as 20-foot waves come crashing ashore. we're following all of that this hour but first mass atrocities this afternoon. isis is pushing propaganda bragging about the murders of 200 syrians. i'm abby huntsman and the pentagon was right when they said isis was the worst we have seen. the pictures are so disturbing we cannot show them to you. the atrocities happened at the former syrian air base. isis overtook it after a five day battle and only half the syrian soldiers stationed there escaped with their lives. rest are dead or are now hostages. the only good news is isis has proven better at taking territory than holding it. right now president obama is prepping for a critical meeting next hour with his national security council inside the situation room. law enforcement officials say it appears a second american fighting for isis was killed in the same battle last weekend that killed american douglas

mccain. another american described as mccain's best friend in high school was also a jihad militant who was killed fighting for an al qaeda militant five years ago in somalia. before his death he compared his experience to visiting disneyland. there are reports of a third man from the same high school. among 100 americans believed to be fighting for isis. what is drawing them to isis and what do they face once they join? james galvin is a professor of modern middle east history and author of "the arab uprisings." you have one high school, three possible terrorists, what is drawing americans to jihad toeps isis? >> first of all we don't know how many americans are being drawn. some people put it at the several dozen some put it at a hundred. fbi director said 100, 200, 500, we don't know. what draws them there is counter intelligence officials talk about these are marginal people,

people on the outskirts of society. take a look at douglas macarthur mccain, for example. he was somebody who moved from city to city. somebody who couldn't hold down a job. never graduated high school. he was clearly attracted by the message of isis in part because it promised to give meaning to his life and in part because their propaganda is extraordinarily slick. and so he decided to join the meanest gang on the turf. you can see what draws people to groups like isis simply because, well, for example, two years ago the meanest gang on the turf was over a year increased their numbers. now isis took its place. >> you make the point if they survive and make it back to the united states that the threat is actually greatly exaggerated. are you sure of that?

>> well, yeah. the point is there's a threat, of course. but we're not facing "world war z." this is not manchurian candidate situation. this is just likely a chance these people are disillusioned. they are going over there having illusions having seen this slick propaganda that isis has put out. going over there, going into a situation in which isis is extraordinarily unpopular among both the syrian population and much of the iraqi population as well. there's going to be fighting that they are going to participate in and a lot of that fighting will be against fellow muslims as well. the overall message, the romance they are being sold is probably something that's going to turn them off quite a bit and likely to turn them off as much as to actually make them even more radicalized. >> one group that seems not to be turned off by isis and by isis tactics is at least some

number of former military officers from saddam hussein's army, of course when the americans when we invaded iraq we disbanded the iraqi army, engaged in this policy of de-baath-ificati de-baath-ification. that seems to have stirred a lot of resentment. now abu bakr al-baghdadi the leader of isis is using those former military officers in his command struck purr. >> yes. that's very interesting. that's isis' main strength and achilles heel. main strength because they couldn't have taken mosul without professional military men behind them. they took mosul which is the second largest city in iraq they took it with 400 to 800 men. that was a good military move. on the other hand these baathis have no sympathy for isis. so already there's been falling

outs between the military advisors and the hard core isis members. third element as well which is the tribalal leaders that were anti-maliki, anti-the shia government and put down protests with a great deal of violence. they also joined in and now also they are beginning to defect. this well oiled machine of isis is actually quite rusty. >> professor, something that's unique to isis is how wealthy they are. i want to read a quote from the "wall street journal" from an article yesterday that said the islamic state runs a self-sustaining economy across territory it controls pirating oil while making it one of the world's richest terror groups and an unprecedented threat. it controls the food supplies,

needed supplies to live of a population of 8 million people. >> well, first of all, isis is not alone in that. all the groups in syria have done pretty much the same thing, they just haven't created such a large territory and called it a caliphate. one activist in syria calls it mad max meats the sopranos. it's over controlled resources and the most important resource is oil. how do you combat something like that? it's very comparable to what took place in the 1970s and 1980s in what happened in lebanon. the port of beirut became a critical target for a variety of militias. over time, however, that situation itself was also put down, so i think what is important is the fact that putting together this sort of coalition now that is capable of

