this nearly seven weeks after their son was killed. the public outrage surrounding this case, exactly why the defense did not request bail for their client. >> we had actually made a decision before today, a couple hours ago, that i was not even going to seek to have the judge attend to that issue. it didn't make sense with where the case was now, with my client's status, and quite honestly, with an attempt to truly calm this case down rather than demand a presentation of evidence which might increase fervor around the case. >> nbc's kerry sanders leads us in the case of justice. what do you know? >> george zimmerman was in court today. this is the first appearance where they read the charges against him. as he was in court, there was also a probable cause affidavit that was filed with the courtment pcourt. producer tom winters just got a copy of it. many documents in the case have been sealed, this one has not. it explains why the prosecutor, the special prosecutor with her investigation, came to the conclusion that charges should be filed, a second-degree murder charge. i'm going to read just portions of it where she talks about what happened that night, that he was living -- and this is important -- when trayvon was profiled by george zimmerman, martin was unarmed and was not committing a crime. so the first sort of key word there is that the prosecutor believes that george zimmerman profiled trayvon. in another section of the affidavit, it says, zimmerman felt that martin did not belong in the gated community and called police. zimmerman spoke to the dispatcher and asked for an officer to respond. the police dispatcher informs zimmerman that an officer was on the way and to wait. that we knew. then we go to another section of the affidavit and i'm going to have to edit part of this because of some of the language, but there was so much discussion about that 911 tape and what was heard. i'm going to tell you what the authorities believe was said. later, while talking about martin, zimmerman states that these -- expletive deleted -- always get away, and also said that these -- expletive deleted -- punks. he finally confronted martin and a scuffle ensued. this is why a second-degree murder charge is due here, and as you pointed out, there will be an actual arraignment on the charge, but his lawyer has already filed, according to his lawyer, documents of a not guilty plea. we do not have copies of those documents yet, we're trying to get them, but there is no reason to question that the defense attorney has indeed filed them. dylan? >> thank you very much. with us right now, jamey, attorney. jamie, your interpretation of kerry's analysis? >> yeah. well, everyone was surprised about the second-degree murder charge as opposed to a manslaughter. dylan, you and i talked about it yesterday after your show, but it makes a whole lot of sense after we hear that. >> so for you the conce conceptualization of the narrative of the prosecutor, that he was profiled, that he was unarmed -- >> right, and that there's some higher level of intent in the prosecutor's assessment of this case. and she's got to feel that she can prove that, because there is a long distance between probable cause to arrest someone and proof beyond a reasonable doubt before a jury. >> jeff, what's the mood in the community? >> the mood we saw when the announcement was made that zimmerman was being arrested and charged was really one of relief. the sense of emotion we saw when we covered the rallies, we wondered if there would be a celebration. but it was more somber than that. there was another prayer vigil last night. it's been a calmer, more resolved mood that seems to reflect just another step in the process. >> what is the next step in the process, jamie? >> there is a formal arraignment, and he could ask for bond at that point. this is all may 29, i think it is, very late in may, and that's when the case really kicks off. and i appreciate the defense attorney's effort to tamp it down, but don't be fooled that strategy. he is going to make his first motion before a judge, and he knows that it's going to be very difficult to convince a judge to dismiss this case based on the stand your ground law. it's called a stand your ground motion. and the only way it's going to convince a judge to do that given the inflammatory, political nature of this case is if everything is calmed down quite a bit in the course of the next month. >> what are the merits of that argument? >> well, it's all about, dylan, those few moments or even seconds in time in what people are calling the confrontation. we don't even know if there was a confrontation, right? but that is what the quote is going to come down to. let's get ready, folks, because this is an open discovery state. i implore our colleagues in this state, dylan, to proceed with proper journalistic quorum as the facts pour out in this case. it will all be available to us as journalists and we have to report it properly. >> will it be made available to anybody who wants to report it? >> yes. in a lot of states, the defense isn't allowed to have everything the prosecutor has, but here it will be made public, unless the court has some reason to seal it. >> jeff, how do