i'm krystal ball. the debate is on concerning president obama's war powers request for isis. some within his own party say that the draft is too vague and too broad. while republican hawks fear that it places too many limits on the presidency. the first hearing since the draft was delivered kicked off today in the house foreign affairs committee. >> now he needs to make the case to the american people and this committee as we work to examine this proposal in depth. >> it's critical and it's clear that we consider this matter as the most serious of decisions that all of us make as a congress. >> as we debate to give the president the power to go to war against isis it would be nice if we knew exactly what the strategy was to win that war. >> i've never heard of a president sending that kind of a request to congress. please, tie my hands, and give me a time limit and also, you

know, limit my ability to use ground forces. >> the executive should have all the authority that he needs to win, not just hold something at bay. >> debate is expected to last weeks, if not months and this is the man who will lead our mission. ash carter just overwhelmingly approved by the full senate to head the pentagon when defense chief chuck hagel leaves. right now the president is heading to the west coast for a cyber security summit. he leaves d.c. with a whole lot of baggage. we start with nbc's kristen welker at the white house. kristen, how is the white house going about selling this to congress? >> well there's going to be a robust outreach effort that's for sure. but look they acknowledge the language that was submitted yesterday really represents the start of negotiations. it also represents an attempt to find some common ground between democrats who want the language to be limited and republicans who want it to be open ended. so just to remind folks what's

in the aumf that the white house proposed it would sunset after three years. it would limit the extended use of ground troops. and it does not contain any geographic call geographical limitations. democrats, for some of those reasons, say the language is not limiting enough. the biggest sticking point really revolves around the issue of ground troops. democrats have expressed concern that this could lead to mission creep. i think you're going to see a lot of debate revolve around that. meanwhile, republicans say that there shouldn't be any limitation on ground troops at all. so a major sticking point there in terms of how these negotiations are going to go. we anticipate that lawmakers are going to first try to evaluate the threat that is posed by isis and then next determine if the language in the aumf meets that threat. there has been no commitment by either chamber to actually bring this legislation to the floor. so this is very much in its beginning stages. just to give you a sense of what law makers are saying today,

nancy pelosi saying quote, many of us believe that he's on the right track, meaning the president, but not necessarily committed to the words in this draft until we review them more accurately accurately. this from john boehner, we're going to try to development an aumf that fits the battle l that we're in the midst of. so again krystal, this could take weeks, if not longer, to get past. the administration saying that the president currently has the authority to wage this campaign against isis but also makes the argument that they want sign-off from congress because they say that essentially presents a more united front in the fight against isis. >> all right. kristen welker at the white house, thank you so much as always. and over on the hill, house leadership is as you just heard, divided on this proposal. >> i want to give our military commanders the flexibility and the authority that they need to defeat our enemies. the white house readily admits that the authorization that they're seeking is more

restrictive than what they already have in place. if we're going to defeat our enemy and win this fight, we need a strong robust strategy. >> i don't ever remember a president sending legislation to the congress to limit his power as commander in chief. so i think the administration has to be commended for that. >> democratic congressman peter welsh serves on the national security subcommittee and does not support the plan as presented by the white house. and congressman, we want to get to some of your specific objections, but i wanted to start with that quote from nancy pelosi. it is relatively unprevent presscedented for a president to go to congress and seek limitations on his own power to wage war. should he get some credit for that? >> he should get a lot of credit for that. and there's an insight in what the president's doing. it's not about tying his hands. it's about having an effective strategy that has the capacity to win in a new kind of war. a lot of the debate here has to

get past the old nation state war where we do have a declaration of war, and it's. what we have now with terrorism is decentralized. it's not nation state. it's not nation specific. it's isis today, but remember it was al qaeda. it's ever changing and it's opportunistic by folks who are hoodlums and don't have any loyalty to a country. so what will work? it's not an invasion force. this is where i'm in disagreement with folks like john mccain. it's tough talk, but in fact putting our boots on the ground in that region didn't work in iraq and didn't work in afghanistan. those countries are contending with the collapse of these nation states that were put together with artificial borders, with the enormous conflict within islam about modernists and fundamentalists and with rivalries between sunni

