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tv   The Cycle  MSNBC  October 20, 2014 12:00pm-1:01pm PDT

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they are people that have been through an incredible ordeal and they need our compassion, our respect and our love. treated them the way you would want your own family treated if you were in their place and you were in theirs. >> another dallas resident will be cleared some time this afternoon. four others will remain in quarantine for a few more days. three are in ohio after direct contact with amber center line son. their risk levels are not high enough to require official quarantine so they're self-monitoring. those 260 people include health care workers and others who had contact with vinson or nina pham. both were infected while treating eric thomas duncan. vinson's family are fighting accusations that vinson was careless. they say, quote, suggestions that she ignored any of the physician and
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government-provided protocols recommended to her are patently untrue and hurtful. the new ebola czar ron klain officially starts work on wednesday. in washington, the pentagon is creating a 30-member ebola response team to help civilian doctors. the cdc will soon issue new safety protocols for hospital staff. positive news today, if ebola returns, the nation's doctors and white house say they will be ready. >> we want to make sure if we see any case of ebola present itself here in the united states, that we have the necessary medical protocols in place to contain that spread and protect the american people from this disease. >> the mood is much brighter today at texas health br presbyterian than three weeks ago. sarah doloff has been there through it all. >> reporter: good afternoon. so much what has come out of the press conferences in the past few weeks has been serious and at times scary. it was nice for these officials to step back and say something positive for a moment.
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for those that rolled off the monitoring list are the fiancee of thomas eric duncan and her family. they have been living in isolation at a home here in dallas. they'll stay there a couple more days before they move into a new home that's being provided by the city and anonymous donors. now, also included in that group were four school children. we originally thought they were going back tuesday, but they scrambled. everything went off today. those four kids returning to school and classrooms with open arms, we're told, by the school district. now here the focus shifts to about 120 people who are being watched. all of these people had contact with thomas eric duncan, and their magic day, the day they roll off the monitoring list, is november 7th. let's give you an update on the nurses. nina pham at last update was in fair condition being treated at nih in maryland. we're told the trip to maryland
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was very tiring. it actually led to her being downgraded from good to fair condition. she is, however, being able to facetime with family and friends. amber vinson in stable condition at emory hospital in atlanta. her family releasing a statement defending criticism about her decision to travel in the days before her diagnosis. the statement reads in part, quote, in no way was amber careless prior to or after her exposure to mr. eric duncan. she would not knowingly expose herself or anyone else, ent quote. pe have good news about the nbc freelance cameraman, he's being treated in nebraska and is doing very well and may be able to leave isolation unit. a few good reasons to celebrate today. >> lots of good news from sarah
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doloff in dallas. these people were in quarantine for 21 days, but experts are saying, is that long enough? new research by drexel professor charles haas suggest a 21-day quarantine is not enough to completely guarantee the virus is gone. that's something many of us here at "the cycle" did not know before our morning meeting. crunching the numbers from each and every case from this current outbreak. professor haas is determined there's a 12% risk of a person developing symptoms after the incubation period which means a 12% risk they could become contagious. the world health organization stands by its 21-day time line but out of caution they wait 42 days before declaring a nation ebola-free. we just saw that in nigeria. we spoke with professor haas about his research in the new article "is 21 days long enough for ebola quarantine?" why is professor haas saying 21
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days is not long enough after most show symptoms after nine days and w.h.o. is sticking by 21 days is enough? >> he's saying is that because when you look at the distribution of people who have gotten cases of ebola in africa, is that there are -- it's not the risk of contracting the disease after exposure drops to zero after 21 days. that's just not true. it's not true from the world health organization's own data on this. the risk is small but it still remains. he told me there's still an 8 in 1,000 chance that after 30 days even there's a chance of contracting ebola. which is small but when you're talking about numbers like what we're hearing out of africa, there are thousands of people affected, well, 8 in 1,000 starts to feel real there. >> the w.h.o. saying we're looking at potentially 10,000 cases a week as soon as december. using your math there and from
