coming up, with president obama's big pivot to asia, his former ambassador to china, former presidential candidate, and yes, of course, my father, governor jon huntsman, is with us live. good. i'm abby huntsman. as we come on the air, president obama is getting some shut eye in myanmar on an overseas trip that has awakened both praise and criticism of his foreign policy. nbc's kristin welker is traveling with the president. >> president obama met with mayan mar's president earlier today and delivered a strong message he needs to do more to promote a democratic transition inside this country. the u.s. has a lot at stake here. it has not only invested in myanmar, it's also held it up as an example of a burgeoning democracy. >> in addition to his time with the president of myanmar, president obama met with the opposition leader who is also a nobel laureate. critics say he was too fast to

ease sanctions two years ago leaving washington little leverage to force compliance. president obama admits myanmar has taken several steps backward along the road to diplomacy including the treatment of former political prisoners, journalists. >> we recognize that change is hard and it doesn't always move in a straight line, but i am optimistic about the onts of myanmar. i am optimistic about the continuing strength of bilateral ties between our two countries. all of those who are sincere in pursuing reform will always have a strong ally in the united states of america. we look forward to working together. >> msnbc's alec wagner spoke with obama's deputy national security adviser about human rights violations and torture in an interview next hour. >> we are talking about burma, burmese human rights here.

even as the white house is facing criticism for what some folks are saying is a half step on banning torture at the united nations. do you think we would have more leverage in this discussion if we were to ban torture unequivocally? >> the ban on torture in the united states by the united states is categorical. it's unequivocal. what we're doing at the u.n. is working to make that policy clear and, again, to stand up against the type of abuses we've seen in a country like burma or in any country in the world and that's going to be the position of the united states government. certainly has been the position of president obama since he took office. >> again, you can catch that entire interview coming up right at 4:00 eastern here on msnbc. but first, our guest of the hour, my dad, former u.s. ambassador to china, governor jon huntsman. dad, it's always so great to have you on the show all the way from san francisco. thanks for being with us. >> did you call me the guest of the hour, abbey? i can't believe it. i promise not to embarrass you in exchange for that. >> you were with president obama

during his first trip back in 2009. i love that photo of you on the great wall together. give us a sense of the current status of this pivot to asia everyone is talking about. >> well, the pivot to asia is probably a bit incomplete, more complete as a result of the trip, and i have to say there's a lot of pretty good content coming out of the trip to china and you have to look in the asia-pacific context at how the u.s. and china are doing because everybody, whether or not in northeast asia or southeast asia, everybody revolves around the well-being, health, and stability of the u.s./china relationship. the pivot is in part military security. it's in part trade and economics, and it's part people to people. and you can see where in each of those areas a little bit of progress has been made. i think the visa policy change from one year to five years for students and then to ten years for everybody else is a really, really big deal because the people to people relationship longer term will really provide the glue that cements the relationship. if you don't have people going back and forth in a bilateral relationship, you don't have

much of anything at all. on the military to military side, which really is crying out for greater attention because of the uncertainty associated with the two largest militaries in the world, you know, the promise that we'll give each other a bit more of a heads up before we do military exercises i think is a wise and a shrewd move. a renewable portfolio standard in essence of 20%. and i guess there are probably calculations the republican congress will reject a lot of that or make life difficult for the president or no politician today is going to be around by 2030 to keep everybody honest. the bottom line to the whole climate thing is you have to have the united states and china actually sit down at a table and agree to certain benchmarks for the rest of the world to pay attention, and so that's a pretty big deal. finally i just say on trade, it would have been nice to see more