defeating isis as opposed to concentrating on isis' wealth is what's important. remember, we are dealing with an organization that's 8,000 to 10,000 people. it's one of the -- not the largest of the opposition moments, and it certainly not capable of controlling an area that they claim to be as large as the country of belgium. >> professor, it's interesting to me that a group that has such attention to its media strategy has a leader in abu bakr al-baghdadi who is so shadowy. we know very little about this man. you write his name is a lie. can you tell us what that means and tell us what you know, what we know about abu bakr al-baghdadi? >> well, the name abu bakr al-baghdadi refers to the fact that he was born in baghdad. which he wasn't. he was born in samara. like somebody from new jersey claiming to be born in new york. what we know about him is that he was born in 1971.

that he has a doctorate from the university of baghdad. a doctorate probably in islamic studies. that may be disputed. he was imprisoned by the americans in iraq during the american occupation. we don't know quite when he was radicalized. he might have been radicalized during his imprisonment or radicalized with his experience in meeting with zarqawi. since that time there's a morphing of these various organizations, al qaeda in iraq became the islamic state of iraq and then became the islamic state of iraq and syria and then just became the islamic state. that's where we are now. what's interesting about him is he's off the radar. so the fact that he proclaims to be the caliph has touched a raw nerve on people who are higher

on the food chain in religious scholarship or even the head of al qaeda central. >> very interesting stuff. thank you so much for being with us. straight ahead the political issue thought all but dead making a come back this august while democrats are concerned about executive action. plus joan rivers rushed to the hospital. we got the latest on her condition. later a huge hollywood power couple is finally making it official. we'll spin on that of course. "the cycle" is rolling on thursday, august 28th. baby laughs! nobody ever stomped their foot and asked for less. there's a reason it's called an "all you can eat" buffet... and not a "have just a little" buffet. because what we all really want is more. that's why verizon is giving you even more.

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joan rivers' condition is said to be improving at this hour. the 81-year-old comedian was rushed from her doctor's office to temp r this this morning when she stopped breathing in the middle of throat surgery. rivers was seen yesterday cracking jokes and signing photos with fangs to promote her new book. we all wish the legendary joan a speedy recovery. also cycling right now the first-ever human trials of the ebola vaccine are expected to begin next week. it's been developed right here in the united states and so far shown a lot of promise in animal testing, a cure cannot come quickly enough as the death toll nears 1500 in west africa the world health organization warns 20,000 people could be infected if something isn't done and fast. we're joined by the nation's

infection d.c. doctor. >> the important thing to emphasize is today and in the immediate future the way one can stop this epidemic is by good hospital infection and infection control procedures. >> to politics now an entirely different humanitarian crisis continues on our borders. members of congress during town halls back in their districts this month had faced repeated questions about immigration policy. the concern and frustration spans across party lines. 70% of americans including 86% of republicans believe undocumented immigrants threaten the american dream but there's far less consensus when it comes to fixing the problem. president obama could still take executive action before congress returns on september 8th. with his $3.7 billion border request still hung up in washington, politics, the white house says he will. >> the president is determined to take the kinds of common sense steps that are required to address the worst problems of our broken immigration system.

>> according to today's "the washington post," senior senate republicans are worried about a so-called september surprise. big action by the president that could cause the fringe to fire back. perhaps with another government shutdown. but democrats are equally concerned about the president that by side stepping congress shows he's all but thrown in the towel on the 2014 mid-terms. who said the last week of august had to be boring? the senior editor of the new republic joins us now to help us sort this out. you had a very interesting article in the new republic saying you think the possibility of a government shutdown is very much a real thing, that some folks on the far right of the house gop conference and in the senate are positioning themselves for this. when you talk to gop leadership aides they say no, no, but do you think there could be a viable amount, a fringe republican that say we'll not support a government funding bill which will happen at the end of september unless that