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the interview, you're talking 80 new infections. that's scary. yet we're being told by credible folks here that panicking about this is not useful. so, what is useful? >> it's useful to think of, just in general, the viruses aren't -- it's not going to be so cut and dried. there are still some unknowns. what's interesting about this, thankfully up until now, the outbreaks of ebola have been small. cases in the hundreds. now we have cases in the thousands and with those new cases comes new data. we can get a better sense of what the course of this disease looked like. >> what advice would professor haas give to the world health organization and the cdc right now in terms of weighing the costs versus the risk here? >> yeah. i would imagine in the united states it seems like everybody who has been caught in this web of the disease that they might have been exposed or not has been accounted for. so, i would think these people
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would still be under good monitoring and aware of the symptoms. it's good to know, we don't know everything about this disease. also of interest is we don't know how many people might have inborn immunity to this disease, too. as it progresses and more cases come across, we'll learn more about it. >> i would think with any infectious disease you would have rather than certainty, okay, at 21 days, that's it, it's gone, end of story, you would have this weigh of possibility and cost benefit analysis. does the way they came up with this guideline at the w.h.o., does that match the way they assess other diseases in similar situations? >> i don't know about that completely. the w.h.o. did recently release all of his data from the first nine months of the outbreak in africa and that data is available publicly. what they found with 95% of the
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cases, the disease was contracted within 21 days of exposure. >> brian, the professor haas says in his report a frank sharing of the lack of knowledge that doctors have about ebola would help the public. i think a frank sharing of the lack of knowledge doctors have would lead to further unhelpful panic. >> yeah, that's what i imagine. i'm not a public health official but i imagine crafting the ways to reassure people at the same time being scientifically valid and increasing the public's understanding of how disease works. i think what dr. haas would want people to know, you know, science doesn't work on absolutes. it works on probabilities. it works on confidence and impulse. yes, after 21 days we can be pretty well assured that these people are in the clear at 95% confidence. but, you know, it's just not always so pretty like that.
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>> thank you very much for that report. you've heard the concern 21 day says may not be enough. up next, what does the medical community think about that idea? we'll ask an infectious disease specialist, dr. frank esper. "the cycle" will roll on. so guys -- it's just you and your honey. the setting is perfect. you know what? plenty of guys have this issue, not just getting an erection, but keeping it. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and you only take it when you need it. good to know, right? if ed is stopping what you started... ask you doctor about viagra. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing,
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we're back with infectious disease specialist dr. frank esper for what we heard in our last block, concern a 21-day quarantine period might not be long enough. we have positive news with the
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quarantine ending but what do you make of the assessment by researcher charles haas no amount of quarantine will provide absolute assurance. should we be concerned about this number 21? >> the answer is 21 days actually work. nothing in life is ever going to be 100%. but what we do see, in this outbreak as well as the outbreaks in the past, is that if we monitor the exposed individuals for over 21 days and they don't show infection or any symptoms, then we're actually able to control the outbreak. 21 days is important not for any one individual person, but 21 days is important to stop the spread of this virus in this country as well as others. >> as we look at the reaction aren't the country, some people breathing a sigh of relief, like maybe we turned a corner and as you've said and others have told us, a lot of people want total certainty. they want that in an individual level when they see the doctor and they certainly want that
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when thinking about the risk of infectious disease. how much of the entire reaction to this and the washington political reaction do you think reflects a desire for a type of certainty that does not exist in the medical arena? >> as we were just talking, the fear of ebola lasts longer than 21 days. unfortunately, fear is one of those aspects of this disease we have to address as much as the virus itself. for the people who are on the street, going about their normal daily lives, they should not be worried and they should be feeling a lot better. the less we hear about ebola, the less we hear about the patients and how well they're doing, the better the news tends to be. but from a physician standpoint, from the people down in the emergency department to the people in the intensive care, we must remain vij lentd. not just for this outbreak that happened in dallas but for the next outbreak that can come to our shores and may show up in peoria or springfield or whatever, we as a physician and medical community, we must remain vigilant.