down on a bilateral investment treaty where there wasn't a whole lot of progress. i think that could have been the economic centerpiece holding the relationship together but we did get some lower tariffs on high technology products which, you know, is good as well. so kudos to the folks involved, the hard working men and women at the united states embassy in china who i know work very, very hard along with the white house and state department in order to make all of this stuff a reality. >> ambassador, to what extent should we be thinking about china as an adversary? you mention so much revolves around this relationship between the two countries. there are so many areas of policy where what's in china's interest is in the u.s.' interest. are we forced into cooperation in a sense or is china also someone that we need to be wary of? >> well, i think, josh, you have to really see it from both stand points. there has to be a silo of issues we can see as being in our mutual interest, short term and long term, and we have to be able to specify those. clean air, for example, in china

is a political reality. they know it. the people are outraged and they've got to do something about it. so that lends itself nicely to something that we can work on together. trade and investment obviously is something that is mutually beneficial. peace and stability in the asia-pacific rhyme fegion for ps of the flow of commerce and political stability they have to wish for. there are tensions there. xi jinping as he shows up for work is saying i don't like a u.s. centric world order. i would like to see china resume its leadership position that it had for 18 of 20 of the last centuries, and so he fundamentally is opposed to a u.s.-centric world order so everything he tries to do will be in a sense to on one hand collaborate with the united states, on one hand to try to trip us up so that they can continue their rise in terms of

power. >> yeah. and that competition isn't just economic and military. it's also about freedom and one of the most unscripted moments in the chinese/u.s. press conference as i'm sure you saw came when "the new york times" reporter asked about china's crackdown on reporters who had just been reporting uncomfortable facts about the chinese government and president xi was defiant. we have a new response criticizing china for censoring access to the times website within the country and reiterating the paper has no intense of altering its coverage to meet the demands of any government. how does china continue to maintain this 19th century approach to media in a 21st century world? >> this is perhaps, and what you have just outlined is absolutely right, this is probably one of the most fundamental differences between us, not only the role of the individual in society but the jeffersonian freedoms we embrace and consider to be an intrinsic part of our society

and culture versus theirs, the role of the individual there. the idea that the party is central and that any media or press should be an extension of the party. so here you've got xi jinping in a country with 700 million people connected to the internet. they block it where they can, but as abby knows you can jump the great wall pretty easily so people are getting access to information in the order world and mark landler stood up who is an excellent journalist at the "new york times" and asked the question and of course, xi's initial response would be been just as i thought, the u.s. media are a direct extension of the u.s. government. they're conspiring against me. but what also was playing out in xi's head is this, he's trying to manage this anti-corruption campaign. he's trying to get the rot out of the party because if the rot isn't taken out of the party, the whole system collapses and the investigation that is being done particularly on the family most recently of wen jiabao, the

former premiere, is very enlightening. and the deeper you get, the closer you come to some of the people who are today in power, and that, of course, robs them of their legitimacy to govern and i suspect that xi feels he's probably a little vulnerable in terms of the probing and the investigation that is going on and it's drawing a line in the sand. >> that's interesting. i wanted to ask you a little bit more about the climate deal which you said was a pretty big deal here that the president gooder got from the president of china. some of their friends on the republican side of the isaisle not agree with that jill senator james inhofe who called it a nonbinding charade. why is he wrong? >> so i'm out here in california. china is 25% of the emissions problem in the world. the united states is probably 15%. so together they are almost 15% of our emissions problem that must be dealt with at some

point, and so out here in california you just follow the gunk that is put in the air in china and a percentage of it lands right on the doorstep of california, and arguably when i was governor of utah some of it would actually blow inland. so everybody is down stream on this particular issue. you can't just isolate the united states or anyone else and say we can't step up and do anything about it. so here the united states and china have come together. it's been attempted for a long time. it's a very difficult set of circumstances to get the head of china to agree to long-term binding commitments. that's kind of what he has done. and now on the u.s. side we have our own set of commitments that will have to play through new politics in washington but this is all important because there's a meeting next year to take place in france that will bring all of the global players together. nobody wants to move on an issue