you feel about this undertaking, and do you believe that the culture forces that advise a certain level of seriousne seriousness, a certain level of grace in this process will prevail or will this -- how concerned are you it's going to be a circus? >> well, given what we've seen already, i mean, there are plenty of indications that it will be, at least from a media perspective, a circus. it's clear that's really something the residents of sanford would rather not have happen. there's a lot of local residents who have seen the flood of people into their community, the flood of attention, would rather see it return to normalcy, kind of along the lines of what mr. omara described in his speech today. there's been people coming in from out of state, rallies, speeches. we at one point had jumbotrons rented because people couldn't get into the community. the people really hope things return to normalcy, but that's really not in sight. >> we as african-americans know the justice system rarely works in our favor. we can go all wait back and work our way forward. time and time again, when there is a black victim -- sean bell recently -- when there is a black victim, and there are countless unnamed cases, cases in which an arrest is never made. unless there is activism, there is not a just result. so this is a careful calibration that we all have to make as we go forward in this case about what voice to bring to the case as citizens, as journalists, as lawyers, as analysts. it's going to be very, very difficult going, but we have to hope that our system of justice -- we talked about it, the contract -- you said it, dylan, the contract with the black male and america has been broken. i don't know that it was ever signed in the first place. >> clearly the social component of black men in america, in my opinion, has been broken forever, has never been intact -- >> the constitution didn't contemplate black men, we know it, and the shooters know it when they fire, and that is a conversation that needs to be had going forward that we never seem to have after these cases go away. so perhaps, dylan, with your platform, you can have the conversation with america. >> we will reach out to do just that. there are a lot of voices, and i think from my perspective, the damage in the relationship between young black men in this culture and everybody around, one in three in prison, the statistics across the board are shameful on a level that most people, i think, would prefer not to even look at. this could be an occasion and i will make every effort to do that. jeff, thank you. jamie, thank you. coming up on the d.r. show, a rest in peace to cold, hard cash. we know cards are convenient, but there's new evidence that they're fast becoming the standard way to pay. we'll get into that and talk about the pitfalls of plastic with the mega panel. plus, what's really in the food we're all eating? you don't want to miss what our specialist has to say about that, and a story for all of us who have ever checked scores or surfed the web at work. your boss may not like it, but is it a crime? we'll tell you about the court ruling on this very issue making big headlines out of california. c'mon dad! i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy. instead i got heartburn. 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[ alarm blaring ] where the cost to repair your home, replace what's inside, and stay somewhere else if you need to are covered. because you never know what lies around the corner. to learn more, visit libertymutual.com today. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. studying new numbers from america's two greatest wars and back here at home, the pentagon now reporting record number of concussions from troops. 16 a day, those figures in part to improve battlefield diagnosis, as much as the extraordinary delimbed but living veterans has exploded because battlefield medicine has gotten so good. as those numbers rise, support for the war in afghanistan continues to plummet. now 7 out of 10 americans say it is time to get out. let's turn to the thursday mega panel, karen, seuusie and jimmy. karen, i will begin with you. the president says we're withdrawing 2014. this has already been said. the only thing that seems to be a point of confusion, dispute, whatever you want to call it, there appears to be a decision to stay until 2012 and fight. that decision is confusing for a lot of people, myself included. i can't understand why everybody wants to withdraw. there is all that ambience that speaks to withdrawal, rafts of data, rafts of information, bribes, corruption, heroin dealers, you pick it. you want to dig into this thing, it's a nightmare, but nobody can answer the question, why, strategical strategically, are we going to fight one more summer? >> since i'm not a military expert, i can't answer that question for you. >> have you met anybody that can answer that question? >> no, i have not. >> i want to stick with this. have either you, karen, jimmy, met anybody who can explain the strategic rationale for maintaining military engagement on an offensive structure for six more months and then withdrawing, which seems to be the plan, jimmy? >> no. >> karen? >> no, but