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>> to your point, doctor, there's a lot of misinformation out there. new polling from harvard school of health, 85% of americans incorrectly believe they can get ebola from someone sneezing on them. 52% fear a large ebola outbreak in the u.s. something that has a, you know, miniscule possibility of actually becoming a reality. 38% are worried that they or a family member may become sick with ebola. how do you strike that balance of assuaging some of these fears, educating people about the real very low risks that ebola actually poses to the american public without further stoking hysteria just by focusing too much on talking about ebola? >> who need to creation ebola with respect. the disease requires us to be very vigilant. the disease requires a certain amount of appreciation for what it can do if we do nothing. that being said, the disease is spread to family members and to health care workers.
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it is not something that is transmitted to people walking along the street. it's not something transmitted to people in the grocery store or anything like that. it's to very close, prolonged, intimate contact that comes from being within a family with someone who is suffering from ebola or being a medical care provider who's going to be working with a patient with this disease day in and day out. those are the people who must remain vigilant, as i said before, but the rest of the country, as we continue to watch those who have been exposed and we don't see any new patients coming, should feel a lot better each and every day we don't hear about new cases. >> doctor, we have a new -- well, first time ever ebola czar coming on the job on wednesday. do you think this person will be able to help you do your job? and do you think the ebola czar should have been a medical professional? >> i don't necessarily think you need a specific physician or doctor to be the person in charge of ebola response because there are three phases that i
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see that are required in order for us to make the american public a lot safer. one, we have to deal with the ebola problem here within the united states. that's in dallas as well as those nurses that are now in atlanta and over in maryland. two, we have to be ready for any new cases that may show up on our shores, emergency departments, that's on the physicians and hospital staff to be ready for those. lastly, we need to deal with ebola at its source. that's in west africa. these are not physician questions. these are not a problem a physician would deal with. what you need is a leader. you need someone who is good at administration, good -- actually has the authority to ensure prompt response and to ensure correct response which we didn't have before his announcement so i'm happy there's someone there. >> has the cdc been helpful to you and your husband in getting
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prepared and what changes do you think we might need to see from the cdc going forward? >> the cdc has been very, very helpful. not just over the last several weeks, but the last several months. we have not been wan ton for guidance from the cdc. they've been out front in providing our hospital and staff with information up-to-date information and revisions as new sources and new data come in. we are almost inundated every day. here at our hospital, we are meeting every day with revising our protocols, understanding what's going on. and i'll tell you, you mentioned a few minutes ago how doctors are talking to other doctors about things that went wrong or things -- problems they had. actually, i would tell you that the people in the united states should be actually very reassured that that is happening. we're not trying to hold back our missteps. we're not trying to hide anything. if we had a problem, we are
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letting the physicians know what problems we had, how we dealt with them, what worked and didn't work so that other physicians, if we are unfortunate to have another case, will not make those same mistakes. again, i'm actually very reassured. that dialogue is going on right now. >> certainly more of an optimistic tone today. doctor, thank you for your insights. >> very good to be here. thank you. up next, the one number to keep in mind heading into november's midterms. the came of keepaway everyone is talking about. more "the cycle" ahead. new york state is jump-starting business with startup-ny. an unprecedented program that partners businesses with universities across the state. for better access to talent, cutting edge research, and state of the art facilities. and you pay no taxes for ten years. from biotech in brooklyn, to next gen energy in binghamton, to manufacturing in buffalo... startup-ny has new businesses popping up across the state. see how startup-ny can help your business grow at startup.ny.gov
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karma? free? credit karma. really free credit scores. they all lost their lives because of preventable medical errors, now the third leading cause of death. only heart disease and cancer take more lives. proposition 46 will save lives with drug and alcohol testing to make sure impaired doctors don't treat someone you love. safeguards against prescription drug abuse. and holds the medical industry accountable for mistakes. i'm barbara boxer. let's save lives. vote yes on 46.