and shia and shia-on-shia violence. so we have to have a strategy that fits the reality. it's not an old-style declaration of war. >> congressman, i want to dig a little deeper on that. seems like the boots on the ground is the main point of contention. the president said the use of military ground forces is not necessary, but he also left open a bit of flexibility. here's what he said. >> we had actionable intelligence about a gathering of isil leaders, and our partners didn't have the capacity to get them. i would be prepared to order our special forces to take action because i will not allow these terrorists to have a safe haven. >> congressman, i have to say this does sound reasonable. if we are going to do this don't we want a certain amount of flexibility to be successful here in the scenario he just spoke to? >> yes, we do. that's what i think is good about the president engaging this debate. what he's recognizing, it's not about putting our, you know, the 82nd airborne in or putting an

invasion force on the ground like we had with afghanistan and iraq. but if you have targeted opportunities with actionable intelligence to take out identified terrorists that's an area where our power, military power, can be used. the restraint, and this is where i think a lot of us who want to have narrow language that's very clear that we can't put ground forces in is we can't make this our fight. in fact, if we make it our fight, it weakens our position. you know where this worked when we provided air support was when isil was moving on erbil in kurdistan. you had a kurdish peshmerga with a reliable military force. you had a government that was competent. we provided very crucial aid that provided a safe haven for those people to get off that mountain. so that can work but we have to be in a supporting role not in a leading role. >> congressman peter welch, currently a no vote and moving to potentially a maybe. thank you for your time. we're going to go right to the other side of the capitol and

talk to democratic senator bob casey. good day to you. >> good to be with you. >> senator, let's start here. i think that people have to understand just how abhorrent the situation we're already in it. i wonder if you could speak directly to some of the double standard standard. seems to me if george w. bush took the iraq resolution and ran with that for six months to bomb another sovereign nation and told us that congress could weigh in they wanted but it didn't matter anyanyway it seems to me there would be a great deal of outrage, yet it's what this president has done thus far. >> it's significant to point out what you just articulated. seems no matter what the president proposed when it comes to security or foreign policy republicans line up against it even before it hits the newspapers. as soon as the statement is out. so i hope that we get folks who are willing to engage in not

just a robust debate but a debate that gets to the core responsibility that we have which is to have votes and to have a debate prior to that vote on the authorization for the use of force. i think we should be mindful -- >> sir, i don't mean to interrupt. but to be cleerksar, i was raising the idea that some democrats would have been more skeptical if george w. bush claimed this authority to go into a new country. >> there's no question that there's going to be a back and forth from both ends of the political spectrum. but i think this is a good start. i'm not ready to endorse it yet. it's a good start because it heads in the right direction of speaking to the issue and forcing a vote on it but also it's very clear in limiting that grant of authority to those five words you see in the draft, which is enduring offensive ground combat operations. we have to debate what that means, but i think it's appropriate that there's a limitation. >> senator, we've been bombing

isis for about six months now. now congress is debating whether it's going to authorize military action against isis. doesn't that just demonstrate that congress is irrelevant in this discussion and the president is going to proceed as he desires? as ari went to he's not going to encounter a lot of resistance from his own party for it. >> no i think there's a direct relevance because the american people are demanding that the congress play a role here because of what's happened and transpired over the last more than a decade now. so there's not only a constitutional obligation that we have, but i think there's also a demand back home. in my home state, for example, as much as we have a great military tradition and people who are fiercely patriotic, i think a lot of people are remembering how many people we lost. we lost 91 in afghanistan, 197 in iraq. so we're approaching the 300 mark who have died in both of those conflicts. we have to make sure we do our