that has an economic impact unless the united states and china are willing to step up and agree to something that frames the argument. >> you make the point in order to make these real big commitments, you have to have leaders in china and the united states sitting across from each other at the table, something you have done so many times. give us a sense of what that is like. what are the dynamics when you have two cultures that really could not be more different from each other. >> well, we're different in terms of how we look at the individual in society, how we look at freedom, their view of the pare as being central and the collective or the community coming first. fundamentally different. 5,000 years there, much shorter history there. you sit down at the negotiating table and you find right off the bat china is playing the long game and america plays the short game. so we want to know how they're going to open our markets in the next three months and they want to know basically what our forces posture in the asia-pacific will be in the next 20 years. and so the way we see the world and the way we see problem

solving really is fundamentally different. then finding the issues about which you can agree and kind of make progress is always a very, very challenging thing but i'll conclude with this thought because xi jinping comes to the meetings this last week with an enormous power base unlike any other leader. he has a singularly unique management style we haven't seen in a long time and he knows he's got some leverage with the united states these days. >> probably the smartest man i know on china. all right, dad. thank you for being with us. >> thanks for making your dad feel good, abby. coming up next, what defense secretary chuck hagel told congress about the future of the fight in iraq. plus are dems about to cave in on the keystone pipeline. and the latest on the window washers rescued from one world trade and would you do that job?

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big head lines from washington right now. "the new york times" is reporting this afternoon that president obama will act alone on immigration, that's as soon as he gets back to asia, and that will certainly anger republicans who warn that executive action will poison the well. now, the gop will control both houses for the first time since before president obama won the white house, and today both parties went and they officially voted to renew their leaders. so senator mitch mcconnell unanimously elected at majority

leader and john cornyn remaining the whip. dems created a new leadership post for elizabeth warren, one of the part's most prominent populists. let's get to all of it with dana milbank. good day to you. >> hey, ari. >> let's start with immigration. this reporting, of course, basically telling us what we had heard in certain fits and starts from the white house for quite some time. i have to tell you, this republican idea though that it poisons the well. the well is full of poison, and, dana, you can't poison poison. >> yes. there are roughly three feet of arsenic at the bottom of this well already. so, yes, you can be sure they're going to blow their stack when it happens whether it's next week or some time shortly after that. now, look, i think we can all agree the ideal thing would have been if they could have gotten some type of bipartisan agreement. didn't happen.

second best thing would have been if obama got this over with a while ago. that didn't happen either. so it's going to happen now, like it or not. yeah, they're going to be really angry for a while and hopefully they will get over it in a period of time. >> never got over haealth care. >> there's going to be all kinds of things that infuriate them. but they're troubled today as to whether to be more angry about this or the climate change deal with china. >> when i hear the phrase poison the well, my first instinct is to think how could relations get any worse between this president and congress but i think there actually are a couple answers to that we. one is republicans to attach provisions to funding bills trying to block the president's action on immigration. the other is they could impeach the president. is it plausible this will trigger an event that would not have otherwise occurred such as a government shut down fight?

>> well, josh, that is an excellent point and not only because it appear that is you're growing your beard back. >> oh! >> you've almost caught up with dana, joe. >> don't avoid the question, dana. >> you started the pattern to begin with, so you own this. >> okay. >> you know, i'm not sure that those scenarios are things that democrats wouldn't want to see. you know, mitch mcconnell is on record saying we won't shut down the government and they've been swearing up and down for months, we're not hear to impeach the president. if they come in there now and shut down the government and impeach the president and throw the country into default over the debt limit, a lot of the democrats are going to be in a good position to say i told you so. it's definitely going to set them up in good stead for 2016 to say,a h-ha here is what happens when you give republicans responsibility. it's not going to do us a whole lot of good over the next two years but as we mentioned, there's some problem with the well. >> dana, on the democratic side,