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i'm just looking over the company bills.up? is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business. at "the cycle," we get it. many americans are still hurting from the recession. the people who caused the recession continue to control the people we elected. d.c. is broken. they want us to do this again? about the vote we will. it's our civic duty. you get the awesome election
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music free of charge. >> love it. >> the president can't wait until november 4th. that's why he voted early this morning in his hometown of chicago. the midterms are just two weeks away. if new poll numbers out today are any indication, both democrats and republicans happy should be running scared. two-thirds of likely battleground state voters say america is out of control. that's a direct quote. in the race to this election season, our latest nbc polling shows the gop has a slight edge. nbc senior political reporter perry bacon is here to break it all down. when "the new york times" and other folks write that black people could save the senate dems. we all know it's very likely that the dems will lose the senate, so are we setting ourselves up for a future where folks say the democratic loss was the faults of black people?
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will blacks be the reason dems lost the senate? >> the answer, no, african-americans will not be the reason democrats lost the senate. there are two things people are saying. in states like north carolina, georgia in particular, african-americans are a big party of the coalition democrats need to win. basically any african-american voter goes to the polls is very likely to vote for a democrat. soshg the more black votes you get, the better off you are if you're a democrat. that said, the key problem for these democratic candidates is not black people don't vote for them, but whites are. michelle dunn is running, and she's ahead in the polls. she has about 28% of white vote and about 87% of the black votes. you could say if she loses, not enough blacks turned out, but more accurate story would be democrats are really struggling with with the white vote in the south and that's why they're likely to lose in arkansas, louisiana, maybe georgia as
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well. >> that's fascinating. perry, democrats are really the last few months between a rock and a hard place trying to distance themselves from an unpopular president but relying on voters that voted for that very same president two times. they said, we've said it before and will say it again, a party running away from a president never works. one, because the party already owns the president. two, because running away alienates many voters who elected and then re-elected him. perry, i have to say, it's looking like that's not been the right strategy. look back at 2006 when republicans tried to do the very same thing and it was a sweep for democrats in the house. >> i agree. this notion cub away from your president is a mistake. i was in kentucky last week, most people in kentucky assume alison grimes voted for barack obama because he's the president of her party. she didn't gain anything from that nonanswer the way she
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performed there. there is a balance democratic voters are trying to take. the idea is to try to see can they campaign in front of the white voters who are more conservative. obama is doing a lot of black radio, members going to atlanta. the idea is can you get black turnout up while also not being for obama if you're a candidate? i think it's a hard balance. i'll be skurs to see how it works. >> it's been such an interesting campaign season. we've had democrats doing well in places we don't expect, like georgia. we've had them struggling in places you wouldn't expect, like colorado. what do you make of the entire election season where you've had no real national narrative about who's doing well and not doing well? it really seems to be dependent on the individual state dynamics here. >> in terms of public policy discussion, this has not been a great campaign with with issues
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and real things and candidates suggesting like isis is going to come over the border from mexico, a lot of that stuff. in terms of politics, it's interesting. the model you're seeing may be in kansas and in colorado is fascinating. you have an election where maybe democrats win in kansas but lose in iowa, which i never would have thought would be possible. the big narrative, of course, is obama's unpopular. it's the six year. and the elections is in the red states. that's the main dynamic. but the democrats are advantaged by the fact that kansas and south dakota have independents running which could change the dynamic like republicans david purdue in georgia not running great campaigns. >> you're talking about some issues around mobilization, black turnout. another question is whether
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people are even allowed to vote. an issue i know you've covered and so have i. you look at texas, this voter i.d. law, discriminatory on age and race. if you're a student in texas, you can't take your student i.d. to vote but you can with a gun license. that's why it's been overruled twice by federal judges but as many people saw, the supreme court this weekend said basically that thing will stand until there's a final ruling, which comes after the midterms. let me read to you briefly for your response what justice ginsburg said about that ruling on saturday. she wrote independent judges have found texas in violation of the voting rights act in every redistricting cycle from 1970. it's a threat the public trusts in elections to enforce a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands. 600,000 in texas by some count. what do make of that and the impact in texas where early