type of language regarding immigration is stripped out. >> just a slight modification. i'm not confident that the government will shut down at the end of september but i'm fairly confident or i wouldn't be surprised if a large and vocal block of republicans in the house urged any bill that passes eliminate president obama's prosecutorial discretion against people in the country unlawfully. as we've seen this republican leadership doesn't control the script. once steve king and that group of conservatives in the house get a hold of it they take the story in unpredictable directions. the good news for boehner is he doesn't need a whole lot of republicans to keep the government open but every time this happens he ends up concerned about what will happen next year in the speakership race so he has a lot of incentive to keep his party together and once that happens, it will spiral out of control quickly. >> one symbol, i guess of, of

where the republican party s-you're familiar with senator marco rubio. formerly of the gang of eight. used to be in favor of comprehensive immigration reform. he's now out warning the president against taking executive action. essentially running as far away from anything to do with immigration now as key. isn't this emblematic of the way the republican party has shifted in the fact that they are even further now in some ways to the right on immigration than they were even before the 2012 election? >> i think what's really interesting about this is how marco rubio saw all this coming and got swept into it anyway. he wanted to lead the republican party on immigration reform to take it off the table so it wouldn't be a divisive issue should he decide to run for president. he warned in the course of doing that, that if republicans stood in the way of comprehensive immigration reform president obama would act on his own and address the issue without any republican input and get all the

credit from immigrant communities for whatever policies -- >> so now he should say i was right. >> he should say i was right but he still wants to be president. >> you got to make it through the primaries somehow. >> the republican party did not listen to him, did not heed his advice so now he has to swim in the currents they made for him which requires him to sort of -- i think you guys have seen the video of him scolding the dreamers why he and the republicans want to send them back to their home countries. it's an ongoing mess because they didn't listen to him. >> that strategy is working brilliantly. they've gone off for rand paul who ran away and boehner and paul ryan and steve king and they present themselves in a very polite and courteous way, asking questions calmly that

humanize them and they don't have a sophisticated answer. sometimes they are tongue-tied. sometimes they don't know what to say. they end up looking bad. is this strategy working? >> i think it's working wonderfully. the point of the dream act and of comprehensive immigration reform there's 11 million people in the country without proper authorization. most of them are upstanding people and they want to work out in the open and they want to pay taxes so they can represent themselves, you know, just as well as people who were born here, so, you know, as much as republicans want to kind of hide their policy views on immigration from the public by constraining how many debates the republican presidential candidates have, the dreamers can show up wherever they want and they have been trained at this but they are also, you know, they are just very savvy and very american on their own, and republicans thus far don't have a good answer to that. >> how to we even make progress on this issue when we can't agree on what to call

undocumented immigrants. foreign policy has a piece out saying after 250 years we're still debating what to call america's visaless americans. it makes it sound like they are not human. >> well i think the idea originally the one rubio put forward is if you address the policy you can just stop having to address what to call the people who are in the country without authorization because it's not a policy issue any more. and, i mean, not just that, but it just takes this whole, you know, fringe of the republican party that's sort of hostile to immigrants that's xenophobic. i think after the 2012 election they wanted to get away from

using terms of illegals, illegal aliens and that they were trying to hush those people but thought they could really hush them bypassing a bill and that fell apart and i think if it doesn't come together again after the mid-terms, before obama is out of office you'll see a push to attack the legislation again because republicans don't want to go into the 2016 election with their candidates calling out illegals and illegal aliens and chasing dreamers out of rooms with canes, wielding baseball bats. >> an interesting primary season. >> always good to have a capitol hill reporter on. thanks so much. still ahead, krystal makes the connection between two other stories in the headlines. what burger king's move to canada has to do with riots in ferguson, hint politics lies somewhere in the middle. but next that thing jennifer aniston said that has a lot of people talking and has nothing