as ari was mentioning, elizabeth warren is now the strategic policy adviser, sort of liaison to liberal groups. she's got a seat in terms of leadership. what do you make of this move? do you think it's a recognition of sorts from dems that they need to have more strength in terms of economic policy? >> well, i mean, it's a recognition that they desperately needed some sort of a popular figure in leadership there, and i think she was -- to her credit she didn't try to take some higher level position in leadership where she might be blamed for actual failures that will occur, but there is just a huge amount of energy behind elizabeth warren and this populace movement and if you saw the exit polls, they were saying 2 to 1 voters were saying this thing is stacked in favor of the wealthy, and that is her message entirely. so i think the leadership position itself is just symbolic. it's just sort of an outreach things but they definitely want her inside the tent with them,

much the same way the republicans want ted cruz inside the tent although hopefully not with any sharp octoberbjects. >> i'll add time will tell. there's some dispute whether this is an outreach role. frankly, elizabeth warren is not somebody you're going to relegate to a small role. >> you're not going to keep her quiet. >> time will tell on that. let's talk about the keystone pipeline because that seems to be moving quickly. the house is voting on this tomorrow, the senate next week. senator mary landrieu obviously in that heated runoff coming in december wants this to move forward for her benefit. she was on the floor yesterday basically flpleading with mitch mcconnell to bring it to a vote. >> i believe with a push, significant push, in the next few hours, that we could actually get the votes that we need to pass the keystone pipeline. i want to say yes to majority

leader -- new majority leader mitch mcconnell. the time to start is now. >> i find the optics here fascinating. i support the keystone pipeline. republicans want this to happen. you even have some liberal democrats who are willing to build a pipeline really to gain just one more seat. >> right. i mean, this isn't a keystone pipeline bill. this is the mary landrieu protection act of 2014. and they're being completely transparent about it. it's not entire clear to me it works anyway. who is the guy who is sponsoring on the house side? well, it's congressman cassidy who is running against her in the runoff. so i don't -- look, i was pretty shocked that not a single democrat, not even a bernie sanders raised objection. they easily could have derailed this yesterday. i think they probably think they have at least 40 votes to block it from happening, but that's a heck of a gamble. the president could have gotten a whole lot of things from

republicans in return as concessions for this and now they may give it away for nothing. >> and if this works out to be a good idea, dana, i have a pipeline to sell you and it's full of poison. dana milbank -- >> wow. welcome back, ari. still ahead, the weather sensation taking social media by storm. the roker-thon mihitting a milestone. and the condition of those rescued window washers which made us wonder at the show, would you do that job? think about it. we'll spin on that right after this. rn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm... amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. nineteen years ago, we thought, "wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad?" so we gave people the power of the review. and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services from top-rated providers.

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those who window washers rescued from one world trade are said to be doing well this afternoon. they dangled 68 floors up for the better part of two hours while firefighters and the nypd worked together to cut a hole through a nearly inch thick window to get them inside. that delicate process played out as stunned onlookers below

watched in complete honor. >> worried about everybody below more importantly. the guys up there are secure. they're not going anywhere. >> it got us thinking, why would anyone do this job? i mean, i watched it -- i was so frightened even watching it from our offices at msnbc. i'm afraid of heights so looking at the platform compared to the size of the building, i mean, it just makes me so nervous. i have to say when i walk the streets of new york city, i often look up at the window washers and i think it takes someone quite brave to do this job and we often take them for granted, right? they're there doing their job, cleaning the windows. i don't know that i could do that. i'm very afraid of heights. i don't know how risky it is. i don't know the stats on window washing compared to a car accident or a plane crash or -- >> i do. >> those sorts of things. but just being on that platform to me is scary enough. >> ever since yesterday's watching that drama unfold, i have been a little bit obsessed with window washing and what

it's like and there's profiles of people who do the work, and it is unbelievable what they do. i mean, to your question about how safe it is or how dangerous it is, obviously it's incredibye terrifying. it's definitely dangerous. but these men, and it's mostly men, are highly trained and because of unions really making sure that they were trained and licensed, the accident rate has gone way down. it's safer to be a window washer than to be a new york city taxicab driver but again that doesn't take away from how absolutely terrifying it is. this new yorker writer adam higenbottom did a profile of one of them and said he went up to the top of -- the car reached the corner of the tower, the basket hung in the air above eighth avenue and slowly folded into a right angle. it will was for a -- >> oh, my. >> it's insane.