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voting starts today? >> two things that are really important that happened in this voter i.d. issue. one, you have justice ginsberg and people like eric holder using the words poll tax. being very direct about what they think these laws are. secondly, just as significantly, because eric holder, ruth bader ginsburg we assume are liberal minded people. the gao recently released a report in september that showed what people have been saying for a long time. voter i.d. laws in states like kansas and tennessee led to reduction of numbers of blacks and people who voted. that's more independent evidence. i think it's going to make it harder for republicans to pass these laws. the effect on the election is a little harder to analyze because of the fact a lot of times if you don't have the proper i.d., you cast what's called a provisional ballot. then a lot of these states, those end up not making a big difference because i assume in texas the republicans will win those elections overwhelmingly. what i think you might see this year, which is why it's important -- it's important who
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gets the vote for a lot of reasons, but in north carolina there's going to be a very close election. you see a lot of people who cast provisional ballots and then somehow not allowed to have those votes cast. you might have a florida 2000 like controversy that creates real discussion in the country about what are we doing voting -- because it's confusing. the supreme court has issued a bunch of different rulings in different states on voter i.d. laws, same-day registration. there needs to be a more focused conversation about what should our voting laws be? what is legal and what is discriminatory. >> you mentioned gao study. they found in that new study it can swing things two or three points. toure, this is something we've talked about as well. two or three points may not sound like a lot but that was the margin if-n two of the last four races at the presidential level. >> absolutely, that can be a huge amount. people will spend millions of dollars to get two to three points. the idea of money, we've seen a lot of movement on campaign finance law in the last couple of years. do you think we're going to see
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that have an impact on this election when we have seven senate races where both candidates combined have raised over $20 million? >> i think the supreme court is leaned so heavily in this idea that any billionaire can spend as much money as you can, that i think the biggest change you see is now you see -- the biggest spender is going to be -- is going to be tom stooir, the virmallist who's a democrat trying to get climate involved in the campaigns. what you're seeing more from my vantage point is liberal activists are assuming, too, there will be unlimited amount of spending. charlie crist, the gubernatorial candidate wins in dmror, it will be because an environmentalist on the left made a big impact. i think that was going to be the model going forward as liberals will have their own big spenders as well. >> that's true. you're not counting into that model what we're calling dark money, secret money. there's lots of money where we don't know where it comes from and a lot of people assume -- we
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can't just assume republicans are spending a lot more than democrats. perry bacon, thank you for your time once again. you know what perry loves besides politics? sports. let's talk about sports. peyton manning broke into rarefied air when he broke record for career touchdown passes with eight-yard strike to demaryius thomas. manning's 509th t.d. not in one game. that would be a record. >> i've always been a fan of quarterbacks, brett favre, dan marino, john elway, so i'm very honored and humbled to join, you know, a pretty unique club. >> after the play, manning struggled to get history-making ball back from his mates. keepaway. they're so cute at that age. the pro football half fame ended up with the ball. they'll have it on display by 4 p.m. today. san francisco radio stations are now keeping away from lorde's hit song "royal" for the entire
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world series. eight area station have vowed not to play the song whose name matches that of the giants' opponents. kansas city, no word on whether they might be giant songs are banned in kansas city. and for many, it's a struggle to keep your a1c down. so imagine, what if there was a new class of medicine that works differently to lower blood sugar? imagine, loving your numbers. introducing once-daily invokana®.
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i was out for a bike ride. i didn't think i'd have a heart attack. but i did. i'm mike, and i'm very much alive. now my doctor recommends a bayer aspirin regimen to help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. the u.s. is trying a new strategy to fight the key syrian town kobani from isis. for the first time u.s. military planes dropped bundles of weapons, ammunition and supplies to kurdish forces. they were not u.s. made but delivered there from kurds in other areas. u.s. officials still fear kobani, which sits just miles from turkey's boerdzer may fall. the situation in iraq is not much better with 33 people killed today alone in suicide blasts and militants conditioning an unrelenting assault on baghdad.
