james foley, who was beheaded by militants as cameras rolled. what happened to mr. foley has set off a flurry of activity from both the pentagon and the white house. here's deputy national security adviser ben rhodes just last hour from martha's vineyard. >> i can assure you that we have done everything that we can possibly do to try to bring home our hostages. it's an incredibly different circumstance in a place like syria, again, where you have such a violent conflict raging. but we've used all of our military, intelligence, diplomatic resources that we can bring to bear to try to pull a

thread to find out where our hostages are, to try to rescue them when we saw an opportunity to try to work with any country that might have any means of locating them. tragically, we weren't able to rescue mr. foley. but we're going to keep trying for all of our hostages, not just in syria but around the world. >> our top-ranked military officer has delivered his strongest words yet about the islamic state says, we can't address the problem without acknowledging syria. his words came right during "the cycle" on thursday along with a chilling assessment from defense secretary chuck hagel. first, general dempsey. >> this is an organization that has an apocalyptic end of days strategic vision, which will eventually have to be defeated. >> isil is a sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen. they're beyond just a terrorist group. this is beyond anything that we've seen. so we must prepare for

everything. the only way you do that is you take a cold, steely hard look at it and get ready. >> nbc news pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski is working with sources within the defense department. what are you hearing? >> after hearing general dempsey yesterday at a briefing for reporters here at the pentagon, when he said, you know, isis must be defeated but you can't do that unless you go after isis in syria. then ben rhodes, the deputy national security adviser up there in martha's vineyard, in addition what he said about jim foley, he said that the u.s. military mission to go after isis will know no borders. that's a paraphrase, but essentially he, too, was saying is you have to go into syria. so it stands to reason then that u.s. military officials are very aggressively hard at work coming up with targeting plans to go after isis with air strikes in syria. and nobody is sharing those plans for obvious reasons.

but it should also be noted that any air strikes that may or may not occur in the short run would not come anywhere close to defeating isis. they would be apparently going after some particular targets, but by this time, even officials here in the pentagon acknowledge that any high-valued targets, isis leadership, are probably already well dispersed and long gone, anticipating those strikes. and general dempsey also made another point. that it will be very difficult to defeat isis single handily, that it will take input from the international community. not only europeans but other countries there in the middle east. and so far, there have been no takers to get involved in this fight. so, you know, the idea that this is going to be a long, hard fight for the u.s. and whoever else may join in this effort stands today. back to you guys. >> all right. jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. thanks for that.

joining us from london is former senior adviser and analyst at the u.k.'s government counterterrorism center. he helped develop counterinsurgen counterinsurgency. let's just pick up on that point. martin dempsey said it yesterday. he said isis will ultimately have to be defeated. he said that, you know, military is part of that solution and that air strikes alone are not going to do it. so if it's now on table, we're going to have to defeat isis and air strikes alone -- you know, jim was there just talking about presumably plans are in place for that. so what will do it if that's going to be the goal here? what will it take to defeat isis? >> a lot of things. you've got air strikes, of course, but it's the boots on the ground. the boots on the ground in this case do not necessarily have to be american. they're already there.

the peshmerga are involved to put the military squeeze on. the important thing to member is the military operations, air or ground, only provide you time and space. they don't provide you with a solution. the solution has to be political. defeat also has to be political. one of the political elements of the defeat is to make clear that this organization is not going to succeed. it's already beginning to fail. >> a lot of people agree with you that the real solution is not military, it's political. but a lot of the problem is dealing with the iraqi political situation. so would an iraqi political solution that brings sunnis into the governing council, makes them feel not so disaffected, would that solve what's going on in syria? >> of course it will. the isis guys or i.s. guys are essentially exploiting a

political grievance, the neglect, the abuse felt by the sunni part of iraqi society for over a decade. once that is mitigated, once that is taken away, they have very little traction. so that's one very important aspect of the defeat of isis. >> and as jim miklaszewski also just mentioned, the u.s. has been pretty clear that we're not willing to go it alone in terms of moving aggressively against isis. in particular, we're looking for help from regional allies there. who are we putting pressure on in that regard, and why have they been reluctant thus far to get more involved? this is their backyard that we're talking about here. >> absolutely. and i think it's one of the most encouraging things about this whole scenario. if you remember a couple months ago, prime minister maliki asked

