Transcripts For ALJAZAM Consider This 20141120

As the psych of violence keeps jerusalem as divided as ever. Both sides need to deescalate the situation. Both sides say the fight against i. S. I. L. Will take years. The president s policies are leading to failure. I. S. I. L. Remains a force on the ground. Highly controversial, lots of ramifications. When we think texas we think big oil, not earthquakes. We should not be having earthquakes. Upstate new york is being hit with a snow storm of historic proportions. And its not over yet. This snowfall may break all sorts of records. Youre going to see peoples houses are going to be demolished from the snow. We begin with the immigration debate which may be about to explode into open political warfare. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern Time Thursday night president obama will announce unilateral moves that republicans in congress have sworn to oppose but which the president says will help fix a broken immigration system. What im going to be laying out is the things i can do with my Lawful Authority as president to make the system work better even as i continue to work with congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem. Meanwhile a new nbc news wall street journal poll show that nearly half of americans oppose executive action on immigration where formulate say they would favor the president s moves. While 63 of democrats favor president s action, that compares to 11 of republicans and less of independence. For more im joined on capitol hill, congressman Luis Gutierrez from illinois. You. Thank you antonio. Good to see you. The president is going to announce how hes going to fix our broken immigration system as he calls it on thursday. What should we expect, delay, deportations and work permits for some . Wow, yeah. I think work permits for millions. A very specific group of people. I think theres going to be, you need to be here at least five years probably, im not sure i dont know all the details but i think theres been some general consensus about youve been working, youve been laying roots in your community youve been here five years youre ready to go through a background check, the fbi checks you out from top to bottom, you bring in proof youve been working here for five years and you have ties to the community through your children, and you get a work permit. They are going to make changes how they prioritize deportations and how they work with communities on those deport deportations. Probably some other things around high tech industry, i dont know all things going on. All the things im telling you antonio is what i believe what i would bet on. I believe it but i would imagine that theyve consulted with you because you are one of the most outspoken and biggest leaders in this debate and i know youve said that citizenship is not on the table. How about benefits, will the people none. Wont be a benefit. Wont be any benefits. We have 800,000 young immigrant youth known as dreamers, who as executive order in june of 2012 are not deportable. They have been on the program now for two years. Theyre working and theyre saving up their money and if a local university wants to use their private funds that are not Government Funds to help them pay their tuition, if a local School District wants to do that, they can do that. They dont enjoy the benefits of a pell grant for example. If they have work permits they will be working legally, they will be paying social security, medicare, should they expect those benefits . Let me go back to this under the Senate Proposal which was adopted and was hugely applauded, right . And lauded, they wouldnt receive a single federal benefit and pay every tax imaginable for the first ten years so imagine, that is the best we could do legislatively. He wont be able to do that through an executive order. There are limits. Nothing is as good as the legislative process but given the lack of action this is going tomorrows going to be a really great night for america. If we are talking about 5 Million People we are still talking about another 6 million or so undocumented immigrants who wont be covered by this. What happens to them . They stay in the same status and languish in the same status until the congress of the United States acts. Remember, nothing is a substitute for legislative action. The president cannot and does not have the authority, as a matter of fact, antonio, when the senate bill was adopted, the congressional budget office, the Current Research service looked at it and said hmm it doesnt cover 11 million. The best the senate could do was eight of the 11 million so understanding that, the president is executive authority does not go beyond what the legislative branch can do. Its got to be done legislatively. Lets talk about that because the president has said that they will give whatever their legal reasoning to justify his immigration plans theyll put that out on thursday. But you know repeatedly the president more than 20 times he said things like this, lets listen to him when asked about taking broad immigration action on his own. Essentially i would be ignoring the law. In a way that i think would be very difficult to defend legally. So thats not aan option. Hes even said he is president obama, not emperor obama. How if it wasnt a legal option then, how is it a legal option now . Because i believe jay johnson secretary of Homeland Security who was the crafter of all of the measures that were taking to eliminate and dismantle dont ask dont tell his Legal Counsel mr. Egggleston have come, the president was sincere, in spanish they say [ spanish ] not a worst person, right . He didnt want to see it, he wanted to desperately to work with republicans, he wanted to get a bill he understood that was the best way to craft it so he wasnt looking at those options look i understand antonio the president never really