i would -- i think what they would say, and i'm not saying i agree with this -- >> i understand. we're not going to hold you accountable for what you say here. >> i think someone said -- thank you. i think some would say that they believe there are still strategic objectives that can be accomplished. now, whether or not we agree or believe that, you know, is another question. >> i'm telling you, karen, i'm an anchor on msnbc, i'm on television every day five days a week for the afternoon. i cannot find a human being in the united states government that can explain to me what the mission is. >> you know what, dylan, i am with you. i mean, as you know, my big thing on this is that i think before we go into a war, we should calculate what will the cost be, not just of being in theatre, but what is the cost to our soldiers when they come home? you talked about the number of people getting concussions. we already know there are long-term implications from having a concussion. what kind of care will these people be able to get when they come home? those costs, i wrote about them a few weeks ago, that's billions and potentially trillions of additional dollars that aren't even being calculated in the numbers we're looking at right now. we don't even look at the full picture and it's -- even with half the picture, it doesn't make sense why we're there. >> not to mention, you talk to the veterans groups, there's a lot more resources that could be deployed or that may be are in need of deployment as to how we treat our returning veterans than they are getting. we created 200 million more starving peopleov over the past few years by virtue of massive food inflation. these are real people. 200 million people now don't have food. these are real people who just fought the war and now we don't have the resources to provide these people with jobs, the unemployment and all these other issues. do you have any sense of how you create a political attraction absent the draft? it's not vietnam, people are disengaged so that people understand the acuteness of the challenges of a returning military? >> well, i think you have to just remind our politicians every single day, 6,000 people have died. we spent almost 1.3 trillion over the last 10 or 11 years, and what do we have to show for it? we have a country in afghanistan that doesn't want us there and they're never going to surrender. if they don't surrender, you can't win. if you don't believe me, ask the soviets. so how do you get the politicians, the president and the congress, led by both democrats and republicans? you remind them of the facts, and the facts are simple. we know the numbers. karen, you guys just discussed it. i'm talking about the people that died and how much we spent. how much are we going to have to spend to take care of our troops? and the day of lincoln and the day of fdr and truman, we have treated our veterans the way we treat them now, and i bet the answer is we would not have. and that's remarkably embarrassing and shameful way to treat people that give their service to the country. >> it does not reflect well on our culture at the moment. we can act individually and collectively to change it. a lighter subject. karen. >> yes? >> this you will be held to account for. >> okay. >> could you make it a full week of your professional and personal and glamorous washington, d.c. hot shot life -- >> oh, yeah. >> -- without using any cash? no cash. >> yes. absolutely. >> susan, in your hot shot park avenue republican consulting gram russ avenue no cash? >> absolutely. 100%. >> jimmy, your bizarrely juxtaposed advocacy with your lifestyle few people know, could you do all that without cash? >> i am here to state unequivocally as a gay man, hell, no. >> whoa, whoa, jimmy, whoa! >> tell us, james, where you would run into a cash problem. >> just calling it like it is, guys, just calling it like it is. we have an image to keep up. hell, look at me, it takes a lot to look like this. i'm being sarcastic. >> how much money do you have in your pocket right now, james? >> actually, none, because i just tipped the manicure lady everything i had. i have nothing in my pockets. >> they're saying that with the transition -- it is tight times, but in this case they're saying it is the transition away from paper to the virtuality of our currency, and then the question is, is it easier to spend virtual money, is it easier to steal virtual money? what's our relationship with money when all of a sudden it's not in jimmy's pocket? >> i'm much more aware of my spending because i always use cash. in fact, i only stopped using as much because i wanted the points on my credit card. >> that's a scam, too, you know. >> i know, but i pay my bills. the other thing is when i went through a background check for a city agency, they called me in, and the only question they had was saying, how is it possible you only have one credit card? it was just a reflection of the society. it's like, you only have one? we need to investigate you because of that. >> just one serious point on all of this. the thing that concerns me when we have these conversations about the future and this idea of not having money or big coin, as we were talking about earlier, what