abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> welcome to "the young turks." we'll talk about snowden first. we have a lovely panelist with h me. ana kasparian, shana naomi krochmal and current, i guess. i have feelings about snowden. why don't you tell us what happened, and we'll get going. >> there is an exciting

development in the edward snowden case. he's no longer hiding out in an argument. he has been granted asylum by russian officials. he can stay in russia unti until 2014. who knows what will happen to him. he may have to continue applying for asylum. there are many politician who is are upset about this news, they feel he should be extradited to the united states, and let's go to jay carney and hear what he has to say. >> we're extremely disappointed that the russian government would take this step despite the clear and lawful request in public and private to have snowden expelled to the united states to face charges against him. we have a wide range of interests with the russians, and we are evaluating the utility of the summit. >> now he didn't the only one upset about this. others are upset about this, senator chuck schumer said the

following:i want to address this with all of you now. i can't stand that accusation, that edward snowden is a coward. because if he were really a coward he would do exactly what other employees are doing, which is nothing, anything about the widespread surveillance that is occurring right now in the u.s. >> cenk: yeah, it's an on surrender charge. calling him a coward is so stupid. what is he supposed to do, oh, yeah, i love the bradley manning treatment, and can you also give me a possible sentence of 136 years, and by the way, if you're a banker and you did money laundering for the drug cartels

and alqaida, you're free to go. but if you dare criticize the government we could put you up in jail for life. that's number one. number two, wait a minute. the president right now is meeting with members of congress to try to allay concerns about the nsa program. part of the reason congress is so upset about is because they didn't know about it--until edward snowden told them. that's the definition of a whistle blower. forget us, even congress didn't know. now the white house is turning around and saying look, look, i see you're all upset. but the guy who let you know about the nsa program, and you and your representatives know about the nsa programs, the russians, i can't believe they're hiding him. we need to get that guy. screw that, snowed den, run, don't come to the this

country. are you nuts? >> i wish he could prove that it was not espionage but it was whistle blowing, but our system is broken in mean ways and we saw that with bradley manning. what you were saying before, saying that he was a coward, this is a very, i think, a sad emotional appeal to get people turned against him. they can't point to actual damage done, they have to hope that labeling him a coward wil,d just like they like to label leaker as pedophiles and sexual predators, things like that. >> i think the way he's in russia just adds to this ridiculous outdated cold war story on top it. he we strayed america and he went to russia. what what we've seen is the public opinion polling, and people actually care about their

privacy. this long term we're going to see. this is what people wanted to know, this story was important, and people cared about it. >> before we go to the polls, people say, oh, yeah, he's going to the countries that don't even love freedom. well, if we loved freedom we might want to protect whistle blowers who give information to congress that congress didn't even have. >> usually they call that an inspector general's reports, and in this case it took a whistle blower for them to figure out what they should have been told. >> it's fascinating because when it comes to polling i feel like the u.s. population is fickle because they keep changing their minds about edward snowden. is he a whistle blower, is he traitor? a recent poll shows 55% o respondents consider him a whistle blower, and only 34% view him as a traitor.

it's sad because his biggest fear is that he would leak this information, and that no one would actually do anything with it, and so far that's what it seems like. we demonize him, we've done a character assassination, not we as this show, but americans involved. >> cenk: the propaganda machine is in full force, oh my god, china, china russia, russia china, and schumer comes out, stabbed in the back. senators mccain and graham are calling moving forward with the missile defense program. what are we going to do, nuke russia because they have snowden? how mental are we? by the way, so look, of course how you frame the question, the polls mean a lot. and that is the difference between some of the polls. but this is two polls in a row with nearly identical numbers when they asked the same

question. whistle blower or traitor. and over the course of two weeks. if 55% of america--if 34% of america thinks he's--let's bear in mind the legality of what he did, the constitutionality of what he did is no way dependent on people perceive him as a traitor. but what did he is legal, and it doesn't matter if public opinion turns against him. >> i'm almost shocked in this age of the rhetoric we see around labor unions, consum conr protection, that whistle blowers don't test positively at all. i'm not sure that the right ha s destroyed what it means to be a whistle plower,.