looked at all of the options thoroughly until john boehner called him in june of this year and then he began to call me and others in and say, he even said at the meeting i had with him in july, luis i want to get this right, would you meet with my staff, i want you to understand that i believe i can do what you want me to do. Because he is not going to do everything i asked him to do. I understand your frustrations, i understand his frustrations as all these multiples efforts have failed, senate bill that passed with some republican support but why not now just sort of say hey republicans after a month once you have your new congress in january or ill move unilateral then, wouldnt that, poison the well or make the gridlock that already exists even worse . Well lets look at that poisoned well. Im going to give you what my visceral reaction was. Do you know how Many Congress people won their seat under the slogan earrineering of the bords to be secure, obama is not securing it, now theyre bring bringing ebola and i. S. I. S. Through that border, thats what they did that demagoguery. They had multiple opportunities antonio and they still connect, i say stop, why are you always whining so much . You just won a larger majority in the house of representatives you took the senate, act. Antonio, the president is going to make an announcement tomorrow, hell be in las vegas on friday. Well learn much more about specifics about whats going to happen. But guess what . No matter what the president says tomorrow, and expands on, on friday, it will take probably four months between the time of his announcement tomorrow and the first moment someone can apply for a benefit. Ive seen the schedule from mr. Mccarthy the majority whip here in the house of representatives. They can get this done right away. I say to the republicans, legislate, act, do what you came here to do and present the president with an alternative. Its going to take months before anybody can get a benefit. Whatever he says its going to be a Major Development and welay well stay on top of the story we hope youll be back to talk to us about it. Always a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you. Thank you. Turning now to jerusalem where police have ramped up security after a terrorist attack on a synagogue. A policeman and three citizens were killed, after a month of unrest fueled in part by a dispute over holy sites in jerusalem and growing fears of a third intifada. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began with the demolishing of the palestinian attacker. We will restore security to jerusalem. Hala al gimdy, he is now a fellow with the center for middle east policy at the brookings institution. Good to have you back. You wrote a piece for al jazeera titled the Peace Process is defunct, we are more likely to see more violence and bloodshed. Do you see anything stopping it . No, i dont, and i think thats exactly what the point of the piece i wrote was. And that is, you know, you cant simply leave the parties to their own devices in which pure Party Dynamics are dictating evens on the ground. That situation is one that is very likely to produce violence. Exactly like the kind that weve seen. So there has to be something to constrain the parties. And pleadings by the american secretary of state arent enough. There has to be actual mechanisms in place to prevent israel as the Stronger Party from doing the sort of damage that it is capable of doing as we saw in gaza, repeatedly. And as we have a hint of in jerusalem. Right, and we are seeing a very substantial reaction from the israeli government. You write how youre concerned about the a catastrophic israeli overreaction. Now what about the palestinian side . I understand that most if not all of these recent attacks may have been lone wolves. But there is international revulsion over the two palestinians who were armed with a meat cleaver and a gun massacring these poor people in a synagogue. And then pictures we see people celebrating in gaza. How can peace ever be realized if the gulf is so great between the two sides . I think its important to bear in mind that these kinds of mind sets, and you know it is something that is, for those of us who dont live in war zones or where we fear for our families and our lives on a daily basis, we cant really understand the mindset of why anyone would celebrate such a horrific act. And thats not in any way to excuse it. I find it you know reprehensible. But at the same time look at what gazans have been through and we did see celebrations by israelis also very unfortunately when the bombs were falling on gaza. So these types of mind sets are precisely what produce conflict. We cant expect these kinds of attitudes to go away before resolving the actual issues that the two sides bring to the table. And talking about mind sets, almost nothing constructive seems to happen at the leadership level especially between palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Ironically that contradicts palestinian chief not interest in thror. Terror. If these cant get it together, how can you expect the people to get it together . We hear a lot of people talking about we have to get back to the Peace Process. Theres actually nothing there and thats why we have this recurring violence. There is nothing to constrain the parties from doing these things, saying and doing bad things to each other. Thats the definition of a conflict. The definition of conflict resolution is to have mechanisms and incentives and disincentives to prevent the parties from doing those things and give them a stake in a better outcome for everyone. Now. There is no Peace Process even to speak of. Yeah and most of the violence is in East Jerusalem which is controlled by israel not in the west bank where abbas is in control. So does that in your mind increase the danger of a third intifada . Well, i think