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he should know in his new book, "knife fights" lieutenant general talks about how he convinces leaders they need a new strategy to fight new enemies. then co-authored the military counterinsurgency field manual in 2007, rewriting army doctrine in the middle of those two wars. it's an honor to have you with us. >> great to be with you. >> for decades you've been leading this fight, trying to warn bureaucracy about threats we face against our enemy. it feels like we're back where we once were, one step behind once again. what is your assessment about where we are right now in this war against isis? >> this is enormously disturbing for me, for guys that have been fighting in iraq for a number of years. we did not start the war well. we fought an unnecessary war. nonetheless, we managed to create a reasonable outcome. there was an iraq when all american troops left at the end of 2011 that had some chance for
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a stable future. unfortunately, we made a mistake as a nation by pulling all american advisers out. the absence of american advisers weakened the iraqi army and also meant we didn't have any political leverage to cause the iraqi government to make good choices. as a result, the goth of iraq went full sectarian. the government of prime minister al maliki fired a bunch of the good sunni army commanders and replaced them with his cronies and they collapsed in the wake of the isis attacks. it's a horrible place for those who had to fight for that ground because our friends have to fight for it again. >> i want to ask you specifically about what you argue if your new politico magazine piece for a larger force, a larger u.s. role there. but doesn't that risk giving a pass to the countries in the region who are closer to this problem, who may only step up in we are not actually engaged on
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the ground? >> ari is asking, if we go to war -- if we do go to war, then that risks other countries not going to war for us. >> we are, already, at war. again, at war in iraq. the third iraq war of my lifetime. and so it's a little late for those concerns. but certainly i concur, the rest of the world does have to step up. we actually have good news on that front today. the turkish government has for the first time allowed iraqi kurds to transit the border between turkey and syria and join in the fighting there with kurds on the other side of the border. so, there are some signs that the rest of the world is starting to take this war more seriously. i believe the united states also needs to take it more seriously. we need to provide more advisers, stationed closer to the front lines in order to increase the combat performance of the iraqi forces to enable us to push isis back quickly. they currently have a narrative of strategic victory, of
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strategic momentum that's attracting jihaddyes from all over the world. it's a real risk for all of us, all countries to care about. >> let's talk about what we do with that risk. of course, you have been there, done that. you have fought alongside men who died. is it worth it to send -- you want to send a ground force, an american ground force, back into iraq and, perhaps, into syria. is it worth it to have thousands of americans die to deal with isis now? >> so, we already have 8,000 american boots on the ground. i'm looking to multiply that by a factor of 10 to 15. i think we need 10,000 to 15,000 adviser on the ground. i'm not advocating americans engaging in combat. we would take casualties. i'm convinced we would take casualties were we to follow the course of action i'm recommending. a bunch of those guys are my friends. i understand what i'm asking for. however, the strategic narrative isis has right now that its winning is attracting future
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jihadis from around the world flocking to syria and iraq, joining isis, being trained in the techniquings of jihad, being inspired to fight and very worryingly, a number of them have western passports. so, they're going to be a long-term strategic threat as this long war continues. and this is a clear case where a stitch in time can save nine. >> so, let's say that we went forward with that plan. we brought in 10e,000 to 15,000 more american troops. we were able to defeat isis with the plan that you're laying out here. what happens next? one of the reasons americans are so hesitant to go back into the middle east is the sense we could be there forever. if it's not isis, it will be another terrorist, extremist group. how do you keep from playing whack-a-mole? how do you make sure this is the last time we go? >> by staying there forever, i'm afraid. this is what america does. when america fights wars abroad,
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when we baptize foreign ground with the blood of our soldiers and marines, we stay there. we still have troops in america, germany, italy. after korean war we still have troops in south korea. in we provided iraq with an opportunity for that peace, but by pulling all the american troops out, we lost all of our influence in that country and we enabled isis -- >> that motivates jihdis just us being there long term. >> absolutely it does. it's a tough balancing act. my own advice would have been not to invade iraq in 2003, an unnecessary war. once we did that, we acquired a responsibility and we also -- for stability in that country and we also created instability.