>> cenk: the right and president obama. now thi. >> to collect all internet activity, everything they can collect, store it, and then allow their analysts, low-level analysts with access to terminals to search whatever it is they want and find out what your emails say, what internet sites you visited, and pretty much anything else you do on the internet. it's a an all purpose. >> cenk: i just want you to understand how that score works. all they need is your e-mail address. they can do it in a lot of different ways. but if they have rush limbaugh's e-mail address oh or angelina jolie's. they just put the e-mail

address, it gives you the contact of the e-mails, web searches and you don't need a warrant. now the over 1 million people with contractors who have classified information, none of them are going to view that. the paparazzi are going to get to somebody and say i would love brad pitt's e-mails or mel gibson's e-mails and what website he has been on to. of course they're going to abuse it. even if it's not quote up quote the government. it's going to be people who have access to that information. >> so now we go to senator leahy who was mad about it. >> government following americans on a dale lay basis, and it appears authorit authoris

type of collection. what is going to be next? when is enough enough? >> cenk: that's a great question. already things are so massively abused what is going to be next? now i want to go to an amazing thing that happened out in long island. michelle catalano was going to cook something up, and he they a knock on the door from six people from the joint terrorism task force, they came in, at first they thought it was the fbi, but it was long island police and part of the joint terrorism task force. they asked m about me, where was i, where do i work. do i have an bombs, a do you own a pressure cooker. my husband said no, but you have a rice cooker. do you make a bomb with that? no, my wife use it is to make

quinoa. what the hell is quinoa, they ask. how do they know that they were searching those terms if they don't spy on americans? does anybody have a good answer? >> yes, even in regard to like if they were using it's supposed to be used to spy on people outside of the united states. they can't say we've got software because it's the illegal use of that software. >> cenk: oh, we did bump kiss story. they write, well, it could have been for other reasons. that's what you got? maybe it was a nosy neighbor that call in the joint terrorism task force. maybe they went and saw their facebook pictures, but they asked about the pressure cooker. how do they know that they were interested in pressure cookers and backpacks?

i honestly saw their google searches! so i thought we were spying on americans? i thought they weren't looking at our google searches? how obvious is it that they're lying. >> and they still don't know what quinoa is after all that. >> cenk: to be fair, either do i. one other thing about this before we leave. do you know that in x score you can do it backwards. you can go to a website and then see everyone who went to that website. >> i like the drop down reason you can list the reasons for your search. i swear this person is outside of the united states. or i think outside of united states. it's like selling out an expense report if you're not sure that

something qualifies but one of these categories will get approved. >> and james clapper says, yes, there have been violations of that by the way of your privacy, but they were done with good intent, and ron white saying no, the violations are much more severe than they're letting you know. and if you di go to any website, you could g go to a porn websit, and see who is on that website, but i'm sure 1.3 classified information would never abuse it like that. >> if you're not going to question authority you have nothing to worry about. >> cenk: sit at home, bow your heads to the government and they'll never come and get you. unless you're cooking quinoa. in which case they might literally, in long island, send six guys to to come and ask you about your family, where you're from a, etc. are you convinced we live in a

police state? i'm sure the right wing and the obama apologists will probably say, they probably had it coming, cooking rice, how dare they. when we come back, ariel castro was sentenced. i think it was the toughest sentence i've ever seen in my life, which he more than swerved. deserved. we'll look at that when we come back. >> do you think there is any chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned great leadership so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buz words. >> family values, speding,

liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things happen. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

>> did anyone tell the pilgrims they should self-deport? >> no, they said "make us a turkey and make it fast". >> (laughter). >> she gets the comedians laughing. >> that's the best! >> that's hilarious. >> ... and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there is wiggle room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> she's joy behar. >> ya, i consider you jew-talian. >> okay, whatever you want. >> who plays kafka? >> who saw kafka? >> who ever saw kafka? >> (laughter). >> asking the tough questions. >> chris brown, i mean you wouldn't let one of your daughters go out with him. >> absolutely not. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me? >> absolutely! >> (singing) >> i take lipitor,