the question of a third intifada is a complicated one. There are lots of conditions and factors that go into having a sustained uprising. I dont think were quite there yet on the palestinian side. Even though anger is growing over the israeli reaction and the you know tearing down of houses and things like that . Yeah but i think anger isnt enough. Anger is enough to see the sort of sporadic impulsive acts of violence weve seen but not enough for an intifada or a politically sort of motivated uprising, one that can be sustained with an organization or some sort of organizational machinery on the ground. How about religiously motivated . But what Mahmoud Abbas criticized, is there a danger that the extremists on both sides are going to hold sway and this would become a religious war . Absolutely. I think the rhetoric on both sides is very dangerous. There are those on both sides who are determined to turn this conflict which is primarily one of competing national claims, into a religious conflict. And religious conflicts almost by definition have no solution. So and i think its quite irresponsible of the leaders on both sides. But you know lets keep in mind. There is a lot of the u. S. Secretary of state and the administration has been very harsh on the palestinian leadership and perhaps appropriately so. But they havent i think been equally strident in their criticisms what is clearly the israeli equivalent of what theyre accusing palestinians of. Theres a lot of reckless rhetoric and again there needs to be something to constrain these parties but neither side has any interest or any stake in whatever it is that the United States is trying to do. Its takably depressing to see this cycle of violence but we should say there doesnt seem to be much love lost between president obama and netanyahu either. Halid, its great to have you bring us your insights, thank you. And now for other stories from around the world. We begin in ferguson, missouri where the grand jury in the shooting death of Michael Brown is reportedly ready to reach a decision by the end of this week. According to reports, the grand jury is preparing to meet for its final session on friday and could then decide whether to indict officer darren wilson. But Law Enforcement is supposed to give 48 hours notice before making the decision public. Protests have been nonviolent but authorities feel a decision not to indict officer wilson, would incite protests. Vienna, austria, not optimistic a deal could be reached but added they may be able to find a way to extend the negotiations. Britain france china Russia Germany and the United States are at the table with iran and attempting the iranians to scale back their capacity to enrich uranium to make fuel for Nuclear Power plants. Secretary hammond said in the end no deal is better than a bad deal. In new york a massive snow storm has killed at least seven people. A driving ban went into effect in buffalo, some stranded for more than 24 hours with one man dying when his car was buried in nearly 15 feet of snow. About half the country had snow on the ground on wednesday and freezing temperatures were recorded in all 50 states and were still more than a month away from the official start of winter. And thats some of whats happening around the world. Coming up, is our war against i. S. I. L. Being fought on the cheap without any clear goals . And brainwashing small kids to become terrorists. The u. N. Special representative on children and Armed Conflict joins us with startling allegation he of i. S. I. L. s brutality. What do you think . At the height of the cold war were spies. Intercepting messages from embassies, military bases. One of the americas closest allies. We were not targeting israelis. Suddenly attacked bullet holes. Just red with blood. 34 killed. We had no way to defend ourselves high level coverups. Never before heard audio. A shocking investigation a conscience decision was made to sweep it under the rug. The day Israel Attacked america only on Al Jazeera America can the u. S. Win the fight against i. S. I. L. And can our military strategy bring peace to the greater middle east. Kobani wednesday kurdish fighters say they captured six buildings from the terrorists. I. S. I. L. Tret threats to strike back when five individuals were killed in a car bombing in err erbil. Professor of history and International Relations at boston university, served 23 years in the army retiring a colonel. Americas military involvement in the middle east. Colonel really a pleasure to have you back on the show. You wrote a blistering article in the times, better called half hearted effort. You have been an outspoken critic of the broader waw iraq war. Im not only a critic of the broader iraq war but the u. S. Military spps that ha enterpriss been unfolding in the past decades. My own sense is even if u. S. Officials wont acknowledge the fact our purposes really are to attempt to impose our will to mold to shape to dominate the core of the islamic world. It hasnt worked. Its not going to work. And indeed, the rise of i. S. I. L. The Islamic State in the wake of the failed iraq war is simply one more piece of evidence suggesting the extent of our failure. I guess then that is question and i bring up also a column that tom freedman wrote in the new york times. He says we have tried everything, decapitation without abdication in libya, syria, all out invasion in iraq, democratickization in democratization in egypt. What can we do . That litany shares one thing in common and what it shares in common is the notion that it is within the power of the United States to fix, i put that term in quotes, to fix the middle east. And it is not within our power to address the problems royaling tharoilingthat part of the worl. The wisdom i. T. Seems to me is for washington to acknowledge the limits of American Power. You say whats the strategy . I think