job to debate this and get it right and keep debating and updating the strategy as we go. >> and senator, speaking of your home state of pennsylvania just getting the news that philadelphia will host the dnc. very exciting news. is philly going to be ready? >> it'll be ready. no question about it. it's one of the best testaments to the city of brotherly love where our nation started. it is the birthplace of america. we're very happy about the news and it's interesting that on this day when the convention was announced to be coming to philadelphia, we also have secretary of defense ash carter getting a great vote and he's a philadelphia native. >> absolutely. >> all right, senator, thank you so much. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. and next up ari asked the prosecutor tasked with being terrorists to justice in new york how concerned we should be about isis right here at home. cycling now as we speak, a judge in alabama is deciding the fate of same-sex marriage there, perhaps once and for all.

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in his new push for war powers against isis president obama warns the group could pose a threat inside the u.s. could isis soon attack the u.s. the way al qaeda murdered americans in virginia and new york? well, in part two of my interview with the top federal prosecutor in new york, i asked about isis about his successful convictions against al qaeda, plus setbacks in some of his

cases against insider trading and a question many have asked, will he follow in rudy giuliani's footsteps and use that powerful office as a launch pad into politics? here's part two of our exclusive interview, starting with assessing the threat of terrorism. >> do you think at this point from your work that isis is also a direct threat to new york? >> other people including the attorney general and the president and defense secretary, have talked about the nature of the isis threat. in our view we think of everyone as a potential threat. and even when people are not associated with particular organizations like al qaeda or al shabaab or isis you have a lone wolf problem as well. we don't take anything lying down. and we make sure we're knowledgeable about what the intelligence reports say. any threat we investigate completely and fully. >> like his predecessors in new york a major terrorism target he has pursued members of al qaeda abroad and would-be terrorists at home. >> for a long time now, this office has been the center of

terrorism prosecutions. that's true and happened long before i got here. >> after 9/11 many prosecutes figured out that sometimes the safest course is to act early. is your legal priority getting them off the street as soon as possible regardless of the charge, or waiting to see how significant a charge you can get? >> it's a great question. there's a great balance you have to engage in any time you're trying to protect people and using what law enforcement tools you have. we want to make sure we're incapacitating in advance. sometimes that's not possible, but i think it's more possible now than it ever was because the orientation of members of the fbi and the nypd and prosecutors alike is to make sure that we're preventing things from happening as opposed to just picking up the pieces after something happens. >> some critics say bharara can be too assertive. in one case his office reportedly asked eric holder to force a journalist to give up information about al qaeda but then backtracked.

bharara disputes the report. >> first of a all, i'm not going to comment on subpoenas we may or may not have issued. second, i don't think we've ever gotten ahead of ourselves. we are aggressive. we're appropriately aggressive. that's the history of the office. >> and bharara insists if he's tough enough to confront al qaeda, he's definitely not afraid of wall street. >> i do find it funny sometimes when people say, are you concerned about going after powerful people politicians, or hedge fund managers? i find that a little silly because a lot of what we do the bread and butter of what we do is go after really really violent criminals, people who kill witnesses, people who shoot children, people who try to bring buildings down and try to destroy america. a guy in a suit with a lot of money doesn't pose much of a threat to our psyche. >> bharara won 87 insider trading cases in a row from convicting executives from the powerful hedge fund s.a.c. capital to winning the longest prison sentence ever for insider trading. that sweeping record drew praise

for confronting wall street criticism on wall street, and recently a smackdown from federal judges who say bharara went too far. they reversed six convictions and he's now appealing. did it just get easier to do insider trading? >> in our view yes. in our view the court established new law as to what the benefit has to be in connection with making a transaction in the stock market. >> bhararaers down the rules against insider training. >> anybody who's a ceo of a company who decides that he or she wants to give very very valuable inside information to a son or a nephew or a daughter or a girlfriend, that so long as they didn't expect, you know, a very substantial gain back they can do that. that's not the way we should enforce our securities laws. >> while traders may fear bharara, the executives in charge during the financial meltdown have been largely unscathed. after all these investigations