thats it. >> are you improving your lips? >> (laughter). >> when she's talking, you never know where the conversation is going to go. >> it looks like anthony wiener is throwing his hat in the ring. >> his what in the ring? >> his hat. >> always outspoken, joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv. >> day turns to night. night turns to day. years turn into eternity. i knew nobody cared about me. that my family didn't care. even on holidays, christmas was more traumatic because i never

got to spend it with my son. nobody will have ever to go through what i went through, nobody else. >> cenk: so you can see that ariel castro's sentencing was today, and he got quite a heavy sentencing. here is rob wi robin sax to tels about it. >> here is abc with the story. >> michelle knight said nobody should ever have to go through what she did, even her worst enemy. >> you took 11 years of my life away. >> ariel castro sat through the sentencing hearing chained up just like he had done to his three victims. later he spoke for over 15 minutes.

the 53-year-old pleaded guilty to 937 counts including murder and kidnapping. castro avoided the death penalty but he couldn't avoid the rehashing of the horse of his crime. witness after witness described the cruelty that he inflicted on those three young women over a decade. the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. she was beaten and starved until she miscarried. >> he was jump up and down on her stomach and forced her to perform physical exercise. >> the woman who first found the women in castro's house. >> i told her, it's okay, honey, you're safe. she jumped in my arms and i'm trying to holster my weapon.

her legs were wrapped around me. it was hard to get my weapon back in my holster. >> so i'm coming at this from the perspective as a former sex crimes prosecutor and people hearing this would think it was done just for the purpose of television and it's purpose of us discussing this, but there was real legal significance putting witnesses on the stand, but you can see some of the images what the police saw, the chain that were 91 feet in chain that they were all locked to until they were taken to other parts of the homes, and the abuse was not only detailed by michelle knight who spoke at the sentencing, but also police officers who described what the scene was. and then there was a piece of sentencing that has some people up in arms. that was that ariel castro was

able to make a statement, too. we have some of that here. [ indiscernible ] [ indiscernible ]

>> cenk: all right, two issues. some are upset that he got to speak. i don't care about that at all. guys at nuremberg got to speak. he got to speak for 15 minutes, then we put him away for life plus a thousand years. i think that's part of the process. >> legally,s mandated by the process. he's entitled to it, and it's only actually recent case law that victims now have a right. but it was not a normal right that always victims got this opportunity to speak. s somewhat new. >> cenk: you know, it's fascinating. i feel that society has become so scared of letting other voice speak. when we talk about the terrorism cases. what would malik mohammed have

to say in court. yeah, so what? are they still masterminds and bretpretty soon we're going to e brainwashed? why are we so afraid of it? the guy is a monster. he had his 15 minutes, now he goes away for life. >> what i love is we get insight into who he is. i actually took about 15 seconds of transcribing what i said, and i counted--two minutes, 23 times he sai said "i" or me "me," but4 times that they said "they." >> cenk: he said he was not a monster, he was safe. is there validity to that?

>> one of the defenses sex offenders would say, it was just an opportunist. the situation presented itself and i took advantage of the opportunity. he said that same thing today. and he actually even said that it was consensual. that the act--these were no pure girls, and he was victory blaming that every perpetrator does. he's a predator, predator, predator. >> cenk: here is a clue that it was not consensual, it's chains. >> yeah, i don't know what else to say about this. i'm glad he got such a harsh sentence. i don't believe in the death penalty, but emotionally, if i came to an emotional standpoint i would want to see him execut executed. >> i prosecuted sex crimes for seven years. first we saw j.a jaycee p dugar.

you really see the society rallying around the victims. and in fact michelle mcknight september a note to the cleveland police and this is what this note said. this is what it said. dear commander, you don't know how much i appreciate your time collecting cards and gifts from people around me and the love, thoughts and prayer expressed by strangers. life is tough, but i'm tougher, and just as she thought the caterpillar was over, she came out a butterfly. >> just amazing. >> cenk: i hope the entire world has a girl that they love, and

then to see someone kidnapped like this and put in a hellhole for 11 years. >> that's the point. it's so outrageous as a defense attorney you can say that it's almost impossible that something like this happened. there was a multi disciplinary task force team to prosecute this case. a huge piece of what made this case actually able to be resolved so quickly was aeria al castro's own words. he folded like a lawn chair and spoke for hours. you had an effective skill team that was not like the normal botched investigation that we hear about. >> cenk: and by the way, they got that confession without torture, that is weird. good ol' fashioned investigative work. plus he wanted to get caught. he left the door open, and the