the strategy from a somewhat narrow american perspective, has to be to erect effective defenses so that the United States is not going to be subjected to violence coming from the greater middle east. We have a better chance of success if we try to defend ourselves, than if we insist upon projecting American Power with expectations that were going to change iraq, or change afghanistan. Or and you addressed all this in an consume in an earlie sceux i, you say the region has underdevelopment alienation, but what youre saying, now, we understand that there are all these problems there, we cant with military force in your opinion really change much. But then do you really think that isolationism would really work, that we could somehow protect against these people who in the case of al qaeda and i. S. I. L. Itself want the end of western civilization . I think its very important not to exaggerate the threat nor should we trivialize the threat. But lets evaluate i. S. I. L. s actual capabilities. They have no air force. This have no navy, this have no weapons of mass destruction. They have somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fighters. Let us concede the fighters are well motivated, they are vicious killers. Theyre not insignificant. But the notion that i. S. I. L. Poses a threat to the United States strikes me as you know, verging on hysteria. Now, i. S. I. L. Does pose a threat to regions, to nations in that region. And one of the things we should do, the United States should do, is to promote an awareness of that threat to those countries and to promote the notion that those countries, im talking about iran, and saudi arabia and egypt and turkey, that those countries need to step up to the plate, and deal with the threat that threatens them far more than it threatens us. They need to be responsible for their own future and in some respects to the extent that we are ever going osee an end to the conflict that is roiling the greater middle east its going to be because peoples and nations in that region assume responsibility for themselves. In some respects the american project really is an extension of the old european colonial project, based on the assumption that outsiders know what is best for people who live there. Right and youve criticized the Obama Administration for using a whackamole strategy, haphazardly responding to threats as they arise. But you also accuse the u. S. Of fighting on the cheap. That we havent been investing what we need to invest in order to deal with these threats. The kurds right now are saying they havent been getting the weapons they need to fight i. S. I. L. Is cheapness not a recipe for success and we are not doing away when you are saying, not enabling the people in that area to fight this war for themselves . Cheapness is never a recipe for success when it comes to war. War is fraught with uncertainty and risk and it cements to me its almost always preferable to err on the side of making too great an effort as opposed to making too small an effort. And really throughout if you think back to the wake of 9 11 and president george w. Bush announcing that the United States was engaged on a global war on terrorism, those are big words, global war, at the time he said this war was going to last a very long long time and yet United States made no effort to mobilize, to increase available military resources for this undertaking. And yet were seeing the same thing on the part of the Obama Administration, with respect to i. S. I. L. That this relatively smallscale air campaign, relatively small number of trainers and advisors on the ground hoping against hope that somehow or other this modest intervention is going to produce success. Maybe it will. I doubt it. And it seems to me that if you want to fight a war then you need to go in big. My personal view, again to emphasize, is i think that the larger war, the effort to bring order to the greater middle east, is simply not winnable. But for those people who do believe that its winnable and who believe that its necessary, well they need to recognize that the United States is going to have to undertake a vastly larger effort than it has shown a willingness to do thus far. Andrew basovich always a pleasure to have you with us. A lot of thought provoking items in the articles you have written recently and this conversation. Good to see you, thank you. Thank you. Turning to fears that i. S. I. L. s are terrorism or force to join the groups ranks. A new report on United Nations special 13 into suicide bombers and executioners. The violations visavis children are multiple. Children being used as child soldiers, children being forced to watch public executions, indoctrination in school, we look at children as victims rather than perpetrators. It is the adults who are the perpetrators and truly the industrialize the children. Leila zaruga, thank you very much for being with us. This report that talked to 300 witnesses it is horrifying to the points we just heard, 12, 13yearolds serving as guards with kalashnikov. Kalashnikovs. Who are these kids . You know, part of my mandate is to gather the information, what is happening to children on conflict in general. So these kids, when we start gathering the information, many of them were following an adult parent. That was the first feature that we have seen. Then we start receiving information on also abduction of children that are forced to join the group. But also, you have other you have 3 Million People that are under the control of i. S. I. L. Now between syria and iraq. The opportunity, propaganda many, many aspects. Getting children, what the things theyre doing is luring the children through indoctrination camps this they have set up. Dangerously and enormously successful at this, these camps are brainwashing the children. Every camp the children are used recruited. The problem we see with