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and still have time to spare. go to comcastbusiness.com/ checkyourspeed if we can't offer faster speeds - or save you money - we'll give you $150. comcast business. built for business. the wait is finally over. angelina jolie and brad pitt got married in france over the weekend. the couple said i do at a small chapel in a private ceremony. all six of their children took part in the wedding. brad's ex jennifer aniston is grabbing some headlines. she's starring in a new movie and plays the trophy wife of a career criminal. >> always such an issue are you married yet, have your babies yet and just constant and it's like, well, i don't know. i don't have this sort of checklist of things that have to

be done and if they are not checked then i failed some part of my feminism or my being a woman or my worth being a woman because i haven't birthed a child or -- i've birthed a lot of things and i feel like i mothered many things and i don't think it's fair to put that pressure on people. >> that's probably the most raw moment i've seen of jennifer aniston. she really opened up about her critics. kudos to jennifer aniston for that moment. i think she's being honest how she feels about her life and how she's been criticized. this is not what she originally planned. she was married to brad pitt at a young age. i assume she wanted to be married for a rest of her life. life doesn't always pan out the way you expect it to and i have a lot of friend out there, women friends who are working more

than they ever have and they have this plan to meet a man one day to have kids. that's not always realistic and i think we're too judgmental as a society on women's roles and with jennifer aniston in particular she's always played a role that's so relatable to women especially in "friends." she played rachel. it translate to how we view her in real life how she was this fashionable beautiful girl that had it all. she had a career. boys in her life. she had a baby. we think you got to be that same character. and that's not reality. >> she seems relatable, can you have a beer with her or a glass of champagne with her and just hang out with her as opposed to somebody who is beyond you. >> we have to stop judging. women are between a rock and a hard place. you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. >> i couldn't agree with you more. i'm a child of a working mother.

i think i turned out okay. >> the jury is still out. >> your mother would say. >> i don't think there's anything wrong with that. these conversations we have now, what kind of a woman works and have a kid. yes, she can. one thing, though, that i think is not enough attention is not only should a woman work if she would like to but her spouse should be supportive and i don't think enough men are supportive. i don't think enough spouses are supportive in these type of relationships where men, you have to make a sacrifice. if a woman want as child and raise that. spouse you have to make a sacrifice for the other. you don't see that enough. it's always you that have kid and it's yours to take care of. i'm out working hard all day. both of my parents worked and sacrificed. they made sure luke was taken care of at this time so i can do this. that's something we need to see more of. it's a team effort.

>> you're saying your dad was a good partner to your mom in allowing her to live the life she wanted to live. >> correct. >> i love it when we talk feminism. >> me too. i applaud jen for what she said there. i would like to see more stars being out in public and not acting like oh, this is a scary thing they don't want to talk about. beyonce has talked about feminism. she was proclaiming it again over the weekend. you know, she provides this really amazing vision of feminism, right? because sometimes for some people they say feminism is for folks who are man hating or unloveable or can't get a man. and she's just crushing all of that. she's beautiful. she has a great guy. she has the family. she has the career. like if she's the image of feminism why wouldn't any man or woman want to join her. >> people would say why does it matter if it's beyonce or jennifer aniston they are just

movie stars, they are pop stars. the reality is those comments have a huge impact. if you hear jennifer aniston say she feels so judged for not having kids, that breaks my heart. it's so sad to realize that women -- to your point, abby, no matter what they do they feel judged if they don't have a baby. they feel judged if they have a baby and working. they feel judged if they don't have a baby and don't work. it's still a societal problem and it seems, you know, sort of related but i couldn't help in reading this story about jennifer think about kirsten gillibrand with the new book and male members of congress judging her after having a baby for being quote porky. >> that's the worst of the old boys club. >> it's unbelievable where we still are in this country.

not to say progress hasn't been made but there's this conception in how and what way a woman should look and live. >> stars are role models and jennifer aniston and beyonce have done a good job. >> speaking of aniston have you guys seen this. she was joined by her former tv "friends," courtney cox and lisa kudrow for a mini reunion. >> rachel we haven't made love in months. how about we make love right now? your line. >> i know, jimmy. i know it's my line but this is a stupid line. >> is it dumber than living in a huge apartment for eight years even though you worked at a coffee shop. >> okay. >> all right. >> fine. yes, ross, i would very much like to make love to you.

>> wow. that's great news, rachel. and perhaps after our love making we can meet our group of friends like monica and phoebe and have breakfast before work like normal people do all the time.