president obama to assist him with air strikes. the president refused. the president refused because if he had agreed, he would have been helping prime minister maliki. and prime minister maliki is credited for being a major cause of the problem that we're facing. and i think there's a lot of background diplomacy going on. i assume that the american administration's involved in that. if you remember a couple weeks ago, president maliki was making it clear he'd not go. he'd put his troops on the streets of baghdad. he was going to cling on to the power to the last minute. suddenly he's decided he will hand over power peacefully. so i'm assuming a lot of under the table diplomacy is going on to put pressure on him so that the iraqi state can provide the solution it must. >> it was so alarming watching

that video of james foley beheaded, to hear a british accent on the man that killed him. obviously isis is sending this clear message that when you attack us, you are then our enemy. we'll come for you, even with your own men. it's estimated that isis and similar groups have recruited about 500 or more british fighters. this is concerning for all of us, but in particular the u.k., especially as some of these fighters then return home. does the british government have a sense of who these fighters are so that when they do come home, they can then be flagged? >> well, they have a sense of some of them, but not all of them, obviously. there's a lot of work going on, i'm sure, by the police and the intelligence services to identify as many of them as possible. but, you know, it's not a new problem. we've known about this for quite some time. we've got a considerable amount of experience because we've had the concern of returning

fighters from iraq, from afghanistan and elsewhere for a decade and a half. the systems are in place. they're never perfect. but they're as good, i think, as they possibly could be. >> as i'm sure you know, americans are pretty war weary, pretty reluctant to get back engaged in iraq. i'm curious, though, what the view is there from london and from the u.k. is there a similar sense of war weariness, and despite the pretty direct threat there, reluctance to get back involved? >> there is -- i wouldn't call it war weariness. i think one of the issues here is, is it worth it? hundreds of soldiers have died. when the british public looks at the state that iraq is in after those sacrifices and then looks at the way afghanistan is developing with the sacrifices there, the question of course is, is it worth it?

are we actually succeeding? are we actually achieving the mission of leaving the place in a better state than we found it? that, i think, is the issue. this is one of the reasons why prime minister cameron, just like i think your secretary of defense, has been trying to make the threat from i.s. appear real and immediate to the people of the u.k. to what extent he succeeded, it's not yet clear. certainly the government is trying to do the best he can because if the british government has a sort of de facto policy of supporting the u.s. and so if the u.s. is going to get increasingly involved, the british government needs to be ready to get public opinion on side to do that too. >> indeed. thank you so much for your time. coming up, a fascinating look at the women of the islamic state. yeah, you heard that right. but up next, how governor nixon's long history with the black community in ferguson is playing into the events on the ground there. we're going to go live there.

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just in now to nbc news, we have learned the makeup of that grand jury deciding whether or not to press charges against the ferguson, missouri, police officer who shot and killed michael brown. 12 jurors, 9 white and 3 african-american, have that critical task. the national guard is now gone from ferguson. so, too, are those violent-fueled riots and tear gas. looking ahead, brown's public memorial is set for monday morning. is that going to reignite tensions or be a turning point

for healing? nbc's craig melvin and msnbc.com's alex wallace have been reporting from the ground and join us again today. craig, if you could right off the top, is there reaction on the ground to that news of the makeup of the grand jury? >> you know, i don't think a lot of folks -- that just broke within the past few hours. i don't think a lot of folks on the ground here know that information. alex and i were just talking about this. there are no protesters on the ground right now. we haven't seen a single protester here along this main drag all morning. that's the first time this week where that's been the case. not one. that's very unusual. granted, it's very hot here. it's approaching 100 degrees with the heat index. but that's the first time this week where that's been the case. of course, overnight, just seven arrests. contrast that to earlier in this week when we saw more than 70 people arrested. you get the sense that the tide has officially turned here and

that what we saw, that anger is now shifting to grief. >> yeah. and craig, i want to ask you, i thought "the new york times" had an interesting piece today with a lot of quotes from folks on the ground, pointing out there's a real racial divide in the way that people in ferguson and in the surrounding area are viewing the events. they had possibly the most widely held sentiment among white people is that it all simply goes away. i feel for everyone involved, said shannon shaw, but she sawed, i think the protesters just need to go home. are you seeing that guided divided view of what's going on? >> absolutely. that's a divide we've seen from the beginning. you get the impression that there are a significant number of people in this community who are very much concerned about how ferguson is perceived and the reputation of ferguson and this being forever associated, this event being forever associated and attached to