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we are in a very long-term war, civil war inside the heart of the islamic world. that war is going to continue for a generation. >> well, many would say your advice was correct from the very beginning. lieutenant colonel, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. up next, a very different kind of stealthy operation. who are you when no one is looking, or you think no one is? okay, cupid's co-founder joins us with fascinating research. wethey were a littlehorizons to mbit skeptical.ss, what they do actually is rocket science. but at ge capital we also bring expertise from across ge, like lean process engineers we asked who does what, when, where, and why that step first? ideas for improvement started pouring out. with a little help from us, they actually doubled their output speed. if you just need a loan, just call a bank. at ge capital, we're builders. and what we know... can help you grow.
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for better at worse, at this point it's a given that basically everything we do online is being tracked and that our habits and preferences can be used to sell us products or by the government to monitor for threats. those things we do when we think no one is watching can also give us some pretty incredible insights into human nature. facebook likes can predict a person's intelligence or if your parents were divorced before you were 21. weird. tweets can tell us if society is getting stupider. and the number of mutual friends that you share with your significant other may actually portend the fate of your relationship, so says okcupid co-founder, whose new best selling book "dataclysm" reveals how we work, love and fight in the 21st century. christian, welcome. >> thanks. glad to be here. >> i was just saying, i'm not sure women over 30 want to know
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everything that's in this book because some of the things you talk about is how as women age, the man that their ideal man is with them, but as men age they still want a 21-year-old woman. >> guys get older but never really grow. >> which i guess i already knew. did pulling this data make you more cynical or less about human nature? >> more cynical. i've had this exact conversation with lots of people -- >> many women? are you telling me i'm unoriginal? >> no, people who work in the industry might analyze. it's like, yeah it really bums you out. it's like you're a fly on the wall at like a big warehouse full of people milling around with nothing to do. >> what are some of the things that made you more cynical? >> it's all of the kind of stuff you expect but you see it laid out with precision or clarity which brings it home. whether it's guys liking younger women or people just judging each other harshly on their
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looks one way or the other. always gravitating toward the hottest people on a page. >> that never happens. >> right, exactly. race is a factor in a way that you kind of -- you suspected it was, wish it weren't. >> you talk a lot about personal branding. this is the era of personal branding. so, what of the data you went through, what do people who consider themselves brands need to know? >> i mean, i think the one biggest finding i found from people who tweet, who get a lot of followers and kind of project their brand out there, they end up using a lot of the same words that actual brands use. like, you know, monetize and commercialize and all these kind of buzz words, so you kind of end up becoming a brand, not just a person with a brand. but like a brand yourself -- >> like a corporation. >> right. which for me i wouldn't want to do but some people -- >> you are the expert online dating which seems to be all the rage today. there's so much trust that goes into this. because you really don't know that person behind their profile. and you write about people acting differently in private
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versus in their public lives. interestingly, you got to actually see how people monitor their profiles. things we don't get to see. what were some of the things that stuck out to you? you mentioned in the book peopl writing a ton but end up sending one sentence at the end. >> we do all these and mon are tore what's going on on the site. people will have typed 1,000 characters and they delete it and type it again and they're like, fine, hey. of course i've been there. i've done the same thing, too. >> since you are the expert, though, give people advice if they are on online tatie inineig sites. what should you be looking for? >> people will exaggerate. guys online exaggerate how tall they are, how much money they make. i'm sorry to break your bubble. guys do that at bars and at
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parties, too. or how i got this scar. >> girls do the same thing. >> exactly. it's not that different. it's so common now. back in the '90s it was a different thing. now it's something does. >> you meet them eventually. >> exactly. if i want to pretend i was a 6 basketball player and show up for a cup of coffee, that doesn't do me any good either. i'm only 6'4". >> you find online the more people hate you, the more likely others are then to like you. how does that work out? >> at least on okcupid, all based on profile pictures who likes it and who decides to send you a message. if you have a photo people like a lot and people also don't like, that's better than a lot of people think it's okay. a typical example is it if you have a tattoo, a lot of people find that attractive. others are like, i don't like men or women with tattoos.