does that make it clear in your mind that the financial meltdown was a product of bad decisions but not criminal decisions? >> i think it's a combination of things. i think there was criminal activity. but you have to be able to prove that crimes took place. often it's the case that you can only do that if you have either someone who's on the inside who cooperates with the government and gives testimony. you can only do what the law allows you to do and what the evidence gives you. >> bharara says he understands the anger that no one went to jail for the meltdown. >> the frustration is shared by people like me and people like us in this office. before we were prosecutors, we're citizens and we pay taxes also. we have retirement accounts also. and we have bills to pay also. >> while bharara talks about the public interest a lot, he says his immigrant parents didn't overemphasize it growing up. >> my parents, they wouldn't talk explicitly about public service when we were growing up but it was very clear they thought it was important to give back and maybe it's, you know common for immigrant families

who got so much from america that they think that. my dad left and came with nothing. so he has always been very very, very interested in making sure that we give back. >> when harvard law school invited bharara and actress mindy mindy kaying to address the cool last year he even dipped into an impression of his dad. >> how could i not come and miss a once in lifetime chance once in lifetime chance to see the mindy kaling. >> unlike his father bharara doesn't keep up with many tv shows. favorite tv show about court? >> oh gosh. um, well when i was in college, i used to watch "l.a. law." i don't watch a lot of television courtroom dramas anymore. >> you said growing up -- >> i watched all five seasons of "breaking bad" though. >> so i had to ask what he thought of that show's new legal spinoff.

they have the new show coming out about the lawyer saul. >> "better call saul." i recorded that last night. haven't watched it yet. >> is he a good lawyer? >> no he's not. >> bharara's also been the subject of extensive speculation about a future beyond the law. if you enter politics would it be in new jersey where you're from or new york where you work? >> objection to the premise of the question. i'm not interested in talking about it. >> objection overruled. >> do we have a judge? >> do i? i don't think so. >> i think you better call saul maybe. >> jokes aside, bharara says he's committed to service without politics. >> i mean look i care about public service. i care about honest government. part of the reason that public corruption is a priority for us is for that reason. you know, it's disspiriting and discouraging when you have people who are supposed to be upholding their end of the bargain after a vote when they don't do it. i'm a prosecutor. i'm a lawyer. this is what i plan to do for a long time.

>> that was our interview with u.s. attorney preet bharara. you can also find it on "the cycle's" web page at msnbc.com. and we here want to say good-bye to cbs "60 minute" correspondent bob simon. he died last night in a car accident here in manhattan. he was being driven in a black car. it hit another car, slammed into a guardrail. simon was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. bob's colleagues noted that after reporting from war zones all over the world, he died on the west side highway. many remember bob as a brave and serious reporter. he was taken hostage during the first gulf war. he would speed through the streets in the mideast on a motorcycle, no trouble spot seemed to be too much trouble for him. bob simon is survived by his wife and daughter, a "60 minutes" producer. they'll miss him more than anyone, but we too, will miss his bill yabt reporting and well-known compassion. push your enterprise and you can move the world. ♪ ♪

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now to a few other stories in the news cycle this thursday. right now in alabama, a federal judge is deciding whether to force counties in the state to issue same-sex marriage licenses. after a ban was found unconstitutional. marriages were set to begin on monday but the night before the state's chief justice ordered probate judges not to grant those licenses. many complied leaving many gay couples confused. today's ruling should finally, hopefully bring some clarity. and the defense in the trial of accused boston marathon bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev has finally gotten a break in their bid to move the trial out of boston. a three-judge panel is scheduled a hearing a week from today to weigh the motion. tsarnaev tsarnaev's liars point to early juror questionnaires. they show 85% believed he was either guilty in the bombing or had some connection to it. jury selection will continue while that appeal is decided.