i. S. I. S. And are horrified because they are using modern communication tools. They are using the media, to also recruit but also to terrorize. Because those who are under the control, they are not free to decide what they want so its very easy to manipulate children specifically in this kind of context. Then they take them to these camps, indoctrinate and brain wash them, they are subject to executions, to beheadings, i. S. I. L. Is destroying their childhoods, destroying their hearts. These children even those who arent being brain washed are being traumatized so much, being inured not even in unrks. This kind of conflict even more, dont forget what is happening in other places. So what we are saying, is what is happening to these children . We need really to do something about. We cannot leave these children, we are losing the next generation of two countries, that the are facing this war for now long time. So its important that all of us, whatever be our responsibility in the u. N. But also country, but the government in this place, to address the violence and to provide first of all to secure these children, to try stop the violence, to bring them out. And to provide them with the psychosocial programs that are always lacking in when we come to we try to help them if they manage to get them from under i. S. I. L. We cannot afford to lose the next generation. This is the generation of tomorrow. The descriptions of whats being done to them is just horrible, human shields, front line soldiers to be killed first and then whats happening to the girls, your report talks about sexual slavery forced marriage so the girls are just victimized terribly too. The girls are always victimized in these kind of conflicts, even if they are not target because you have then the change in the life of the community. You are scared if you have a girl in this kind of context in a war so you have early marriage. You have even if you are not target, your life stops, you cannot go to school. Their schools are closed or destroyed. They are transformed on recruitment. The girls are raped. As you said, we dont have a lot of information on Sexual Violence because of the fact that this is very sensitive and underreported but many things are happening certainly on the ground. And beyond the kids who are directly affected by this violence there are the ones who are i guess also directly affected but in a different way. The massive amount of children who have become refugees or who have become displaced. That is also another generation that is suffering tremendously and not getting the kind of schooling they need, not getting anything they need. Think just about almost half of the population of syria are either displaced offer refugees. When you go to every place refugees and displaced person, half of them are children. We are in a setting where the population is very young so the children are very much affected. Thinking about the orphans who are witnessing the horror every day, they are witnessing. The unhr, issued a report, the majority of the children are not going to school. Appreciate your joining us efforts. Thank you very much. Straight ahead, does fracking cause earthquake. Eye opening research causing big concerns. Also your smartphone could be giving you back pain and you may be partly to blame. And later, a provocative fault lines brings you an eye opening look at what life is really like under the taliban. Im actually quite nervous from girls attending school, to enforcing sharia law. They rely on the local population, and so they need to win the hearts and minds of locals to be able to fight. Fault lines, Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Today they will be arrested. Ground breaking. Theyre firing canisters of gas at us. Emmy Award Winning investigative series. Special episode this is taliban country only on Al Jazeera America could hydraulic fracturing better known as fracking, be causing earthquakes in areas that have little or no history of seismic activity . Traveling to the town of reno, texas to find why residents are standing on shaky ground. We were sitting watching tv and there was a tremendous explosion it sounded like and then the whole house shook. Then the next day there was another one and they just kept coming. And thats whenever we realized we definitely have a problem. We should not be having earthquakes in texas. Joining us now from seattle is techknow contributor marita davidson. Marita, great to have you with us. Questions are being raised about the connection of fracking and earthquakes in a bunch of different states, arkansas, ohio ohio, oklahoma and texas among them. You went to see this what did you see . As you saw in that piece there we went to a small town in texas had a the that has been experiencing a sudden increase in earthquake activity. Texas is not known to be earthquake country. And there are a lot of local residents that are extremely concerned and rightfully so. I would be concerned if earthquakes were suddenly happening in my backyard. And theyre really demanding answers. They want answers. And this increase in earthquakes and the number of earthquakes is really striking hot just in texas. There were and not just in texas oopts there were only 20 per year in the eastern United States, you guys reported on in the last 30 years. And then more than 100 are happening yearly, recently . Its been quite an increase in the number of earthquakes especially in areas as you mentioned that dont have much history or any history at all of seismic activity. Its a pretty big increase. And the question here is whether or not these are natural earthquakes or if theyre induced somehow by human activities. And what a lot of people are turning to is that fracking or activities related to fracking may be part of whats contributing to this increased earthquake activity. Right, are we seeing these earthquake swarms