>> sometimes the most dangerous jobs aren't the ones you would think they would be. like the idea of falling from a great height is very that's vivid and scary. >> like "the new york times" writer. >> one of the most dangerous jobs around the city is being a garbage man. they're ten times as likely to die on the job as the average american worker. it's vehicle zebts and so that's one of the most dangerous things that happens around the city. also for taxi drivers. that's why taxi driving is relatively dangerous. but it doesn't sort of evoke the vivid images that things where you're suspended -- >> you're not staring over a ledge all the time. >> you look at that on our economy. logging, firerm efisherman. there's a lot of that work going on and it is scary. >> one of the other things they talked about, you were asking the question like why would anyone do this job. i assume nik wallenda, someone who loves and embraces that, but

also some of the folks that they quoted said that it's very peaceful right at the top of some of these towers, all the noise goes away. it's very solitary and there was this zen feeling about soaring above the city. so it's not just a means to an end for some of these individuals. there's a lot of enjoyment and pride that really comes with the work. >> that's part of what i've done with, a little plug with abby's adventures. i forced myself to try what other people do for a living. i went skydiving. there is that feel of calm and quiet and you're like i can't believe i'm doing this. i worked at starbucks. i was a trapeze artist for a year. >> if you weren't a cyclist, what would you do? >> it makes you appreciate what other people do for their jobs. just working at starbucks, i was surprised how hard that was. >> every time someone orders a pumpkin spice latte and you kind of want to hit them. >> but now i don't because i know how difficult it is. >> why do you want to hit them? >> it's a basic thing. >> it has too much sugar.

>> i will say if i could do anything and i love pumpkin spice lattes, i don't care if you think i'm basic. >> have you ever tried making starbucks drink at a great height like maybe on top of a very tall building? >> i knew you were going to take it there. >> maybe nik wallenda -- >> i will say -- >> for nicoik wallenda's act -- >> he can carry a starbucks drink in hand. >> if i could do anything i would probably either go on broadway which i'd love to do or be a chef. what would you do? >> when i was young i always wanted to be a diplomat. we were talking about this in the office today. one time i was in a job interview at an education company and they were like what is your dream job? i was like i don't know, to maybe be a diplomat. i was young enough i just answered the question. they said are you sure working at this education company is right for you? i was like, i guess i'm not supposed to answer truthfully. it felt like a real bummer. what about you? >> i would love to be an industrialist, make something. bub i would think that would be amazing to really understand machinery and mechanics.

>> look at that. >> there will be blood. >> when i was a teenager i wanted to be a high level government bureaucrat. i wanted to run omb. >> you knew what omb was? >> i totally believe all of this. >> my feeling was whoever controls the money controls everything. >> it could still happen for you, josh. you never know. >> i think i run my mouth a little too much to get an appointment like that. >> that is probably true. >> this has been a great spin. still ahead, how about this for a dream job, al roker is here continuing his roker-thon march into history. and the top military commanders on the hill. what they're saying about u.s. troops in iraq and the reaction of a three-star general who served in iraq. create an event to get customers to shop small and local on small business saturday, november 29th. tion

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cycling right now, a new audio recording is further fueling questions about whether the leader of isis is alive or dead. it's a 17-minute tape on which we hear the voice of al baghdadi who was believed to be wounded by a u.s. air strike in iraq. this new recording calls on isis followers to -- they don't know however whether it was made before or after that alleged air strike. meantime, defense secretary chuck hagel testified today before the house armed services committee and insisted the war against isis is making progress. he also urged patience amid growing concerns of mission creep. the president last week doubled the number of troops that are authorized to go to iraq now at 3,100 and joint chiefs chairman general dempsey tried to calm lawmakers' fears for the need of more ground troops. >> i don't foresee a circumstance when it would be in our interest to take this fight