of course that process has been crippled this week by storm after winter storm, just pounding boston. there's another one coming this weekend. i can't believe it. perhaps an additional foot of snow on saturday into sunday. for the rest of the northeast, record-cold temperatures move in tonight, and they're going to stick around through the weekend. weather is giving people a lot to complain about, meaning less time for complaints like this. >> this country's more obsessed about its health than any other country on earth. we're completely obsessed about our health. we're obsessed so much about our health that we worry about it. and when you worry about your health you're going to get sick. on the plane was a "time" magazine. there was a 30-page article about diabetes. i read every page. by the time that plane landed i had diabetes. >> poor lewis black. we promise that's not going to happen with "time's" special

double issue on longevity hitting shelves tomorrow. it explores how your outlook can change how you age. here to discuss those issues with us and more is jeffrey kluger, "time's" editor at large. the issue says on the cover this may baby may live to 142. why? >> the baby may live that long. this is based on a study. granted, it's in mice. but there's a mouse that would normally have a life expectancy of about 2.3 years. it's now up at about 4 years. if you factor that out over an 80-year life span for a human being, that would be 142 years. it's being done with a substance that's an antibiotic found in the soil of easter island. it seems to down regulate various genes that control for energy consumption. the downsides of it so far are that it can lead to small

stature and reduced testicular function. so that's not a selling point there, but we're still working on it. >> that's really fascinating. i told you in the break i'm not going to die. so it's a little irrelevant to me. for people who are concerned about such things the article that you write, you start with this old cliche you're only as old as you feel. you find there's some truth to that in a way. >> absolutely. you're only as old as you bloody well choose to be in some cases. and what people are finding, there's a wonderful study from 1979. it was called the counterclockwise study. eight men who were 70 years old were brought to a retreat at a monastery and were told just live here for five days. the trick about the retreat was it was designed to look the way it did in 1959 when the men were much younger. there were vintage tv shows on vintage tvs. the men were only allowed to talk about the eisenhower administration. at the end of five days they had improved on aptitude tests and cognitive function.

sonchs facility >> so fascinating. >> that is interesting. i have a question that reminds me of when my grandfather was very old. he had his tv up in this very awkward place in the room that was not in his line of vision. he was losing sight in one eye. i remember we were there spending time for him. i said grandpa, why don't we move the tv down to where you can see it? he said no i don't want you to do that. we were going back and forth. i said, it'll be easier to see. why not? sometimes you can be too stubborn. he said, the reason is that tv has been up there for 30 years. i'm not moving it now. >> exactly. >> and that was like enough for him, which goes to your point. speak to that or if you want we had a little item from your article about mindfulness exercise and how that's used. >> this is extraordinary. mindful meditation seems to be an artifact of the touchy feely '70s. but study after study is showing mindfulness meditation has real impact on a lot of things going on at the cellular level,

including things that are sort of like the tip of your shoe laces. these are cuffs at the tip of chromosomes, and they burn down like a mortal fuse over the course of your life until they can't protect the chromosomes anymore. when people meditate they actually maintain the length of those. so over the course of eight months, if i med today, they're going to be as long as they were eight months earlier and somebody else's are going to be a little shorter. we see this again and again with people facing life stressors. when they med >> i love that story about your grandpa. we can learn so much from our grandparents. i'm so lucky, i still have four grandparents alive. i couldn't tell you how old they are because they all act so young. a big part of that to your point, if we all want to figure out how to live longer, a lot of it has to do with our diets. seems like every year there's a new fad out there. you can go on and on and on. what is the right diet for people to live longer? >> the right diet we're

finding -- there's a wonderful study that was conducted in 2009 that compared a low-fat diet which we all are told is very good, with two versions of the mediterranean diet which is nuts and fruits and olive oil and some fish. they found that the mediterranean diets, which are relatively high in healthy fats were so effective in limiting coronary artery disease that they had to stop the study early before the five-year period because it was unethical to keep running it and allow the people not on the diet to keep eating food that was going to hurt them. >> so get on a mediterranean diet. >> jeffrey, thank you so much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. up next celebrating a major birthday for a pop culture stable "saturday night live." inside the sketches and the untold stories next.