ferguson. you have that group. and you have another group that really wants to figure out how this happened, how we can prevent something like this from happening again, the lessons we can take from all of this. and i don't know if you have a great deal of overlap between the two groups. it was a very interesting article. i read that as well. >> alex, we now know officer wilson never really filled out an in-depth incident report, which is not totally out of the ordinary, but it's what cops do at times once an incident happens so it's always on file. you have people sort of reading into this. on one end you could say it's a little fishy he didn't go into depth, into what happened. on the other end you can say, now we can just sit back and hear what observers saw during that moment and he can then figure out. >> there is that small chance

that there was, you know, something else going on and that's what's going to keep people angry. that's what's going to keep people upset. they want answers, and so far they haven't been satisfied with what they've heard. when you have this key document that's missing, it just plays into those fears that something is being hidden from public. they want to know what's going to happen. it's going to take months until that comes out. >> craig, let's talk about monday. the funeral for michael brown will be on monday at 10:00 a.m. at friendly temple missionary baptist church, a 2500-american church in st. louis. not in ferguson. it seems folks are doing all they can to make this a peaceful event. that will accommodate lots of folks. it will be a closed casket. do you hear from folks there that they are talking about going and making that another site of this discussion? >> yes. the short answer is yes. in fact, earlier this week a number of folks talked about going to the funeral. that church you mentioned, the 2500 capacity, they apparently

have another 500 seats they're going to be adding. they are expecting that public funeral to be well attended, to say the least. yeah, a lot of the folks in this community -- i talked to a woman two days ago who said she planned to take off work and also have her child taken out of school as well to go to this funeral because it's not just a funeral for a lot of people who live in this community. this isn't just about laying michael brown to rest. this is about a seminole moment in this country's history, in the history of civil rights perhaps, and a lot of folks wanting to be a part of that moment. >> craig, do we know if any elected officials will be there as well? >> at this point, we haven't gotten any confirmation from specific elected officials. but we do expect the share of elected officials associated with this area, with the state to be there. but in terms of confirmation, we don't have that yet. i don't have that yet.

do you? >> no. >> so alex, from a legal standpoint, since this story is kind of shifting here from what's happening on the ground to what's happening in the streets to what could happen, what may happen in the courtrooms, i think the question a lot of people have is the timetable. we talk about the makeup of the grand jury today. do we have a sense of when we'll find out if the grand jury is going to go forward with something here, how long that process is going to take? also, i think it's a little confusing here. it seems to me there's the grand jury avenue, but there are other potential avenues for prosecution. do we have a sense on when we'll have a word on that? >> right. there's two main avenues for prosecution here. there's the grand jury, the local county prosecutor who's come under a lot of controversy. then there's the federal level as well. it's going to take several months. the best i've heard is october. i don't know if you've heard different, craig. but i think it's interesting. this grand jury is being led by the prosecutor, roberts mcculloch. he presents all the evidence to the grand jury. he really controls the process. he has deep ties to law

enforcement community. his father was a police officer and was killed by a black man in the line of duty. when he first ran for officer 20 years ago, he said he couldn't be a police officer himself so being a prosecutor was the next best thing. a lot of people have raised questions about whether he'll be impartial or not. i've talked with defense attorneys who have worked with this prosecutor. they say he's fair, they trust him. but there's an issue of perception. if the grand jury doesn't produce an indictment, coming from him it's going to raise a lot of questions and could put people back on the street, even if he does things right behind the scenes. >> craig and alex, thank you so much. appreciate you guys. >> thanks. coming up, between ferguson and isis, it has certainly not been a relaxing break for the president. a look at what he's going to return to next week in d.c. but up next, why women are drawn to violent extremism just like some men and are playing a key role in isis repression. that is straight ahead. ♪

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back now to the fight against the islamic state. thousands of women and children have been kidnapped or killed by these extremists. there's evidence of horrendous rapes, women being forced into sex slavery, and mass genocide for those who don't comply with their wishes. but the islamic state is also using women for something else, as fighters. the group's been using black widow suicide bombers for years and created its first all-women unit of female gjihadists this past winter. we have a u.n. gender expert and a fellow at the center for conflict negotiation and foreign affairs. she warns against assuming men have the monopoly. your article in "foreign affairs" was excellent. you write, women in war zones, in addition to being poor, lack access to politics. and when they're unable to air their grievances publicly and nonviolently, extremism becomes more tempting.