on ourselves with a large military contingent. could there be an exception? i mentioned assumptions in my prepared statement. one of our asemptions is that the government of iraq will be inclusive. one of the assumptions is that the iraqcle securi clcl clcle - forces will be willing to take ban anbar province. >> so how do we get back to this point? that's the subject of a new book "why we lost: a general's inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars." joining us is lieutenant general daniel bolger. one of the conclusions you come to is we lost both iraq and afghanistan. was that inevitable? >> it wasn't inevitable. there's a few things in life that are, but that was not and that's what makes it so tragic.

the reality is in both theaters, in iraq and afghanistan, we actually were victims of our own success. went in very quickly, toppled the taliban government, tore the insides out of al qaeda. two years later we went in after saddam hussein's baathist loip and his military, defeated them very quickly, marched to baghdad. we didn't think through what we were going to do next. we sort of backed into a situation where we became the lead element trying to quell domestic insurgency in both countries. the taliban was not the group that attacked us on 9/11 but that's who we have been fighting. we know the iraqis didn't attack us on 9/11. they're bad actors, don't get me wrong. saddam hussein a dictator who killed a million people in his own country, chemical weapons,

the whole thing, they used on his own people. that said, we took on a lot of men nis and went into the counsel ster insurgencies where went village to village trying to figure out who was a farmer and who was a terrorist. we have great young americans in our military but there's some things we can't even do. >> is that why we are still in this and why we could potentially be in this forever, because we have not taken the time to fully understand who the enemy is and what they're all about? >> well said, abby. the fundamental question you got to ask when you commit military force is who is the enemy? and so in this war we start off i think correctly, the intel was adequate, we knew al qaeda had attacked us on 9/11. how do you 13 years later end up in a fight in pashtun, afghanistan, against local taliban against people who have never moved more than 20 miles from their own village. is this some kind of international terrorist three we

have to quell? i don't see it that way. >> there's an interesting comparison you make between george bush and boesh and harry truman and dwight eisen however describing truman as a leader who bit off more than he could chew. you say eisenhower made this ongoing commitment to korea we didn't do in iraq. >> that previous government, that maliki government that just left office, they have been replaced by another shia guy, they did want us to leave for their own domestic reasons. that said, i think what's going on now, you heard secretary hagel and general dempsey talking about, we have learned something from that, and you have seen the administration tell the american people two real important things about what's going on in iraq now and we need to remember that when we look at troop numbers. first, as general dempsey said, iraqi mission to win. we will help them. we will help them, but they have to take the lead and win. it's their country. second, also very important, what did the president say?

this is going to be a year after year after year effort. so there's no quick mission accomplished. there's no, hey, the thing is over, it's going to be done by christmas or the next election. no. he's saying just like eisenhower said when we stayed in korea after the war, long-term commitment. we still have troops in korea. we may still have troops in iraq but to me as tough as it will be, if it's only 3,000 and basically we're containing isis and they're not attacking our home -- >> you say containing and your op-ed speaks about that. air attacks against isis aren't enough we're told, but maybe an incomplete evident to contain the islamic state is as good as it gets. perhaps the best we can do is keep it busy, degrade its forces, harry them or kill them and seek the long game at the lowest possible cost. you write, in the real world it just may well give us something better than another defeat. >> absolutely. >> when you say that though, you're cutting against a foreign policy establish am that's always telling us the tough thing to do is have a bigger war with a bigger force.

>> well, having participated in two fairly big wars, i can tell you my recommendation would be look before you leap and in this case containment is probably the best lone-term strategy because the other part of this is what do the american people think? every time i have seen them react to polling, they're not happy with the fact our troops are spending year after year in this war. what i think at least might come out of this version is that the president has told them it's going to be a long war. congress says they're going to do another authorization for use of military force. maybe in the debate we will find out what they really want. >> lieutenant general daniel bolger, thank you so much. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> up next, a guinness world record in the making. all about the weather involving the one and only al roker. y pen. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit and zero first month's payment on select new volkswagen models.