fact that he had them for 11 years does not speak well of investigative work. when we come back in russia there is--along with the good part, there is the terrible part, the laws passed against the gay community which has got everybody across the world very, very angry and thinking about boycotting the winter olympics in russia, and spilling vodka in the streets. [ sirens ] [ ♪ music ]

cenk: back on "the young turks." now, russia's in the news a lot lately, now unfortunately for laws against -- propaganda that's in favor of homosexuals. laugh along with me. that's absurd. now people are thinking about boycotting the winter olympics. >> i think what we've seen is this inevitable collision course between the escalate be approval

in the us and acceptance particularly in the sports world for lbgt people and causes and what is happening in russia, this crazy right wing campaign against gay people. under poo tin, they have passed laws and have terrible clashes. we have footage of protests. they are brutal, bloody. they are not fair. they are not balanced. what you are seeing is very, very brave russians who continue to go in the streets and organize pride marches, kiss-ins and say we are not going to be in tim did id. at the same time, they are passing increasingly extreme laws that will do everything including ban people who do so much as say anything positive about a gay person or walk down the street holding hands. cenk: what's their excuse for that. >> one is that putin can use this to leverage anti westerner,

anti american sentiment both in his own country and europe. that's what's really happening. he knows that is a way to rail up people. it's a very leftest topic. the excuse they are using is that somehow all of these gay russians are going to seduce and ruin all their children. cenk: that's why you are not allowed to say anything about homo suit, because that would be pro homosexual propaganda. >> yeah. cenk: if you're a homosexual cap you say anything positive about yourself? >> no, and it includes people coming in from outside the country. if you are a tourist, coming in from out of town. if my wife and i went to russia and held hands, we could be held up to two weeks, he could be fined. cenk: what if you held hands in a negative way? >> i think the question is as russia prepares to host the olympics in sochi, what's going to happen no not only do you

have lbgt athletes, you have people attending and people increasingly in america and other countries, athletes are very pro gay, who have made p.s.a.'s and supported their gay teammates. what's going to happen to them. the international olympic committee said they will be able to protect and gay athletes would not be subject to this rule, which i think a lot of american gay organizations were it's kind of the point, what about all the people who live there and secondly, how are you going to stop russia from doing anything. in the last couple of days, we've seen a couple of different anti gay lawmakers say no way, we are not accepting anyone from this. we don't chiropractor if you're an athlete. i think there's some big questions. will people actually be safe going, are people in russia safe. we know the answer is no. i think that should remain our focus more so than folks coming

in are 22 weeks to the limb approximate picks and what should web doing. we have folks organizing protests abroad and in the united states. the ones who have been the best photo ops are gay activists pouring vodka out, saying we should not buy vodka. this is an amazing media opportunity. i think there are some questions about whether it's the right way to do a boycott or the kind of boycott that we need to do right now. >> two questions arise. number one, should we boycott the winter olympics. i want to talk about that. number two, they're throwing out stoli. there might be a couple of delicious. >> we have a statement from stoli that points out that they have proudly supported the lgbt community around the world. they would like you to realize that this is not the stoli that you are actually drinking, it's a different company. >> this is not at all russia.

>> number one, know your boycott. pick the right thing, pick chick-fil-a for example. cenk: not only does stoli not make putin pass this law. >> they are pro gay. >> and not russian. it is a wrong headed protest. >> stoli moved out of russia and are in a lawsuit right now with russia over distributing and all of that stuff. it's the wrong company to target, and it doesn't really send the right message. cenk: it might help them. they waste all that stoli and realize it's wrong, let's buy it again. >> to your question about should we protest the winter olympics. we can be fairly certain that the american people will boycott the winter olympics because it's the winter olympics and they

probably weren't planning to watch it anyway. >> they will tape delay it. >> it's easy to focus on the differences between the countries, how different we are. we do have one thing in common. we have a ton of lawmakers who are closeted homosexuals. the only person passing a bill saying you can't distribute prop began at a to become gay, that is a person who is secretly gay. cenk: that's really interesting. apparently, they think, i hadn't thought of it that way, john. we talk about closeted homosexuals here in america that are right wing all the time. apparently they think if i just hear a good enough argument, i'm on the other side. >> it gives us the opportunity to have a lot of really high profile people make great arguments about why there's nothing wrong with being gay in russia or anywhere else. diplomatically, the state department has expressed concern about these laws and other laws in russia that curb freedom of expression.