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>> got it. talk to me about showering. you had some interesting sta s statistics about where the clen cleanliest. south carolina looks good there. >> or are or, what's going on? >> not so much. >> vermont, what's happening? >> a lot of time in the woods. >> how do you know how often people are showering? >> this is something we straight out ask people. we don't have the little gps on people's showers. >> yet. >> to that point, a lot of people are freaked out about they share all kinds of stuff on okcupid or facebook or their social media site or whatever their preference is. they feel comfortable how it's used to market them or used by the government. do we just need to come to grips with that? what would you say to your users
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who may be saying how do they know how much i shower? >> one important distinction between what we and facebook does with your data and, say, the nsa, we're trying to figure out what guys are into, trend or general group questions. the nsa is wondering, figuring out things about a specific individual. we deal in the aggregate. >> so you're not looking at personal details. thank you. >> thanks, guys. up next, the best movie of the year so far according to our resident pop culture expert. that would be toure. i know you totally thought it was me. can you start tomorrow? yes sir. alright. let's share the news tomorrow. today we failrly busy. tomorrow we're booked solid. we close on the house tomorrow. i want one of these opened up. because tomorow we go live...
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are you at all afraid people will say you're doing this it to battle oppression, that you're washed up -- >> no. that's why i said no to birdman. >> my friends on saturday i saw the best movie i have seen this year so far, "birdman." an epic battle to stage a broadway play starring michael keaton and ed norton. >> yeah, you [ bleep ]. it's like working with a monkey? >> i might have said that. >> let's go. come on. >> yeah? why don't you get your wings and your [ bleep ] bird suit. >> keaton plays a washed up broadway star hoping to revitalize his career with a play. he needs to succeed.
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even his fresh from rehab daughter thinks he's a loser. >> you hate bloggers. you mock twitter. you don't even have a facebook page. you're the one who doesn't exist. you're doing this because you're scared to death like the rest of us that you don't mat thor and, you know what, you don't. it's not important, okay? you're not important. get used to it. >> that's emma stone who is baeg chased by the great ed norton. >> i don't even know the guy, okay? what's your point? what do you say, spit it out. you say -- what are you saying? love is absolute? >> yes. yes! the kind of love that i'm talking about, it is absolute. the kind of love that i'm talking about, you don't -- you don't try to kill people. >> meanwhile reagan is played by a voice in his head, the voice of birdman, the movie superhero who is telling him he's making
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the wrong move and he needs to go back to being the birdman. the whole battle to get this through previews and hilariously toxic relationships is a battle to stave off mortality which is wrapped up in the struggle to reach artistic integrity and stay ahead of the magnetic pull of selling out. the sense of all this is a whirlwind trip through the world of broadway and through the mind of someone who might be struggling to maintain his grip on reality enhanced by dazzling cinematography that makes it seem like one continuous take thanks to the work of emanuel lovesky. he makes is feel like we're swirling through a never ending dream where the big issues in life are wrestled with. "birdman" is yet another extraordinary film from alejandr who made "amores perros."
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he said i wanted to be in riggan's mind and make people feel what it was like to go through the lab rint corridors and halls. trying to reclaim his vitality and hold on to his mind. the oscar race has been joined by "birdman." that's it for "the cycle l." now alex wagner. there is good news about ebola but some politicians would rather peddle paranoia. this is "now. ". >> fear and anxiety are powerful emotions. >> the ebola health crisis has spun into a political crisis. >> a little bit of alarmism out there? >> this is a midterm election. >> fear is the number one motivator. >> mistake after mistake. >> i think a lot of people are very concerned that things got so out of control here. >> there was n