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>> for 40 years, seven words have brought laughs to millions of viewers, incloouding myself. i've been known to cancel saturday night plans to make sure i'm home on the couch for "snl." the biggest names in comedy have brought memorable characters to life right in front of us. this sunday on nbc, some of the funniest alumni and most popular hosts return to studio 8h, just upstairs from us to celebrate the milestone with an anniversary special airing at 8:00 p.m. and "people" magazine another iconic name in pop culture, just celebrated its 40th anniversary. it's out with a special 120-page book, 40 years of saturday fight live highlighting the cast the sketches hosts, and so much more. "people's" executive editor joins us at the table now. what's so incredible about "snl" is 40 years later, they're still putting forward the most talented people and entertaining us in ways only they know how. kate mckinnon is my favorite on the cast today.

she can impersonate so many folks. my favorite is ellen. let's take a look at that. >> now, i love the way you dress. i feel like every time i see you, you're wearing something new and crazy. >> no not every time. >> are you sure? because it kind of feels like every time. >> i -- i think you're exaggerating ellen. >> i'm so in love with kate mckinnon. i think she's one of the most talented people on television. clearly has a career ahead of her. but what people don't realize is some of the biggest names today actually started at "snl." >> they did. i think it's great you love kate because what she speaks to right now is the fact that i think every four or five years someone declares "snl" dead. this is the worst cast ever. it's over now that x, y, and z have left. the newcomers aren't nearly as good. >> this year was the same thing. >> it happens every few years, especially when someone beloved leaves. i think after kristen wiig left

people thought everybody good is gone. now you have people coming in like kate mckinnon who's incredible who's ground breaking. the first openly lesbian performer in "snl" history. it just speaks to the very very long legacy of the show. you know year after year, season after season they put out great stuff. >> we want to play more for you. they have a big impact on politics. everyone says bill clinton is the secretary of explaining stuff. phil hartman spoofed that perfectly, showing imexplaining the conflict in somalia while also trying to get more fast food he loved. let's see that. >> do you favor the decision to send military forces to somalia? >> that's a good question. yes, i do. let me tell you why. see, right now we're sending food to somalia, but it's not getting to the people who need it because it's being intercepted by war lords. filet o' fish sandwich italy,

war lord. . >> what do you think about "snl's" constant interaction with politics? >> i think you saw that during the sarah palin campaign. the minute she stepped on to the stage, tina fey had to sit up a little straighter. >> speaking of that we have a little bit of that to play. let's take a look at tina fey as sarah palin. >> you went to the u.n. for the first time. how was that experience? >> oh, you know, it was just amazing. so many interesting people. though i have to say, i was disheartened by how many of them were foreigners. i promise that when senator mccain and i are elected, we're going to get those jobs back in american hands. >> i mean this impersonation was so dead on that people quote lines that tina fey said as if they were sarah palin. >> yes, and i think, you know, you really wouldn't be wrong to feel that that character, that portrayal has h an impact on the

election, had an impact on the way people saw sarah palin. maybe opened their eyes to the ways in which she had been a little flawed in some of her public appearances because she gave them a ton of material. and "snl" capitalized on that in a way that only that show can. >> it's not just politicians. they've also consistently send up the news media. my favorite is from the early '90s. it's about five people sitting around a table at a news show yelling at each other. let's take a look at that. >> to number five. what number am i thinking of? pat buchanan! >> geez, 82. >> wrong! eleanor cliff. >> is it between -- >> don't start the issue. >> 40? >> wrong! >> jeff? >> two. >> wrong! the correct answer is 134. 134. >> i just love how this anticipated cable news. they're still keeping us on our toes today. >> absolutely. they can take whatever is most relevant, most current. they just don't date themselves.