so you're saying, to my ears, that women join extremist groups for the same reason men do. >> hi. yeah, thank you for having me. yes, if you look at the big picture, the larger political level, women join militant groups for the larger reasons of oppression and marginalization. but you have to acknowledge women experience these thing differently than men. this distinction shapes their politics in very unique ways. >> well, there's these black widow suicide bombers. one of the roles women are playing here, i guess the black widow suicide bombers. the second is this all-women's battalion. can you explain specifically what roles women are playing when it comes to combat on behalf of isis? >> well, if you look at isis, like elsewhere, women are likely to play every role that a man will play. they will be in leadership

positions. they will be in control of battalions that are all female. in other cases, they've included men as well. oftentimes movements rely on women for the more extreme roles because you have a higher level of commitment. drawing on my conversations with female fighters in sri lanka and elsewhere, there is actually a link between the level of commitment for a female fighter and the level of repression that she faced earlier on in her life. >> wow. >> what i find so scary about this is that we don't often think of women as monsters or as capable of killing civilians. i have to be honest, i usually refer to terrorists as groups of men. that's obviously not the case here. and it makes me realize they can use women in pretty strategic ways they wouldn't normally use men. for example, even on western soil. they can just blend in. we would not assume a woman would be capable of doing something like this. is that something we should be

concerned about? >> well, i think, you know, if you're going to talk about gender equality in a true sense, then there has to be a freedom of choices for women in the same way that there are for men. and they do have a right to a distinct politics. these politics may not be as peaceful as we assume that they are. and we have to allow that to exist. i think what's dangerous is to overlook extreme marginalization. that is what women in most countries around the world bear the brunt of. these are the root causes of violence that we have to understand if you want to develop political solutions. things like extreme poverty, displacement, rape, militarization, surveillance. if you look at something like militarization, how it seeps into the society in unexpected ways, and particularly will affect women, you see that in sri lanka as much as you do in ferguson today. >> well, and we should be clear, yes, everyone is entitled to their choices, they are not entitled to become a murdering

jihadist. but i think pointing out those conditions of repression that exist for women as well as for men and sometimes impact women distinctly is really important. but there was a piece in your article that i just found fascinating where you talked to a commander, a woman, who is violating a lot of the requirements and norms that she is herself enforcing on other women. you say, consider the case of another tamil commander i met who spent her days patrolling local villages and posting leaflets that listed appropriate dress, hair style, and behavior for tamil women. no short skirts, no short hair, no biking, unless seated sideway. she herself sported combat boots and wore her hair short and closely cropped. so how do these women justify enforcing on other women norms that they themselves are violating? >> well, if you are a woman in this context, you're facing multiple sources of repression. one of those could be culturally

as a woman. the other would be ethnically. let's say as a tamil or religiously as a sunni. so in a particular moment of oppression, women are going to identify which of these identities is most under threat. is it that she's a sunni or a woman? so in that decision, there are practical reasons for joining a movement that defends the identity that is being threatened by the state or by some other force. you know, and if you look at the oppression from gender, the conservative norms, that usually affects women in their social life. but in the theater of war, that social life has already been disrupted. it's already in the space of confusion and chaos. if you look at the recent attack on the mosque in iraq, the members of the mosque were attacked because they were sunni. it didn't really matter which side of the gender divide you were sitting on within the mosque. >> a lot of gender oppression in

these communities. does female membership in these sort of groups lead to them getting any sort of women's rights? >> usually no. if you look at a number of post-conflict situations, what happens is that you have a very strong leadership that's able to win the state or whatever the end goal is. they don't have as strong of a political leadership. so drawing in questions of women's rights becomes difficult layer. you have seen women having a very difficult time maintaining that type of leadership. it doesn't cross over to the political space. >> doctor, thank you so much for your time. up next, from isis to air strikes, ferguson and more. president obama's wrapping up his vacation that's been anything but a break. what he faces when he gets back to d.c. there's more "cycle" ahead. [ female announcer ] it's simple physics...