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cycling right now, "today" show meteorologist al roker has now passed the halfway point in his effort to set a guinness world record for the longest continuous weather forecast. it all kicked off last night on the last word with lawrence o'donnell. al is now nearing hour 18 and it will be tomorrow morning during the today show's 8:00 a.m. eastern morning when he can claim victory and deliver tens of thousands of dollars pledged to help support our troops fighting overseas. it's streaming live at today show.com but al has been showing up throughout all of this on a number of nbc platforms including this show. al, i imagine there is a degree of difficulty involved here and speaking of degrees, tell us

about this big chill. >> well, i got to tell you, it's having a profound impact across a good portion of the country. for example, as the storm comes into the pacific northwest, we've got winter storm warnings, winter storm watches, winter weather advisories from west of denver into the northwest. normally this would be a rainstorm but because the cold air is so entrenched, we are talking about significant amounts of snow. from bend, oregon, to boise, idaho falls. generally we're talking about 6 to 9 inches, but that area of purple is about a foot and a half of snow that we're watching. plus, the cold air comes across the open waters of the great lakes. no ice on top. the water temperature is much warmer than the air temperature, so that's picking up moisture, and then as it comes across the colder land mass, it falls in the form of snow. that's what we call lake-effect snow. so watch the wind arrows as we put those into motion into thursday and friday. you can see the tendriling of

snow from michigan to indiana, western new york, western ohio. pretty good snow amounts. traverse city about 6 to 9 inches. muskegon, 6 to 9. western new york about 3 to 6 inches of snow, and even as we get our way into the -- what we call the tug hill plateau between watertown and syracuse, we're talking about 9 to 12 inches of snow. there could be locally a little bit more. and, of course, the frost and freeze warnings extend all the way down into central texas and on into parts of central georgia. so this is a wide ranging system and here is the bad news, there's another chunk of the polar vortex that's going to break off early next week. it's colder than this. so we are in the freezer for a while to come. >> wow. thanks, al. you can catch roker t-thon live streaming on today show.com as

it live tweets or else instagram a myriad of options all at our fingertips which leads to our next segment. in the age of information overload, how do our brains keep it all straight? today we take in five times as much information every day as we did in 1986. the equivalent of 175 newspapers every day. in his new book "the organized mi mind" daniel levitan explains our brains workings. your book is called "the organized mind." what should people do to maintain an organized mind in this world? >> one thing is to externalize information. that is get things out of your head so they're not competing for neural resources with the thins you really want to pay attention to. >> what's an example of that? >> well, an example would be use your calendar. if you have got something that's time bound, put it in your calendar, especially in an electronic calendar to remind you say 15 minutes or an hour or a day ahead of an important event. another thing is writing things

down. make lists of everything that's in your head. do a mind clearing exercise. once it's out on paper, you can prioritize things. >> daniel, i got a treat for you. i wrote down a question for you. it from the trivial and when we exceed our brain's speed limit which runs about 120 bits per second we tune out the excess information. so those sound like reasonable and concerning things to focus on, how do we know when we're hitting those costs? >> well, i think we all feel it. for one thing, after a morning of multitasking we feel exhausted and depleted because we've literally depleted neuroresources in our brain. you can really only do one thing at a time when you are multitasking you are rapidly shifting from one to another. the way you know it is i think you sense that feeling of being tired and depleted and overwhelmed. we all feel it and that means you're doing too much. >> which is why it's so health toe daydream ever once in a

while. people always say take a vacation or take a nap and it does wonders to the body. daydreaming is a natural state and we should do this more. >> it's tremendously restorative. >> we all know this overcaffeinated mode. after an hour and a half or two of hours of that your brain needs a break and if you can get into the daydreaming mode by listening to music or going for a walk, just let your thoughts wander. that effectively hits a neuroreset button located right here in your brain and that allows you to come back to your work replenished and restored and you more than make up for the time that you were taking off. >> i find walking really helpful for hitting that reset button as you put it. so how should our education system change to reflect all of these different distractions that we have now in the modern world? >> what a great question. the problem we have now is that