i would love to see our state department be very, very strong about this. we don't need to boycott the olympics as a country. that doesn't affect much change diplomatically, but we can do a lot to condemn these laws. >> i know what we should do. first, johnny wiers is openly gay and he says i've never thought of the olympics as a political statement. a boycott is wrong as far as athletes are concerned. i think boycott's the wrong direction to go, but i think yeah, of course you can make a political statement at the olympics and they should makeup equal one. remember the olympics where the black athletes put up the. >> they wouldn't have been able to do that if they were boycotting, right? because they were there and they won and they stood on that podium they were able to make this statement. cenk: don't boycott, but when the gay athletes win add they invariably will in some contest, they should wear something,

maybe a pink glove, seriously and put up the same thing. >> there has been one skater who thought he would wear a rainbow pin. i think it would be amazing to see athletes and they are allies go out there and say arrest me. cenk: exactly. >> i would love to think it's really unlikely that these athletes are going to be arrested in the middle of the opening ceremonies. i think the opening ceremonies so kind of ridiculous and rahrah and my least favorite part of the olympics to be honest, but it's an opportunity to create a spectacle of a protest that would be really memorable, and i would love to see that happen. >> here's what needs to has. i joked about how nobody watches the winter olympics. if this is what you do, i don't think they should boycott it. this is the best event they can possibly compete in. i think they should go, but the boycott should be the i.o.c. should say until you repeal these laws, no country that does this should be allowed to host the olympics.

>> it's why the olympics were taken away from south africa and didn't come back for 28 years. they have a make a stand. cenk: the three things we're going to do, not let countries with laws like this get the olympics. we're going to do some sort of glove in the wear when a gay athlete wins. after you win a medal, you go in the street and you say positive things about gay people whether you're gay or straight with your medal on and get arrested. it could be 15 days, a fine and 15 days in jail, that's asking a lot of people, but that would be an awesome statement. do you put 28 or 200 olympic medal winners in a russian prison for saying positive thing about guys? that's an awesome statement. right? let's see how it goes down. all right, now, when we come back, we're going to talk to a woman who understands why the democrats are so in coherent in their economic messaging. i'd love to find out why, and you will, too, when you come

right back.

cenk: we're back on "the young turks" approximate. we've got a great guest for you guys now. she's written a book, don't buy it, not about her book "don't buy it, the trouble with talking nonsense about the economy." she's got a lot of interesting points to make about how the economy's perceived, how the political parties deal with it. great to have you on "the young turks." >> thank you so much for having me. cenk: no problem. i like you were courageous enough to make the statement in your book, don't buy it. tell me what the book is about. >> the book is a dissection about how we've come to be told the economy is something out of nature, a god to be worshiped or force to be obeyed or how we should work for the economy and be concerned about whether it's

healthy and we should sacrifice for it when in reality, the economy is nothing more than a way that we measure what we do and buy and what we save and invest and it ought to be working for for us, not the other way around. >> how do you think there should be messaging around this to be more effective. >> giving in to dominant frameworks about the economy being healthy and unhealthy and being concerned about whether we need to resuscitate the patient and what's good for the economy is a losing proposition. it posits the idea that the economy is something real as if it were a person. what the democrats out to be doing if they wanted messaging that was in alike thatment with progressive economic policy is speaking about the economy like it is, which is a person-made machine. that sounds like language like it's on the right track, it's on the wrong track, it's veering out of control. this is what signals