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thlook what i got.p. oh my froot loops! [sniffs] let's do this? get up! get up! get up! get up! loop me! bring back the awesome... yeah! yeah! yeah! with the great taste of kellogg's froot loops. follow your nose! we're awaiting the president at the top of the hour briefing us after a meeting with the national security council. turning now to more uplifting matters, kids are an unending question. as we know all too well. when we put those four kids together, they are under 7 you have the craziest press conference in the world. where do babies come from. what is love. how did jesus ascend to heaven. what is heaven. what is hell. oh, boy those last three questions asked by my girl last

night. we're living in what "time" magazine calls a golden age of answers where we can search and know where the help of technology hasn't been greater. "time" magazine's nuances issue is now out. how does big data improve our ability to know any and everything. >> we're not just living in an age of more information but living in an age of better information and allows us to ask and answer questions that we couldn't before. weird questions, serious questions. we didn't ask about heaven and hell but we did ask where babies come from and we found pretty interesting answers. >> most of us know where answers come from. everybody good on that. i was interested in your information about how america is gettingnowadays, marijuana is the drug of choice. you say over the last ten years

there's a slight uptick in the amount of marijuana usage but a massive uptick in the amount of usage of heroin and lsd. the question is how do you know that? >> well, we have a lot of sources from government sources, like the national drug administration to surveys that doctors do to hospital emergency admission room visits. so as you said that's right. weed is the most popular drug in america if that's the right way to put that. heroin and lsd is growing. heroin in particular because people get addicted to pills and then when they can't get a supply of pills any more they turn to heroin which is bad. >> this issue is wonderful. to me it is the great come back of magazines. i found it so readable. i'm going to just inhale it on my train ride home. i can't wait. wonderful issue. but you have so many factions

here. i give it my full endorsement. absolutely spend the money on the newsstand. you have so many facts and figures that are so interesting. one that jumped out to me in terms of how we punish. female prison population has grown two times faster than men since 1985. that bogled my mind. >> it's astonishing. it's an effect of the drug war. minimums have been hard on people across the board, but those kinds of laws have really had an impact and increased female prison population but it's also burglary and a fair amount of violent crime as well. it's had a huge impact. >> there's also a whole section on love. everything you need to know about sex and love. a few things stood out the me. how women are most attracted to ten days worth of stubble. >> i find that interesting.

>> it's a little different on television. it didn't translate the same. >> jay carney handled it well. >> crush on jay carney. >> here's the other one. the average number of times married couples had sex each year. this is from 1988 to 20006. anyone want to guess? 66. interesting. here's one i love. 1947, that was the first year a couple was first shown on tv in bed together. it was a show called "mary kay and johnny." ironically those are my parents names. >> that's right. one of the aggravate things about data being available is you can mix and match pieces of information to get new questions or to have new insight and also

adjudicati juxtaposing figures. >> my daughter has been asking me about this. she wants to know who is the best farmer in the world? >> farmer. >> farmer. >> john deere. >> can i plug into google and find out. >> john deere. >> that's good. >> but did you have the answer to a question in here that i think is really the top question on everyone's mind which is, how long will miley cyrus last. tell us, how long will she last? >> without making any judgments she will last a long, long time. we took hits data from the billboard charts and mapped them -- mapped every pop star we could think of for like 50 years and we found some interesting correlations and miley's career will be the most like cher's career for a couple of reasons. >> interesting. >> like what? >> if you think about it cher

was cher and part of sony and cher and miley was hannah montana and miley and also they are both pioneer, cher pioneered auto tune and miley pioneered swinging around on a giant ball. >> a big move from child star to adult star, people want to differentiate from her childhood, cher didn't have that. we'll argue about that off set. thank you so much. coming up incredible images streaming in, extreme waves on both coasts. next you'll meet the young man that said god wants it that way and the bible tells us so. ♪ ♪ ♪ trouble makers. ♪ dreamer of dreamers.