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president obama is wrapping up his so-called vacation from hell in martha's vineyard. today he went hiking with the first lady and is set to return to d.c. with his family on sunday. but don't expect a welcome mat. the president is getting hammered for his vacation activities, specifically all of the golfing as the country is consumed by ferguson, by the escalating threat from isis, and the tragic news of james foley's beheading. keep in mind, the president did come back to d.c. during vacation and continues air strikes against isis that appearing to working and personally called foley's family to console them. right or wrong, it's an example of how toxic the presidency and politics are toxic. jonathan allen joins us now. jonathan, this is a vacation issue. the republicans screamed about bill clinton on martha's vineyard in the '90s. the democrats screamed about george w. bush in waco in the 2000s. now the republicans scream about

barack obama. so much of this is cooked into that's how politics works. the other party complains about the other president and his vacation. from a practical standpoint when it comes to these issues, is there anything we can say he could have been doing or should have been in the white house that would have changed outcomes that would have mattered? is there anything real and substantive to this criticism? >> i think the juxtaposition of the optics basically of some of the tragedies going on, some of the conflagrations going on and what he was doing moments thereafter in terms of playing golf are not good for him. >> yeah, jonathan, the president's always going to have a target on his or hopefully some day her back. but it seems like the liberal media has been piling on. i'm sure you saw the column in "the new york times" this week. brutal piece. she got very personal. basically saying he has a boring presidency, his inability to

bring people together or do anything. here are a few snippets. she writes, the president who was elected because he was a hot commodity is now a wet blanket. she goes to say, the extraordinary candidate turns out to be the most ordinary of men frittering away precious time on the links. and then, as you know, i think it was a day later "the new york daily news" had the cover of obama smiling, golfing, just moments after he gave this press conference, and you have foley's parents obviously trying to emotionally express what they are going through. here's what i will say. i'm with steve. i think this whole vacation debate is politics at its worst. it's totally stupid. and this cover, in my opinion, was also unfair. but you've got to be smart, jonathan. you've got to figure out the right way to handle certain situations. and this looked really bad because the way that i saw it, it seems like he just doesn't give a crap anymore. and i think there are a lot of people out there that feel like he's just over it. he's over being president at this point. >> yeah, i mean, what you get at

is sort of the basic middle class boredom of having done this job for a while. i think sometimes that at least appears to come through the television screen. that said, you know, look, his enemies and his friends have had reason to be critical of his responses to some of these situations. for instance, in ferguson, missouri, you had john lewis, the civil rights icon from the '60s, asking for him to federalize the national guard, not to have the missouri governor send in the national guard, but to federalize it. people wanted him to do more who are his allies on that. in terms of his adversaries, there are people who want him to be doing more against islamic state or isis. so he's getting it from both sides right now in terms of doing more. i think that's bad for him. >> i'm not sure quite how this is bad for him. go back to a hip-hop saying, haters going to hate. the other side is always going to pile on president. that's the other side's job.

>> we're saying both sides. >> maureen dowd is not a good example. she's been piling on the president for about six years now, right. this level of polarization that we have in this country, that's what we do. this is what the president used to refer to as the silly season in politics. i surely don't think that america got the idea that he wasn't taking his job seriously or didn't want to be president when he came out and spoke that way about jim foley and the way he's been talking about the islamic state throughout this vacation. we know the white house travels with him. i'm not really sure what this discussion actually has to do with the real job of being president. >> part of the issue here is that the job of the president is not just the substantive decisions you make but also the messages that you send. and i think like george bush teeing off and saying is, watch this drive, after a very serious conversation, the president isn't reaching people on that level. if his attitude is as you

suggest, my friends don't need an explanation of my behavior and my enemies don't deserve one, you're going to find yourself somewhat isolated if a political world that requires explanation, that requires discussion within a democracy. if you look at the president's poll numbers, they remain terrible. the last gallop poll i saw was 43% approval rating, which was up a couple points in the last few days. but it's not -- he's not in a position where he walks in with a lot of authority, a lot of ability to sway either his friends or adversaries right now. >> jonathan, i went on vacation last week. >> and she looks beautiful and tan. >> no one really talked about that. i'm not sure why. >> you were not doing your job last week at all. >> i wasn't. that's actually true. >> "the cycle" is a vacation. >> "the cycle" does not travel wherever i go. thank god for that. >> i wanted to get your take on another big story from this week. just announced from the attorney general, record settlement with bank of america over mortgage

fraud. i actually pulled a quote from one of your colleagues there at bloomberg, matt levene, that talked about some of the problems with the fact they keep coming to these settlements, none of these cases go to court. of course, we don't see any bankers in jail either. and matt said the constant drum beat of settlements really does normalize misbehavior. if every bank is constantly settling charges of misselling mortgages, then mis-selling mortgages can't be that bad, can it? if every bank is constantly paying billions of dollars in fines, then paying billions of dollars in fines becomes less shameful. is this a criticism from the left that this administration is sensitive to? >> i think there's some sensitivity to that within the administration. look, if the bankers know the cost of misbehavior, then they can bake that into their decision as to whether to misbehave. if there are no prosecutions that result in criminal findings, then that's probably