it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between information and pseudoinformation or facts and pseudofacts. >> you go to a website and it can be operated by some fringe group or some 10-year-old posing as an expert. >> or a fringe 10-year-old. that's terrible. >> it could be really hard to tell. we need to start teaching children information literacy starting at about the age of 10 every child should be taught to ask questions. when you land on a website, who operates the website? what agenda might they have in how might the biases they have affect the way they've structured and delivered the information? is the information current? has it been copied and pasted from somewhere elsewhere it may be the opportunity to distort it has set in. >> >> did it come from a chain email? >> exactly. >> right. or a nigerian tape. >> daniel, thank you so much. we feel smarter already. up next, abby has a political

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put a fork in him. he's done. >> we now have red. we now have blue. >> they know they're never going to win over the latino vote. this is not going to happen while any of us are alive. you think they'll go super radical? >> of course. >> when the bloody primaries for the presidential are over in two years they will rally together to win the big prize which is the white house. >> hillary gets the nomination, but every single front-runner, she's the biggest front-runner

democrats have ever had. >> ever? the biggest ever? >> we act as if we can predict the future like we are our very own crystal ball. >> there's only one human crystal ball and she's right here on "the cycle." i wasn't alive yet in the mid-80s, but toure was and he probably remembers a time when the democrats were lost and wondering if they will ever win another national election. back in those days ronald reagan won 49 out of the 50 states. it wasn't until a guy named bill clinton came on to the stage with a broader message that reinvigorated the party. we think about politics as the here and now as if things will never change. it felt like the republican party would never win another election. the party was left totally divided and struggling to define what they stood for. todd aiken opened his mouth about race and he told us about the binders full of women. look at what just happened last

week. republicans cemented a nearly invincible house majority that according to the new york times could end up lasting for a generation. the legislatures puttinging them in charge of two-thirds of the country. that is a modern-day record. republicans rose from 21 to 30 when marking another high in the modern era and republicans swept both the house and the senate. as soon who has been critical of the republican party i have to give it to them. sorry, dems, but a win is a win and they played it smart by putting forward candidates that didn't say ridiculous things and by capitalizing on the mood of the country. so republicans should enjoy this moment, also remember with power comes great responsibility. they have to take advantage of this moment right now and if they're smart they will know in order to stay on top they have to be able to speak to success and prove to the american people that under their control more gets done and when they're in charge there are no government should t shutdowns and that means focusing on the next campaign,

and compromise not just between various factions and dare i say, even democrats. i get it compromise and governing does not a sound-worthy sound bite and in the long run, this will pay off because the toughest campaigns to run against are ones of progress and action. as democrats found out, running away from your actions will only get you minority status. "now" with alex wagner starts right now. the president has unfurled the red flag. will the bulls charge? it's thursday, november 13th and this is "now." >> this will ensure that the 114th congress gets off to sort of a partisan start. ♪ ♪ >> the new york times is reporting. >> the president could take that long promised executive action as soon as next week. >> in the absence of congressional absence, he is

prepared to use executive power that he has. >> republicans, they aren't backing down on this issue and calling any such move a poison pill. >> i've been very disturbed about the way the president has proceeded in the wake of the election. >> the executive order flies in the face of the american public. >> the president does have executive order authority just like any other president in the past. >> president, don't use your executive authority. he turned to us and said don't use your legislative authority. >> the executive order is meant to inflame the house republicans right after the very difficult elections. >> it's actually in the democrats' interest to pick fights right now with the republican congress. >> this might take all of the things that we've been talking about and the old trash bucket. ♪ >> go big and then probably go home. this afternoon, major news outlets are reporting that the president plans to announce broad, executive actions to protect up to 5 million immigrants from deportation as