AirTalk’s weekly political roundtable recaps the major headlines you might’ve missed in politics news over the weekend and looks ahead to the week to come. We also examine data that says dog owners are happier than cat owners; discuss LACMA's plan to create a new building; and more.
Week in politics: Recapping President Trump’s visit to the southern border, a leadership shakeup at Homeland Security and more
AirTalk’s weekly political roundtable recaps the major headlines you might’ve missed in politics news over the weekend and looks ahead to the week to come. Here are the headlines what we’re following this week:
President Trump was in California last week visiting the U.S.-Mexico border, after threatening to have it closed; said during roundtable border that the country was “full”
DHS Secretary Nielsen to step down
Lack of women & lots of acting heads in Cabinet
Herman Cain nominated to Fed Reserve Board position
U.S. to name Iran National Guard as terrorist group, Iran returning favor on U.S. military
2020 candidates check-in
The fallout from former VP Joe Biden’s touchy-feely style continues, with follow-up jokes and apologies. What will this mean for his expected 2020 presidential bid? Is Bernie Sanders now the frontrunner?
Kamala Harris team strategy in not campaigning in Iowa or New Hampshire
Importance of white male voters to Dems in 2020
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has raised about $18.2 million so far. Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete Buttigieg are also raising quite a bit of cash
U.S. Senate strategy on judges means more nominees, fewer bills
Trump’s lawyer told the Treasury Department shouldn’t hand over his tax returns until they get the green light from the DOJ, Mulvaney says Dems will never see them
President Trump has called for a repeal of the ACA after the 2020 elections
Guests:
Ange-Marie Hancock-Alfaro, professor of political science and chair of gender studies at USC; she tweets
Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College; he tweets
(No duh!) Dog owners are happier than cat owners
For the first time ever, the General Social Survey weighed in on the question of pet ownership; specifically, whether people who own dogs or people who own cats are happier.
The answer: Camp Dogs.
Larry speaks with Washington Post data reporter Christopher Ingraham, who crunched the data from the GSS to arrive at the answer.
Guest:
Christopher Ingraham, data reporter at Washington Post, his latest piece looks at the questions surrounding dog and cat ownership asked by the General Social Survey
LACMA Goldilocks: how big does the museum’s new building need to be?
Tomorrow, the County Board of Supervisors will be voting on giving the Los Angeles County Museum of Art $117.5 million to create a new building on its Wilshire Boulevard campus.
The new building has been a project long in the making, with Swiss architect Peter Zumthor chosen to design the space nearly a decade ago. The new building will replace four of LACMA’s aging buildings, but the size of the new space is now the subject of some debate.
Last month, the project was downsized. LA Times art critic Christopher Knight criticized the choice, arguing that the new building won’t be large enough to house LACMA’s collections, as well as pointing to other issues with the design. LACMA director Michael Govan argued that the new building is big enough, especially when considering the museum’s satellite campuses.
So what’s the right design and size for LACMA’s new space?
Guests:
Christopher Knight, art critic for the Los Angeles Times, where his recent piece is “LACMA, the Incredible Shrinking Museum: A critic’s lament”
Michael Govan, CEO and director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Despite measures to stem out spam calls, Chinese robocalls are alive and well -- particularly for those living in the SGV
For some residents of the San Gabriel Valley, Mandarin-language robocalls are a daily occurrence.
They often begin with a recorded message from a woman claiming to be with the Chinese consulate and saying that you have documents or a package to pick up or that you owe money. In reality, the robocalls are linked to international scams aimed at taking financial advantage of Chinese nationals in America. The numbers are often "spoofed" or made to seem like they're coming from a number with the same area code as you have, the thinking being that the person being scammed is more likely to pick up a number with an area code they recognize.
An estimated 26 billion robocalls were made to cell phones across the country in 2018. The FBI released a report on March 28 about the Chinese embassy scam. It found that 35% of victims who were contacted about the scam reside in California and New York.
Have you received these calls? If so, how frequently? Have you reported any of them, either to the FCC or to the Chinese Consulate? How is the federal government addressing the issue? What solutions are already out there to address robocalls? What solutions are being developed to address?
For more information from the Federal Trade Commission on what to do if you receive robocalls, and links to how to report them, click here.
Guests:
Ian Barlow, “Do Not Call” program coordinator at the Federal Trade Commission
Gerry Christensen, CEO of Mind Commerce, a consulting firm to the communications and technological industry based in Seattle
Are far-right extremist attacks on the rise? Analysts say it depends on where you look
The national and international debate on extremism has been a prominent topic of public discourse in recent years.
A few days after the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand, President Trump said he did not think white nationalism was on the rise.
Research from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland asserts that far-right extreme crimes have stayed at a steady rate since they began collecting data in 1970, according to the WSJ.
But a New York Times analysis last week, which utilized data from START as well, found that the rise in global white extremist attacks is on the rise, as are the networks of extremists worldwide.
We dig into global and domestic data to determine what qualifies as an extremist attack and how such attacks are perceived differently domestically vs. on a global scale.
Guests:
William Braniff, director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) and a professor of the practice at the University of Maryland
Brian Michael Jenkins, senior advisor to the president of the RAND Corporation think tank and one of the nation’s leading experts on terrorism and homeland security; he tweets