problematic. it's also hard to prove a lot of these things in court. i think the justice department and the s.e. krechc. and others doing their best to find a way to make this hurt without bringing down banks. while they're calibrating that, the banks are calibrating just how much they can pay without being hurt. >> all right. jonathan allen, thanks for that. we'll debrief and get doused on who has and has not taken the ice bucket challenge. toure shares an interesting challenge on how to move forward from ferguson. a toure-ish idea you'll want to hear. humana, we believe the gap will close when healthcare gets simpler. when frustration and paperwork decrease. when grandparents get to live at home instead of in a home. so let's do it. let's simplify healthcare. let's close the gap between people and care.

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the place for politics is a tough place to be these days. from the atrocities in iraq to the military style uprisings here at home in ferguson, the images are tough to take. as the mother of one of our senior producers said in a text message this morning, it's a sad world we live in. you know, i think she speaks for many of us. i wanted to bring it out to the table. right now we're focusing on isis and in ferguson, but we forget how much else is going on in the world. toure, something we talk about, the kids crossing the border. that's still unresolved. gaza is still, you know, really struggling to figure that situation out. and that's just a few things. i mean, instead of talking about the weather on the elevator, i find many people i come across are talking about how sad this world is and how scared they are about the future for their kids and for their grand kids. my sister is having a baby this weekend. i have to say, i'm nervous for that baby to come into this

world because i feel uncertain about what the future is going to be. and krystal, we talk about this a lot in our office, about how just there's a lack of confidence in our elected officials. i bring it back to that because back on our home turf, i feel like whether you're republican or democrat, this idea we can't get anything done together, you can't really trust your elected official anymore, it's a really sad, sad state of affairs. coming this fall, as we have the midterms and as people come back from their break, i'm not that confident in myself in what we can accomplish. that saddens me. >> that's my real fear too, because i think the only solution to our problem is through politics. yet, i think so many people are so disgusted with politics that they want to completely disengage, which is the exact opposite of what we need. one of the things i've been thinking a lot about with ferguson is how much the problems that we see manifested there are problems that we have throughout the entire country. you know, whether it's the segregation, whether it's the terrible school system, whether

it's the inequality, whether it's the deindustrialization of that suburb, whether it's rising suburban poverty, whether it's the unfair application of justice, which of course is what the conflagration there centers around, these are national issues. those aren't ferguson issues. those are national issues. and to me what's really troubling but also so symptomatic of the problem in the country writ large is even as we watch as a nation, the events unfolding there in ferguson, we're watching two different realities. when you look at the polling by race, by income, by age, by political affiliation, we're taking completely separate things from what's happening there. and that's it. the country's so guided it's like we're not even living in the same world. >> yeah, nothing that happened in ferguson surprised me. not the shooting of an unarmed boy, not the protests that happened afterward, not the violence that happened at the protests. i was surprised to see the militarization of the police, but the rest of it i expected. and i actually would say i would

expect to see more of that because more things like that -- why aren't people doing that around eric garner, around renisha mcbride? why not much larger? i'm surprised to see there's still a large swath of americans who say, while i'm surprised there's such a divide, i'm surprised there's so much anger left in the country in that way. >> open your eyes. >> yeah, a lot of people need to open up their eyes and see this divide that we have is real and it's ongoing and still alive. >> steve, what can you do about it? >> i got it tell you, when i'm in the elevator, i do talk about the weather. >> i'm going to start riding with you. >> it's the most cliche thing you can do. but i'm so socially awkward. >> i'll talk weather in the elevator with bill karins. >> if the person is next to you, you kind of know them but can't remember their name, it's kind of muggy out there. no, it's snowing. well, i tried. >> nice to have you back, steve. >> but it has become a generic hello around here.

it's like, the world is falling apart. all right, see you later. >> you know what else has become something everyone is talking about, i just solved it. weather. it's it's something we all share in common x. >> it's true. >> you did it, steve, thank you. >> that's what i'm here for. all right, little transition from politicians to celebrities to sports heroes. ice bucket challenge mania has swept the country raising $42 million for als research since the end of july. pretty cool stuff there indeed. naturally "the cycle" is getting in on the action. i got challenged by my 6-year-old daughter ella. here's what happened next. >> abbi, tour'e and steve kornacki. are you going to do it to me? >> are you ready?