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we continue to follow breaking news, president obama will speak at the top of the next hour live from the white house briefing room. this event just added to his schedule. he also scrambled his national security council and secretary of state this afternoon to discuss the increased threat from isis. expect remarks on that. of course, we'll bring all of that to you live right here on msnbc. and on msnbc.com. also cycling right now dangerous and deadly conditions on both of our coasts. this is a live look at the beach in malibu. swells have been more than 15 feet high in some cases especially during high tide. what you're seeing right now

check out the images that's coming in to us through social media. these aerials taken by drones. off the jersey coast swimmers being urged to keep out of the water. two people have been killed this week after they got caught up on rip tides. back here check this out. amazing to topography april humpback whale six miles off the coast of manhattan. not the only ones who love the big apple. now a major boost for gay rights. influential judge richard posner blasted same sex marriage bans in a chicago federal appeals court. he called the bans horrible stuff and a tradition of hate and vagrant discrimination and that's from a man appointed to the bench by ronald reagan. the tide is turning here and doing with the help of courageous individuals like my next guest. i introduced you to matthew vines a 24-year-old gay evangelical christian who is

revolutionizing same sex relationships are viewed in the church. how he is doing it? by pointing straight to the bible. he said believing in god's word and being gay are not mutually exclusive. his lecture videos have gone viral. his reformation project is spreading his gospel with influential evangelical pastors from around the country making the bible based case for lgbt inclusion and now he's written a very powerful new book about his own personal story. matthew vines joins us now from atlanta. thank you for being here. i was so moved by everything you're doing. i recently read your book and your story about coming out to your parents and i want to open up when you actually told your parents, you say my dad would later tell me that the day i came out to him was the worst day of his life. his sister had passed away the year before, his father years earlier but the day i said dad i'm gay was the worst day of his life. and you go on the write about

how are you mom could not eat for days after that. times have changed. you're now work with your parents to spread this message. tell us your story. >> thank you so much for having me. i should start out by saying my parents are 100% supportive. the biggest newspaper in kansas actually ran this beautiful front page story about my dad who just earlier this summer and about his journey as an evangelical father coming to embrace and support his gay son. but at the time which was a few years ago when i came out my parents were not ready for that news. the only people at our church in kansas who had come out had simply left and it was like they were erased from the community. people didn't really talk about them any more because the taboo was so strong. when i came out i didn't want that to happen to me. i valued my relationships with my parents, with a lot of our friends at church and i valued my faith and i wanted to integrate those things with the

support of my community. so that's why i went home from school and i started studying the bible. after i came out to my parents i started studying the bible with my dad in particular because that was the root of his concerns and root of so many evangelicals concerns about same sex relationships is that it goes against their understanding of the bible. >> kudos first to your parents for coming around and being open minded enough to accept you and love you for who you are. let's dig into your message of bible based inclusion for lgbt folks and one of the bible verses that evangelicals always point to, leviticus 18:22 you shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination. >> leviticus prohibits male intercourse. it's part of the old testament law code. for christian as lot of the new testament talks about how we're not bound by the particular

rules and prohibitions from the old testament. leviticus is not a main new tes apostle paul condemns lustful same-sex behavior that's practiced by idol worshippers and gentiles and the reason why a lot of christians continue to cite this leviticus passage is because thai feel that it is in a sense repeated in the new testament and it feels it has ongoing relevance and the fact that it is part of the old testament law code is it's not for christian ethics because the old test ament law is fulfilled in jesus. the apostle paul is clearly condemning same-sex behavior and he's also very explicit that it is fleeting and excessive. he's not talking about long-term, loving relationships and the bible never addresses or mentions same-sex relationships

that are based on long-term commitment, love and fidelity. that's why i think that krifrtians can be able it to support same-sex relationships. the bible does not prohibit them, being gay is not a sin. loving same-sex relationships need to be evaluated on their own merits because they aren't specifically discussed in the bible. in order to get the full argument, of course, that's why i wrote this out in 180 pages in my book that came out earlier this year and what part of my argument is that same-sex relationships are consistent with the principles of the bible's teachings about marriage and human sexuality. >> right. matthew, i can only imagine how healing and incredibly empowering it is for other gay christians to hear you say those words. up so thank you for the work you are doing. you are healing people across the country. tell us about the reformation project and how you're getting the word out.