everywhere theres fracking . No, were not. The important thing to remember is fracking has been going on for a long time in this country. But what is new, fracking has changed recently in that we are not just drilling and fracking vertically. Were doing whats called horizontal fracking. That basically means were drilling down deep in the earths crust and turning 90 to basically cover a much larger area through the horizontal fracking process. And that is and weve been doing that mainly to take advantage of deposits of natural gas and oil in shale rock formations. And thats been a very recent development in the u. S. , and some suspect like i mention that that is what may be contributing to the increasing seismicity. Increase of oil and natural gas but possibly even more with wells. That is how they end up disposing with the disgusting liquid resulting from the process. They put it back in the ground. Theres very little to suggest that the fracking extraction process whereby oil and natural gas is extracted from these formations, theres lil to suggest that thats whats causing the earthquakes. Rather the thinking is that the disposal of the water used in the fracking activity, that that may be whats at hand here. The reason being, fracking especially the horizontal fracking that were talking about is an extremely waterintensive process. A single well could use anywhere from 1 to 5 million gallons of water in a short period of time. Thats a lot of water. That water is used to facilitate the extraction of the products from the fracking process but then it comes back to the surface and its a pretty disgusting mix of water and solids. That water needs to go somewhere. Its not safe to use. It needs to be disposed of properly. And what the industry is doing is theyre disposing of it in injection wells. They are transporting the water that flows back from the fracking activities and taking them to wells that can hold that water in formations that are much deeper. Theyre injecting that water back into the earths crust where it stays into the future. And thats what the concern is. There could be a solution on the horizon, at least its being looked at which is something one of your techknow colleagues crystal dilworth, she went to one of these places that hold the waste water. As i mentioned this is pretty gross stuff and its been disposed of until recently but there are companies that have are prouded solutions. Theyve developed a method to remove the solids from that flow back water from that waste water, by doing some really interesting stuff. So theyre using whats called an electrowater separator machine that separates the solids from the water, allows those solids to bubble up to the surface where theyre skimmed off and then that water can be used for fracking. Its not pure water, you cant use it to drink or anything else but it can be used for fracking which in a place like texas is really attractive, because texas is a dry place and water is an issue. This has become a very important thing for the United States because of all this extraction of oil and natural gas were getting. Interesting story marita, thank you for your time. And the episode of techknow airs this sat 7 30 eastern. Coming up, humiliating harassment, why black women says say on techknow, we should not be having earthquakes in texas the true cost of energy hits home. My yard is gone. Are we destroying our way of life . Contaminated water from the fracking activities come here they stick it to the core of the earth but this Cutting Edge Technology could be the answer the future of fracking is about the water protecting the planet, saving lives. How do you convince a Big Oil Company to use this . Techknow, only on Al Jazeera America november 28th. Al Jazeera America presents. This is it. Oscar winner alex gibneys edge of eighteen, thanksgiving marathon. Oh my god intense pressure. If i said that im perfectly fine, i would be lying. Tough realities. I feel so utterly alone. Life changing moments. In this envelope is my life. If you dont go to college you gonna be stuck here. I dont wanna be stuck here. Catch the whole groundbreaking series. Edge of eighteen. Thanksgiving marathon. November 28th. Starts 9 00 am eastern. Only on Al Jazeera America. Start with one issue education. Gun control. The gap between rich and poor. Job creation. Climate change. Tax policy. The economy. Iran. Healthcare. Ad guests on all sides of the debate. This is a right we should all have. Its just the way it is. Theres something seriously wrong. Theres been acrimony. The conservative ideal. Its an urgent need. And a host willing to ask the tough questions how do you explain it to yourself . And youll get. The inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on Al Jazeera America judge todays data dive is a real pain. Surprisingly the simple act of texting can put enormous pressure on your spine. Up to 60 pounds worth. The journal Surgical Technology international, is how much you look down. The head weighs 10 pounds in a neutral position, the force generated goes to 20 pounds and up to that. At 60 it can reach 60 pounds, the weight of an average eightyearold. People in the u. S. Spend more than an hour a day on their cell phones and doctors say that can cause immense wear and tear on power spines. Smartphones can hurt you in other ways. American teens and tweens reportedly spent seven and a half hours on entertainment media. A recent study found thats limiting their ability to recognize facial expressions and other expressions of their peers. Cataracts and other eye teases. Once you get into bed turn off the phone. Nighttime exposure of the blue light can suppress production of medical ton medical atone in. Melatonin. Why black women are often confused as sex workers when music doesnt change change the world, but it does influence that way people think rock icon Peter Gabriel believes we can