>> yes. >> bucket was a little heavy there. tour'e singled out some of our msnbc colleagues. >> all right, it's my turn -- oh -- oh! all right, joy reed and melissa harris-perry you're next. >> we're jealous of your kids. so cute, clearly delighted. abbi was also up to the task. >> going to nominate my dad, jon huntsman to do the ice bucket challenge. i know you don't like to mess up that perfect hair but it's for a good cause. here i go. ah! >> i did it my self, yes. >> by my calculation that mean

governor huntsman is up next. and steve kornacki, what's up? >> this is the plug for the show this weekend. i've been avoiding it. it's a great cause and everybody should give money to als research, but felt like everybody has seen the buckets dumped a million times. i give in and will have something to say about this. >> do it in the kornacki way. >> no -- >> aren't you concerned about health effects isn't there a football coach? >> george allen, the former washington coach nfl super bowl, ends up in long beach state in 1990, first year for the football program and tells them i'm 72 years old, i just love to coach. we're going to have a winning season. last game of the season, it's on the line and 25 fans in the stand and long beach, california, they win the season. they give him gatorade death and

month later died of pneumonia. >> for those who want to learn more, it's a great cause. tour'e wraps up this very busy week with hope and some healing after ferguson. at legalzoom you can take care of virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business, protect your family, and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. i've never seen swanything so soft!tness... charmin! take a closer look at charmin ultra soft and you'll love what you see. not only can you use less, but you can actually see the softness in our comfort cushions.

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see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. i don't know what exactly happened when michael brown and darrel wilson collided but i know the heart ache where many feel that black life is worse less. this sign saying black lives matter is so powerful and so insane we still feel the need to say it. in the 50s, marching with a

sign, i am a man. blacks are still trying to get america to see and treat black people if black and white lives equally matter. seeing the frequent incidences where black men are gunned down by police, the victims of police shootings are disproportionately black and unarmed eric garner, is killed but a mass murderer in aurora, colorado, killed people using multiple guns was taken peacefully. they can brandish real assault weapons like performance art and asked to leave and black man in ohio walmart shot while holding a bb gun he picked up inside that very store. a nation where cliven bundy supporters can meet federal force with their own force and allowed to aim guns at federal officials while in ferguson, protesters were tear gassed. the anger and pain and trauma

around the differential treatment and losses of black life is all too familiar. people all over the country protested with the locals. some of the protesters rioted or looted or attacked police in lawless ways and that was counter productive. if the protest had been entirely peaceful, would america have listened and how deep the anger and pain really runs. riots are the voice of the voiceless. perhaps the historical persistence of major riots in harlem, watts and newark in '60s and l.a. and saint petersburg, perhaps a lot of people are feeling very voiceless. i would argue we need to end the war on drugs and give more black lives a chance to develop and improve public schools in black neighborhoods and extend access to public colleges to develop more young black minds. what of the immediate problem of our relationship with police. many say body cameras and unjustified arrests and

thousands of ploipts are issuing them to officers but many police departments are not. patrolmen's association opposes them because they are an encumbrance. what if everyone black or white would wear body cameras? only seven years something was launched which was called project vigilant, to record interactions with police. we could use that nationwide, because transparency and democracy go hand in hand. that does it for "the cycle." >> two weeks since the u.s. began air strikes in iraq. will the mission remain limited? it's friday, august 22nd and this is "now." >> clearly isil has gained capacity in the last few months, not simply the threat they poes to the united states but threat

they pose to the entire world. that includes the direct military action we're taking in iraq. there are some threats that have to be dealt with. >> you don't need to be invited in if you're trying to rescue people from eminent danger. >> ongoing operations in iraq or ar digsal steps that need to be taken against isil, we would carry those out in close consultation with congress. >> as u.s. military continued limited mission against isis in northern iraq with three u.s. air strike s near the mosul dam suggesting possible expansion of the mission and increased international involvement. >> we will be relentless against isil and we will do what's necessary to protect americans and see justice is done for what we saw with the barbaric killing of jim foley. we're actively considering what's going to be necessary to deal with that threat. and we're not going to be restricted by borders. >>