when you do go back and watch those older episodes they still hold up. they're still hilarious. you know it's so true the stuff that was funny back then is still hilarious now. >> they don't have a lot of boundaries because they're able to do it in such a professional way. thank you so much for being with us. and remember, "snl's" 40th anniversary special airs sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. lorne michaels sat down with matt lauer ahead of the special. it airs tomorrow on "today." here's a teaser. >> i hear people say lorne michaels is serious, which is ironic because your name is attached to some of the great comedic properties of the last decades. are you a serious guy? >> i'm a serious guy, but nothing makes me happier. steve martin called me yesterday. he was going over the jokes, the monologue monologue. i was so happy laughing because you could get lost in detail and then you go oh right, that's the reason we're all here. we're going to make people

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it's drawn fire from law enforcement. they've seized bitcoins used for crime and arrested some people involved in bitcoin exchanges. when you started this job, did you expect to have your office seize so many thousands of bitcoins? is this something you knew you would do? >> when i started this office i don't know that bitcoin existed 5 1/2 years ago. but it's -- look like anything else -- >> do you feel flush with all your bitcoin? >> i feel good about it. fortunately, we can't use it. i've said many times that there's nothing inherently wrong with bitcoin. any time you have something that makes it easier to be anonymous, you're going to also attract lots and lots of people and maybe it's the case a preponderance of people who are not doing it in good faith and are not doing it in good purpose but to harm other people. >> top regulators are also paying attention. just last night larry summers was speaking at a bitcoin panel on wall street. our next guest was there.

"wall street journal" reporter moderated part of the event and is co-author of "the age of cryptocurrency." >> you sold that. >> well sounded better than when i came up with it. >> well it's a big title for a big claim that a lot of people feel. walk us through briefly why some people think bitcoin is dangerous and what the opportunity is. >> well people think bitcoin is dangerous. the real reason is basically because the anonymity factor of it. you can use it your identity is encrypt, nobody can find out who you are. so it allows you to send money online, peer to peer directly between two people no intermediaries, and that is, you know, a relatively radical idea. we've never had a system like this. so a lot of people, their first reaction to something like that is, well, that's got to be a problem. i'm going to look into that. and, you know, we were on the show yesterday talking about that, ari. there is an issue with that. people can use it for some any

their use things online if they want to. but the bigger pro part of it and this is what we were talking about last night -- and it was a very interesting event last thiekt. we were at the museum of american finance. about as wall street as you can get. there were about 300 people there. the event sold out. all finance professionals, all people really interested in this. what they want to know is, well, how can bitcoin be used in the regular world, in financial services? is there a way for these two worlds to merge? and the answer is absolutely there is. >> you mentioned people's first reaction when they hear bitcoin. still, for a lot of people they don't totally connect. they tune out when they hear it. give us examples of how and when people can use this in their daily lives and why it would be more beneficial. >> well it's still relatively limited. i mean there's not a lot of people that use it. not a lot of merchants accept it. those numbers are all growing, but it's still limited. for somebody here in the united states, the advantage honestly

from a consumer basis, it's not that huge if you're not trying to make a political statement. it's not much easier to use bitcoin than -- >> you're not selling this to me. >> i'm not trying to sell it. i'm trying to be honest. to the merchants there's a bigger advantage. the merchants save money. they save expenses. the payments go through faster. to the merchants there's a bigger advantage than to consumers. if you go outside the united states. if you go to emerging marks. if you go to place where is people have trouble accessing banking services because the banks won't go because it's too expensive, too far. everything has to be done in cash. it's hard for them to establish any credit history, then it starts changing a lot. then actually bitcoin becomes a reallied ay ed aied ay ed aadvantageous thing. if you have a cell phone, which most people do these days in the emerging world market you can access a bitcoin service. you can start using digital money. and there's an opportunity to dr for about 2.5 billion people to leapfrog into the 21st century.