about people who live in rural communities? what about lower income people who don't have access to the technology and computers and credit cards or the ability to get credit? that is a big problem in this country for a lot of people. so, i mean, it's great to think about these things on one end of the scale, but we're quickly becoming, or even more so i worry about what is the gulf between this end and that end when we have these conversations? >> it exacerbates one of the most offensive characteristics across the board on this show, which is two sets of rules, right? >> right. >> where it creates just another breach for layers of this, and they are well documented. anyway, panel sticks around, karen, susie and jimmy, and we add a specialist. up next, some frankenstein food. who is starving us of the information we need about what we eat? our specialist is a chairman and co-founder of stoney field farm. - mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere, is always headed somewhere. to give it a sense of direction, at&t created a mobile asset solution to protect and track everything. so every piece of equipment knows where it is, how it's doing or where it goes next. ♪ this is the bell on the cat. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service. with rent2buy from hertz car sales, you skip the lots... and pushy sales people... it's a fast, easy way to buy a used car. three days to try. zero pressure to buy. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. do we know what we are eating? we certainly think we do. this week the fda formally called on the pharmaceutical companies to limit the use of antibiotics in feed for farm animals. they've been doing that one way or another for many years and yet it hasn't happened in decades, even. the use of drugs in our animals is a practice that scientists and consumer groups say is contributing to a surge in so-called super bugs as a role in antibiotics in feed for the animals ultimately creates a resistance in bacteria and viruss to which we become vulnerable. our specialist says it's not just meat and cheeses but crops are also a major source of concern from pesticides to herbicides. he says chemical companies have been silently ruining our crops and our soil for years. how much so? how much can he actually quantify this? he says to the point that two-thirds of processed foods now include genetically engineered ingredients and you and i don't know a darn thing about it, because the people responsible for selling the food and producing the food and their lobbyists and the resolving door, they don't want us to know. basically, everything that we don't like, big money in politics associated with banking, health care, energy, mining reform, you pick it, that same system is the culture that p presides over america's food policy as well so we make decisions in the interest of those who can make more money selling things rather than in the interest of the consumer whose actual nutrition and life depend on what they eat. gary hirschburn, cthe co-founde and chairman of stoney hill farms. the rights of americans to know what they're eating. gary, let us be very simple. you hire lobbyists for a reason. what are they hiding? >> to be precise, it's not so much the food companies as the chemical companies in this case. the companies we know as biotech companies are the largest such companies in america and in the world. and for 16-plus years, they've been illegally putting forward crops that are genetically engineered, as you said earlier. >> what's wrong with that? >> we don't actually know whether the food themselves may be harmful, but we do know that 16 years after their introduction, we've seen an explosion in 400 million pounds of herbicides now being spread in our country sides, so much so that we now have herb intolerant weeds that are now resistant, so now they tell us we have to bring in the cavalry with even stronger toxins. >> so it's kind of like if you set up a financial system that had no capital and they decided to print $32 million more and keep doing it? >> kind of like that. >> gary, i'm glad you're on the show today. tuesday ruth marshall and mark bidman from the "new york times" were there talking about what are you eating, are you a foodie, blah, blah, blah, and what came up was the farm bill. it's sitting in congress right now, it's pending, and everybody is lining up to get their piece into the farm bill. we had to fight, when i was a senate staffer, to get labels on everything from where your fruits and vegetables came from, meats, seafood, et cetera, et cetera. we see a lot of that today. in your experience as former ceo of a company that actually threw food out there, how bad is it, and in your opinion, what should we do to make it so consumers can see choices? they can buy it or choose a different product. what would you do? >> in the case of genetically engineered foods, we need the rights that citizens in 40 other nagz have. really progressive countries like russia and china where labeling is mandate. >> but they're a bunch of liberals. >> i'll tell you something interesting. we have 1.1 million people who have signed our petition to demand exactly what jimmy is asking about, to