all make a difference get technology to people. To empower them. To become more effective giving a global stage to important issues climate change. Weve gotta take action every saturday, join us for exclusive. Revealing. And surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America are women are color targeted for Sexual Harassment more often than white women and how does interracial marriage factor in. Our next guest wrote an article for the Washington Post about the bigotry, she encounters. Im a black woman with a white husband. People assume im a prostitute all the time. Maureen, good to have you with us. You write that this started four years ago. You got propositions at a party. You were stunned this guy assumed you were a prostitute, because you were with your husband who was white. No doubt that race played into it . Absolutely. I definitely think that that was a factor, an unfortunate factor. I do feel that interracial couples defense have an increased amount of bigotry, that is targeted towards them. Although theyre incredibly common. This has happened to you a number of times since. Absolutely. It has. As recently as august. My husband and i were on a date night in d. C. , actually, and it happened as we were leaving a restaurant. And this goes beyond cat calling and you know the sometimes aggressive harassment that are faced, that almost all women face when theyre out on the street especially in big cities. Absolutely. And i dont want to draw the comparison or say that you know, one form is better than another, you know which one is worse because both of them are devaluing and dehumanizing of women and it begs the question and that we need to have a discourse and a dialogue around how women are treated in these public spaces. And its difficult to believe that until the Supreme Court decision in loving versus virginia states could yo outlaw interracial marriage, this decision didnt come out until 1967. We are stilt seeing interracial couples have all kinds of absolutely. It is incredibly unfortunate because in 2014 that shouldnt be the case. There are a plethora i live in very diverse county and there are interracial marriages all over. So when i see that this level of i dont want to say have i vitriol, because that is a very harsh word. A justice of the peace in louisiana who ended up having to resign because he wouldnt marry interracial couples, a Kentucky Church attempted to ban mixed race couples, that got reversed. The irony of this is that different couples of races and ethnicities, i saw a pew poll that said 28 of Americans Still reject marriage among people of different races, and 37 say its okay forothers but not for themselves. It really makes you wonder if weve made any progress. Well you know what, i definitely feel that we have and i think the numbers that you just cited lay claim to that because the numbers are in fact going up and theres a lot of research that the face of america is going to look so different in 2050 and partially thats going to be actually mainly because of interracial marriages. What kind of response have you gotten from the article you wrote . Its been overwhelmingly positive. Ive received so many Facebook Messages and emails, a lot of different stories from a ton of women of color and thats not just to say African American women and women of color, their partners, oh my goodness, i experienced this outside of a bar in chicago or after i was on a date in boston. So definitely the response has been overwhelming and there are a lot of women who have come out and said this happened to me too. And i dont think this is something that we can ignore. Anybody shocked by it . Definitely. I had a lot of friends who sent me messages who werent even aware. And you know its not something that you talk about in conversation. So until i wrote the piece, so many of them were like, this never even crossed my mind that this would happen, whether its in 2014 or 2010, that anyone would proposition you or just say that. So it was just shocking. A lot of my family members also didnt know no. I wrote the piece as well. Its pompt tha important thal attention othis and sad that its going on. Us. Thank you for having me. Thats it for now. But tomorrow on consider this, president obamas act on immigration. And the queen of sweeten, girls subjected to sexual comploitation. You can tweet me amoratv. Well see you next time. In the middle of San Francisco sits a bee farm with a dozen hives and up to a million bees, run by volunteers who plant flowers and fruit trees to attract and build the bee colony that produces honey for the neighborhood. Now, this lots owner and other interested land owners have an extra incentive for setting up community gardens, a new city tax break. Someone paying 10,000 in taxes before would now just pay about 100, their property accessed as farmland instead of prime real estate. Another part of the sweet deal. Urban farms must sell or donate produce to the community or act as a teaching site. But there are few empty lots in San Francisco and advocates have no illusions about how many plots can sprout up. Were not necessarily naive to think that were gonna be able to feed ourselves in a city like San Francisco, but how much can we do . This urban farm serves those living below the poverty line. During the year itll provide over 1000 pounds of food that gets given away to people who have the need for fresh organic produce who have otherwise no means to acquire that type of food. Advocates of urban farming hope that their success will help inspire more cities to join the movement. Tonight from the front lines of the new cold war to the front lines of innovation in america, silicon valley, we are looking at powerful rich men, men that get what they want by not following the rules, but only occasional ly get caught going too far. This is real money. Im ali velshi. The new cold war over the