>> the reformation is a project i founded last year in large part of the messages that i was getting in my inbox who appreciated the resources i was putting out there about how to reconcile their faith and sexuality. they also needed ambassadors for that message in their church communities to help to open up the dialogue and so that's what the reformation project is all about. we are hosting our inaugural leadership training conference for 50 very committed and highly dedicated christians and this year we're expanding our training programs. we are doing our next big event in washington, d.c., november 6th through the 8th for hundreds of christians from across the country who want the bible-based tools and training they need to then go back to their churches and help to open up the conversation to be persuasive and move things forward where things have been stuck for a long time. >> it's such a moving message and it's people like you who are making this world better. thank you so much for being with

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liberty mutual insurance. dominated domestic news this week. the continued aftermath of the killing of michael brown, but police in ferguson, missouri and burger king's desertion for the lower tacking neighbors to the north. two stories that are deeply connected. stay with me and you will see why. let me start with ferguson on this show last week. jeff smith explained one of the

root causes of the tension in ferguson. >> because the towns rely on traffic stop revenue to fund their towns, they're constantly pulling over young black males. so for me, i used to get pulled over all of the time in those areas and i would be the only white person in the traffic court, but for me it was merely an inconvenience. for many young plaque mablack m a way of life. ferguson, missouri is a town of 25,000 people and in 2013 in the one year alone they issued 33,000 arrest warrants just for non-violent offenses and of course, these arrest warrants are disproportionately for black citizens. so let's say someone rolls through a stop sign and they get a traffic ticket. they can't pay it so they're assessed additional penalties which they also, of course, cannot pay. eventually an arrest warrant can go out and they can be thrown in jail. the case in point from a woman named ebony. my son was two weeks old and i

was under doctor's care and ferguson still locks me up and left me in jail for a week over traffic ticketses. the bottom line, a massive tax on and criminalization of the poor. in ferguson the city's second largest source of revenue last year was from court fines and fees. think about that. we are finding every way to squeeze the last dime out of folks like ebony filling the holes in our budgets from money from people who can afford it the least and that's where i get back on burger king's decision to relocate to canada for lower taxes. burger king has denied that lower taxes are their goal, but they are far from the only corporation taking advantage of this and a million other tax dodges. these tactics are so pervasive that despite the fact that corporate profits are up, corporate taxes have actually gone down. let me ask you this, what does it is a about our country that we will throw ebony in jail because she couldn't pay her traffic tickets, but her highest

ranking politicians actively clued with the wealthiest and most powerful to make sure they don't have to pay their fair share. we call these things loopholes, but it's not a good name. it implies they are there by accident and someone forgot to plug the hole and they're deliberate reactions by your representatives doing what's best for the folks with the cash who fund the campaigns instead of the others back home. the folks like ebony, where was her loophole? the accounting trick that would have let her out of debtor's prison so she could be home with her two-week old baby and then we're shocked that congressional approval is so low, and shocked that so many say we're on the wrong track. these two stories, jail for ebony and a tax haven for burger king. they kind of say it all, don't they? about our priorities? about our political system and about who matters and who doesn't? maybe that's the real reason the powers that be have amassed all those tanks and tear gas and weapons.

and we know where they got money to keep these and they need them because they know that one day the folks aren't going to take it anymore. all right. that does it for "the cycle," the president will be in the briefing room at any moment now and "now" with alex wagner brings you live coverage. any minute now president obama will deliver a statement from the white house briefing room. it is thursday, august 28, this is "now" upon. >> danger zone. ♪ ♪ >> president obama will be meeting with his national security team to discuss the threat posed by isis. washington waits on the edge of the seat. the president and the national security team are looking at options. >> air strikes appear likely. the president has made clear we're going to take on the threat that isil is posing. >> the more the u.s. gets involved on the syria side, the more it it looks like the u.s. is finally intervening, but on the side of the gi