demand that the fda require labeling as it's required in these 40 other countries. interestingly, there is no statistical difference between democrats and republicans and independents. they don't require anything in this country except maybe breathing, but we have a right to know what's in our food. we need full transparency. >> we look at all the issues across this set over the past few years, karen, the unifying principle of every last one of them is a concrete advocacy of transparency, whether it includes one set of rules and we have opaque everything and two sets of rules for everything. is that unfair, karen? >> no, it's not unfair, but i think we have to go back even one more step because this conversation really changed in the '70s where we stopped talking about food and we started talking about nutrients. the lobbyists and the big interests decided they wanted to have a conversation about nutrients. why? i can then produce a sugar cereal and say i've added vitamin b, c and d, and see, it's perfectly healthy. part of it is not just about being able to read the label -- >> you're good. i like to see you in the room. keep going. >> the point is, we've got to change the conversation back to, no, if it's my food, i want to know what's in it. because again, if you're having this conversation about nutrients, that's what some of the chemical companies will say, right, that some of these hormones are nutrients. we don't even know, necessarily, from a health perspective, maybe we shouldn't be getting our nutrients in our splenda, we shouldn't have b-12 vitamins added to it. >> in the 21st century, we now need to include processed as well as ingredients, to karen's point. these are uniquely manmade crops that they've invented and they have patents that they can control and prosecute -- >> and patent is seed and knowing where to grow it. >> it's a beautiful business model because you use the patent seeds, you have to use their chemicals. their chemicals become obsolete, you have to use their stronger chemicals. >> now we're making money. >> absolutely. it's phenomenal. we buy congress and we buy lobbying. everyone eats. so the point is, very simply, is what we need to be focusing on right now is not just what's in the food but how it's grown. we've done this with radiation. on the one end of washington, they've gotten these patents where they say, these are unique crops. they're literally licensed to be unique. on the other hand, the fda is saying, they're not unique, they're the same, they're completely the same and you should have no right to know. these very same companies using this powerful clout generate from 20th century profits from very high margins. >> so this is a good one. when it creates money, it's unique in the patent office, but when it requires disclosure to the consumer what it is you're feeding them, there's no difference. chicken is chicken. hey! >> and apparently meat is meat if you talk about pink slime, for example. i mean, that's something that obviously they had great lobbyists because it went from dog food into human food, which is unbelievable, and it got a lot of exposure so we were able to look at it, and i guess my question to you, gary, is what would you want -- like if there's one or two items that people should be extremely a ware of because it just frightens you, what would that be? >> again, as you all know very well, i'm preaching to the choir here, we're not having elections anymore, we're having sales. what we really need is the fda, the usda to be foreign by the people, not foreign by a handful of chemical companies. we have the right to know and we need the right to know. again, not just the majority but 90% of americans want that. we want to know the processes. is it irradiated? then you can choose for religious purposes, economic reasons, health reasons, you can make your own choice. but we need the market to take over here and not have this controlled system generated by this concentration of wealth expedited by united citizens. >> so you're good with the whole power routine? >> i'm from new hampshire where they live with us, right? >> as you may have picked up, the folks that watch this show are pretty much either learning or know more than we do or are -- the only things -- this is -- this is just going to irritate people. what we have to figure out is what can they do? >> go to a web site that 550 organizations representing the right, the left, the middle, religious groups, conventional farmers, it's called justlabelit.org. join the petition. it's 1.1 million. this is an effort to take back our government. we don't have the money these large corporations have, we don't have the concentrations of wealth, and we don't have another 25 years to get this right. this is the moment when we actually, as individuals feeding our families, we can actually understand what is in our food to simply get the fda to give us a right to know by mandating labeling. >> gary, all of us appreciate your leadership and we have the benefit of a leader in your forum who has tremendous credibility due to the nature of your priorities. thank you, and continue to behave in a way that is designed to help. thank you. gary hirschberg, he's the founder. he's