unconsciously to listeners and readers that the economy is something that we made and that ought to be working for us, and that's basically what i argue in my book "don't buy it." cenk: use do you think the right wing personifies the economy and makes sure we don't hurt its feelings, because they mean wall street and fortune 500 companies, giant multi-national corporations and hence want us to think what's good for those corporations and wall street is what's good for us, even though there's a disconnect. >> i absolutely think that there is what we would call a motonomy happening, where the market comes to be a stand in for the whole economy, but there's more than that. it's also that if they keep us under this perpetual state of fear that oh, no, we can't do that, whatever it is, raise the minimum wage, increased earned income tax credit, you name it, anything that our nation and our

people actually need to be healthy and thriving, if we believe that those things will, and i quote "hurt the economy" and that it's our job to sacrifice for the good of the economy, then basically, they can pedal anything they want at us and it sounds like it's for a greater good. cenk: it's interesting. whenever i hear people such as yourself or drew weston or professor lakeoff talk about framing, the arguments are indisputable. you have gone to progressive groups and legislators, et cetera. knowing that they're imperious to logic, what conclusion do you draw, are they dense peel or perhaps not on our side? >> i think it's a little bit of both. part of it is that wall street is buttering bread an all sides, who's kidding who, right, if we're talking about the main

line democratic establishment, they're not exactly going to be into a message that's socking it in the face of wall street and i recognize that, but as far as the folks who are truly on our side, the members of the progressive congressional caucus, my own representative, barbara lee, there are other people who are truly with us and why they vice president solely embraced the cognitive principles behind good messaging, i think we believe so much in our hearts that what we're saying is right and the facts are on our side. they have a well known liberal bias. we just think we'll tell people that decades and decades of austerity internationally proves one thing, that you don't screw your way to a better society. you don't extract everything and hand it to a handful of cronies and that somehow makes the world a great place for democracy.

cenk: often they talk about the invisible hand and free market principles and they're doing no good contracts, destroying free market principles and slapping that hand away in a lot of ways, as well you. wrote why americans all believe they are middle class. that's interesting, too. why do they believe that. what do you think is the main fallacy there? >> the main fallacy is that middle class has become a brand without a product. it's a word bond about by politicians on all side, has most favored talking points status. when you look at it in usage, what we can do with different ling witness stick tools, we see that the middle class is flailing or growing or its bludgeoned. that tells us what's happening to the grouping. it doesn't tell us anything about what life is like in that

grouping. what we know is that real wages have stagnated since the 1970's, which i know that you talk about extensively, thank goodness, being middle class, it doesn't mean anything anymore. that beautiful house behind the white picket fence, if you looked behind it, you used to be ail to buy that, pay it off, take vacations once in a while, pay for health care, send your kids to college on a single income. now with two incomes, and in denturing to buying ourselves some happiness, what we call middle class, it's just a brand. it's not a product. cenk: i recently beaut house and everybody tells me congratulations. i'm like well, i don't actually own it. the bank owns it, so there's nothing really to congratulate me on. i to make payments on it. it's a different form of rent in some ways. >> anytime i would stress about meeting my mortgage, my wonderful mother always says to

me, why you, roy about this, you let the bank worry. it's their money. >> trump had that figured out. if you borrow a little bit from the bank, the bank owns you. if you borrow a ton from the bank, you owe the bank. the banks have captured us in a way and certainly our politicians. the book is "don't buy it." thanks for joining us on "the young turks." >> thanks so much. cenk: when we come back, a-rod might get a lifetime ban from baseball. look, i don't want to just talk about baseball. i want to talk about the thing we were just talking about, that inquality, how many millions of dollars did he get for cheating? we'll talk about that when we come back.

cenk: back on "the young turks." a-rod might be suspended from

baseball for life. he was apparently doping/totally was along with many other players. some of them have already been suspended. we brought in our baseball correspondent, ana kasparian here to tell us more about it. >> yes. it turns out the people are taking performance enhancing drugs in baseball. how surprising is that? cenk: no! >> i don't even know why this is a surprise to anyone, but of course, rodriguez is probably going to have the toughest punishment, but there are as many as 14 others that could face consequences for taking such drugs. in fact, we have a video explaining more. >> yankees third baseman alex rodriguez drove off in his near half million dollars car wednesday. the highest player in baseball history is continuing to rehab stints at the "the young turks" training facility in tampa, hope to go get back on the field after hip surgery, but this morning, there's a chance he won't return this season, if ever. in what could be the biggest