>> one of the big advantage is low and stable inflation. if something costs $10 today, i can be pretty sure it's going to cost about $10 a few days from now. i'm willing to keep my money in u.s. dollars without worrying it will evaporate. both coin moved wildly in price. if you have an account to bitcoin, you don't know if it's worth more or less tomorrow. isn't that a real problem for people who would adopt it for transactions. >>. i would say two things. one hand the dollar may be stable the next couple of days. >> oh come on. >> look back a couple of decades. >> no no. i'm being facetious. but the volatile is an issue. the issue is really about the fact this is a new thing. they are building exchanges. they're very rude mmtry. a lot of functions you would see

in the new york stock exchange don't exist in bitcoin yet. that adds to volatility considerably. yes, it's a problem right now. if it keeps going in the way it is that's going to smooth itself out. >> isn't there another concern if this takes off and becomes impactful as you're sort of envisioning, isn't there another concern about the way it undermines the traditional power of the nation state? it's an issue. it's a theoretical issue. but yes, in theory one of the most powerful tools that the u.s. government has, or any government, really, is the control of the purse. is the money. this takes that out of their hands in some ways. and so it is a threat. what i think is going to happen though, in the long term is that you are going to see governments, financial services businesses co-op the technology, and sort of just take the benefits of it it's a great thing but it's utopian. it's probably not going to

happen. >> coauthor of the age of crypto currency. thank you for telling us about your time with larry summers. up next jon stewart is leaving the daily show. for crystal that is actually a good thing. she says it's time stewart took his own advice. >> it's not so much that it's bad as it's hurting america. so i wanted to come here and the and sai, stop. stop stop, stop hurting america. >> okay. ght now? i have $40 $21. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. ♪ ♪

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this week left leaning anchor jon stewart announced he was leaving the daily show after 16 years. during his time at the helm with sparred with bill o'reilly and delivered a blow so deadly to cnn's show crossfire that the show never recovered. he said stop hurting america. i was 17 when stewart stepped into the role. as my own political views were being shaped quickly became a loyal viewer. stewart could be counted onto point out the absurd in our politics and news media and to make you laugh at the same time. in this ability to call bs on everyone and everything led stewart to become one of many ek's most trusted newscasters and the primary news source for many young liberals. but as someone who cares deeply about progressive politics, i have to ask myself was that actually a good thing.

sure stewart's blows fell more heavily and more frequently on republicans, but that doesn't mean democrats emerged victorious from the equation. the only real winner was a sense of jaded sen edd cynicism towards our government. for a generation of young liberals stewart's chief language of the left has been condescending sinnism. they are deeply skeptical of labels and increasingly skeptical of government as a result. the majority of millennials identify as independents. this doesn't bode well for millennials engaging deeply into politics. additionally additionally, only 29% of millennials trust the government to do what's right most of the time. mistrust of government is hardly progressive value. the media landscape is wide open.

i hope as stewart moves on whatever replaces him balances critique with opt schism. in the sense that we do have power to affect change. and the fact there there are reason to believe that people are hungry for more positive content. huffing on the post announced they'll have a new show what's working. it won't just create a moralistic view of our nation it's also good business sense. researchers have found that the more positive a news story is the more likely it is to go viral. ultimately that's what we need if the country. for optimism to go viral. for the sense we do have the power to shape the country to go viral. no one know who is young liberals will turn to with stewart moving on. i'm sure jon didn't worry that much about the tenor of the discourse. i am hoping the next host of the daily show has a sunnier

disposition. that does it for the cycle. will the tide of marriage equality sweep over alabama? it's thursday, february 12th, and this is "now." >> the change in people's attitudes has been enormous. same-sex couples in alabama are caught in a standoff. >> gay marriage became legal on monday. just 23 of the state's 67 counties are complying. they have a federal court telling them this is unconstitutional. >> many are not licensed to assemble straight couples or gay couples. >> all eyes on mobile. >> they say the judge ordered this local official in alabama to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. >> americans are ready for change. >> it does seem likely she'll grant the order. it seems likely other judges will follow courts.