the old boss of stoney field farms. he's looking for our partnership to create transparency at the fda. thanks to you, you'll appreciate this final comment. so jimmy, i understand it is your birthday, and we're trying to figure out, what are we going to do for jimmy's birthday? we got this whole big cake, it looked beautiful, it was all painted up. then i looked at it and i saw gary was coming on, and i'm looking at this thing thinking, this thing is jacked up, with corn syrup, god knows if it's genetically engineered weed in the cake, so my presideent to jy is to not give him this cake. as a friend who loves you, why would i give you poison on the date of your birth? i would never do that, so my birthday present to you is no cake. >> the makeup folks here at d.c. have already done the poison cake. >> gary says he'll get you some yogurt that will help balance it out. >> i love stoney field yogurt. it's my favorite. >> it's incoming. karen, see you soon. gary, thank you. happy birthday, james. straight ahead, vindication for anyone who surfs the web when they're at work. ♪ spread a little love today ♪ ♪ spread a little love my way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ ♪ ♪ spread a little joy... 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we're back now on ea thursday. we're breaking down the evolution of robots and problem-solving culture when you're looking to find out new things. our next guest is a biologist who makes a living building robots to mimic life forms. everything from animals to fish, and then he simply lets them evolve using artificial intelligence and adaptive learning capacities of the 21st century, and what happens at that point is anybody's guess. but guess what happens or what we learn about what happens could change robotic technology forever. john long wrote "darwin's choic devices." . what is the power of a robot? >> we build these robots that are really models, they're mimics, of ancient life forms. we give them a brain so they can make their own decisions and we put them in our laboratory and we let them behave, and we apply a selection pressure, which is what evolution is, and we see if we can reenact the revolutionary events that may have happened 500 million years ago. >> couple things in there. you said you put a brain in. what does that mean? >> it's a computer. >> so there is a computer and there is a physical reproduction of an extinct critter. >> that's right. and we use a new kind of engineering called soft robotics and bio memetics to try to build these materials just like animals are made of and we put them in our robots. so we're getting away from things like steel and sealing wax and getting into these biological materials, so the physical body we make is very realistic. >> one of the producers right before the show was saying that one of the real challenges you guys have in your laboratory is with the actual functioning of the body, not simply the reducing of the learning characteristics of the brain, as you put it. >> here's one of the really cool things we learned, is that we can actually hold the brain constant over evolutionary time, watch the body evolve and the animals get smarter. >> hang on a second. say that again. >> you don't need a brain -- you don't need to change your brain to get smarter. >> you don't need a brain. that's very 20th century. we're over that. what you're saying is as the body changes, you get smarter. >> that's right. >> elaborate on that statement. >> well, we're so focused on our heads, we humans, that we forget there are lots of very successful animals out there that have very little brain, and so we can actually show in our experiments that we can get better behavior, better feeding, better escaping from predators, without touching the brain just by changing the body. >> huh. that's pretty -- that's a great headline. that's a great new super headline, that's all i can say. get smarter by changing your body. you can do a diet program as well based on these programs. how has hollywood done -- we consider you to be among the robot scientists today on the edge of the veil of development, what you just described to us that's in this book. how has hollywood done projecting from the star wars robot wars -- we all know the famous robots. how are they doing? >> they're okay. some things they get right. i think there will be various kinds of robots on the battlefield. we're already seeing a lot of development. we have over 50 countries in the world that are building robots for warfare. so there is a secret arms race going on right now that we don't hear much about in the press, so our own program has be-- drone been so successful that everybody wants their drones. i don't think they've gotten right this idea that robots will be conscious, sentient, and take over. i think we control them. they're not really that robust, so if we stop preparing them, they're going to die. >> what about taking over the computer systems and this kind of thing. remember hal? >> i felt bad for hal because he didn't really have a body. >> that's how you got into this business. >> that's right, and it's being physically embodied that is so important in robotics right now. we're getting out of the