scandal in sports history, as many as 20 players, including rodriguez have reportedly been implicated for using performance enhancing drugs and getting them from the now defunct bio genesis anti aging clinic in florida. cenk: i love reporters. if ever. ok. i have an update. espn said negotiations between major league baseball and alex rodriguez are stuck on a couple of issues. one is of course the degree to which he's willing to accept a suspension. oh, is that right is this ok. what would you like to accept as a suspension. now, and that's of course because he's got an incredible team of lawyers that he has bought with the money he has illicitly made by roiding all these years. the rest of his contracts equal $100 million. they're negotiating over how much of that he can keep if he is suspended or banned.

that's a huge sticking pointed, as $100 million often is. to me, as i look at that list of the 20 players who are band or might be band because they took performance hperformance enhanc, they are some of the best players in baseball. i give a lesson, cheating totally and utterly works. it will make you stinking rich, famous and then at the end, you might be a little embarrassed. one of alex rodriguez's contracts was worth $250 million. >> is it even that embarrassing? i mean, are they embarrassed? >> it's early retirement. >> as no authority in this case, i propose an amnesty deal. any player who wants to go stand in the streets of russia and say i love gay people should get to walk away with all their money, which they're going to do anyway, but it would be good community service.

cenk: i love how you bring the stories together. everything is full circle. if you're a young kid, don't you think i'd be a fool, a tooker not to do steroids. >> now there's widespread cheating going on in every profession. people will take adderall so they're better at their job or dieting. don't make that face. i tried it once, ok. [ laughter ] cenk: you're negotiating right now. >> don't fire me, but, you know, that's just the way society works. if you want that edge, you're going to do what it takes to get the edge. cenk: are you saying it's ok? >> i don't care. he's not the only one. those 20 players are not the only ones. this is widespread in baseball. i feel at this point, it's a known fact that most of them have done some sort of cheating, let them go and from this point forward, do regular tests to make sure they're not doing everything. cenk: they do general amnesty.

that's my next question, do you guys think -- who are we kidding with the nfl. every offensive and defensive lineman is on every kind of steroid they can imagine. those guys are not natural human beings. ok?

enhancements. i don't regularly watch baseball, although when i did, i was a "the young turks" fans. if you get rid of all these athletes, you're going to have slightly more boring baseball. i think. cenk: unfortunately, the reason i care is that people are -- the people who cheat in every field have won, and it's almost become the american way now. if you cheat in banking, you win. if you cheat in baseball, you win. if you cheat anywhere, you win. if you don't cheat and try to help people, the bankers get away with it, bradley manning faces 136 jurors in prison. >> there's a big difference, though. it's baseball, who cares, right? but in banking and everything,

that harms other people. cenk: all right, we'll leave it there at who cares. one final point when we come back.

>> did anyone tell the pilgrims they should self-deport? >> no, they said "make us a turkey and make it fast". >> (laughter). >> she gets the comedians laughing. >> that's the best! >> that's hilarious. >> ... and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there is wiggle room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> she's joy behar. >> ya, i consider you jew-talian. >> okay, whatever you want. >> who plays kafka? >> who saw kafka? >> who ever saw kafka? >> (laughter). >> asking the tough questions. >> chris brown, i mean you wouldn't let one of your daughters go out with him. >> absolutely not. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me? >> absolutely! >> (singing) >> i take lipitor, thats it. >> are you improving your lips? >> (laughter). >> when she's talking, you never know where the conversation is going to go. >> it looks like anthony wiener is throwing his hat in the ring. >> his what in the ring? >> his hat. >> always outspoken, joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they

>> only on current tv. >> john: good evening, friends. president obama is reportedly planning to bypass congressional republican obstruction tactics and use extensive executive orders to enact his agenda. this guy acts like he was elected by the majority of americans or something. how arrogant! also, a-rod may be banned from baseball for life. and if we police the banks as thoroughly as we police the baseballs, there might be no financial crisis. meanwhile, somewhere in america, a deranged woman you probably worked with is now writing her first love letter to ariel castro in prison despite the fact he slut shamed his victims during sentence. we'll uncover the slut shaming from rush limbaugh to castro on tonight's f bomb. today is the birthday of