computer and we're really putting the computer into these mobile bodies. so that's part of the robotic evolution right now is having mobile robots. >> lastly and quickly, what role would a fantasy-developed robot of the kind that you described play in my life or in a human's life 10, 20, 50 years from now? >> imagine you get a robot and it learns to be with your family, learns whatever kind of needs you want. >> like a butler. >> and it actually can evolve so you have a group of these robots and they evolve to meet your needs by changing their bodies. >> wow. we're going to leave it at that. there's a lot to work with. that's a good movie. a pleasure. again, john long, "darwin's devices," the book. check it out. that was a pretty intriguing way to leave it. coming up on "hardball." to the cast couch we go. a resident there tells us how to be productive when the rate of change is high and you don't know what's going on. all right, let's decide what to do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen... listen...it's not just some line item on a budget; it's what i'll have to live on... i live on branson street, and i have something to say... [ male announcer ] aarp is bringing the conversation on medicare and social security out from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ] in a world filled with so much economic uncertainty and in security, in fact, the rate of change across the board creating disruptions well beyond our economic discussions all the time across this country. our resident is here to give us some perspective when the rate is so terribly high. as a result, the level of uncertainty is so incredibly high, which makes people afraid, naturally, and you get a variety of aberrant behaviors. >> i think we are a culture addicted to all or nothing thinking. we are only comfortable with highs or lows. when we live in uncertainty, we become completely confused, we make irrational decisions in our business, in all financial matters. part of us growing up as a country is to allow ourselves to live in that uncertainty and surround ourselves with people who don't take a small problem and make it bigger than it is. you know how you had the job report come out, i got all these e-mails that the world is ending, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. if you look at every piece of data and you catastrophize everything to make it bigger, you're never going to be happy. >> so even when you observe it and you can intellectualize it, and i can say, listen, i know, but there is a second thing between the awareness of this that exists and being able to act in a way to mitigate it. >> i think part of it is not judging yourself so harshly, not seeing every action as large as it is. a quick example would be a person who consistently has tomato sauce on his t-shirt, tomato sauce consistently on his t-shirt. he extrapolates from that that he's a mess. from that he says, my whole life is a mess. i have no control over anything, rather than seeing the problem for what it is. i think we have so much difficulty, being so harsh on ourselves, and it doesn't allow us to be productive. we need to start taking control of things that we do have control of. we have control of the food we put in our mouth, we have control over the exercise, we have control over the contacts we make, the people we surround ourselves with. we have to be kind to ourselves and not judge ourselves so harshly sometimes and stop the negative talk. >> meaning? >> it's so pervasive, this idea that if we lose our job, we are lost. if a relationship doesn't work out, we are worthless. these are actions that happen in our lives, they're behaviors that happen in our lives. >> in everyone's life? >> in everyone's life. they're universal truths. but if we start seeing them as absolutes and indicative of us as a person, that's when we get into trouble and that's where the downward spiral comes in. >> now apply that to the mass psyche in this country in the contrast of the set presidential election. we have seven months here. if we were healthy, how would we treat this time? >> i was so struck by your discussion with imogen yesterday about this uncertainty about who would win the election. you have two candidates, right, who could take that seven months and have an honest debate on how to solve this country's problems. they're not going to do that. they're going to take contrasting points of view, they're going to utilize all or nothing thinking patterns and they're going to divide people. they could use it constructively, but they won't. >> let's say we take that awareness, we know that that's what they are going to do, we know that the media is going to play along with that. what should we do to protect ourselves, guard ourselves so we can be less sucked in to some of this madness? >> the consciousness of our thought patterns and thought practices. be conscious of the way we take in information. >> know that the information is being motivated in a certain way. >> it's being motivated in a black or white, all or nothing feeling. know that it isn't transparent. it's completely biased. >> and the benefit of that is what, quickly? >> the be
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