Today on AirTalk, our 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 discuss the backlash behind a draft for a new ethnic studies curriculum in California and examine how the potential course could be taught; and more.
Jeffrey Epstein Suicide Raises Questions, Conspiracies
Jeffrey Epstein, who has been accused of sexually abusing young girls, was found dead Saturday morning after he had apparently hanged himself. This happened a couple weeks after Epstein was said to have been taken off suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, where he had tried to kill himself on July 23, officials said. Many are questioning how this could have happened. Attorney General William Barr now says there were “serious irregularities” in the correctional facility. We take a look at the issue.
Guests:
Sadie Gurman, Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal who has been following the story
Christine Tartaro, professor of criminal justice at Stockton University in New Jersey and an expert in corrections and suicide in correctional facilities; she has served as a research consultant to state and local correctional departments and worked for the New Jersey Department of Corrections evaluating the state residential community release program
AirTalk Debates: Tightening Green Card Access For Legal Immigrants Who Use Public Benefits
The Trump administration announced Monday that it is moving ahead with one of its most aggressive steps to restrict legal immigration, denying green cards to many immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance.
Federal law already requires those seeking green cards and legal status to prove they will not be a burden to the U.S. — a “public charge” —but the new rules detail a broader range of programs that could disqualify them.
Much of President Donald Trump’s effort to crack down on illegal immigration has been in the spotlight, but this rule change targets people who entered the United States legally and are seeking permanent status. It’s part of a push to move the U.S. to a system that focuses on immigrants’ skills instead of emphasizing the reunification of families.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers will now weigh public assistance along with other factors such as education, household income and health to determine whether to grant legal status.
We debate the change, both on public policy and legal grounds.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Jan C. Ting, professor of law emeritus at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; he was the assistant commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the US DOJ from 1990-1993
Kamal Essaheb, deputy director of the National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant rights organization which will be filing a lawsuit to challenge the public charge rule
Week In Politics: Epstein’s Apparent Suicide, Trump After Mass Shootings, Twitter Clashes With Conservatives 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 we’re following this week:
Jeffrey Epstein died in an apparent suicide in a New York federal jail
A new Trump administration rule would tighten legal immigration by restricting greencards to people who have received public benefits
The Trump administration is also making changes to the way it enforces the Endangered Species Act
In wake of the devastating mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton:
President Trump visited the two cities last Wednesday — how did he fare as consoler-in-chief?
Plus, Trump is reportedly looking at executive action on guns and the NRA is not happy about it
GOP California Assemblymember Chad Mayes also called for his party to denounce white nationalism at the state’s upcoming fall convention
More in California:
President Trump is challenging the Golden State’s first-in-the-nation law that requires presidential primary candidates to release five years of income tax filings. The suit comes just one week after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law
It’s official: the so-called “blue wave” has officially crested in Orange County. There are now more registered Democrats than Republicans
A 2020 check-in:
The New York Times reported a rise in Trump’s approval ratings. Millions of Americans who didn’t like him in 2016 have now shifted their views. What does that mean for Dems?
Twitter locked the campaign accounts of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a few other GOP members earlier this week after they posted videos of left-wing protesters. A GOP backlash against Twitter ensued and a debate about whether Twitter might be biased against conservatives
Border news
A record-setting immigration round-up in Mississippi
Guests:
Matt Barreto, professor of political science and Chicano/a Studies at UCLA and co-founder of the research and polling firm Latino Decisions; he tweets
Sean T. Walsh, Republican political analyst and partner at Wilson Walsh Consulting in San Francisco; he is a former adviser to California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and a former White House staffer for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush
New Ethnic Studies Curriculum Is Getting Backlash For Being Too PC. How Should The Course Be Taught?
Last year, California Assemblymember Jose Medina (D-Riverside) introduced a bill that would mandate high school students to take ethnic studies as a requirement for graduation.
That bill was vetoed under former Gov. Jerry brown, but a new draft is on its way to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk and the State Board of Education has issued an “Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum” to pair.
The model curriculum, which was drafted by an advisory committee of teachers, academics and bureaucrats, is getting backlash for being too “PC.” The LA Times and Wall Street Journal were quick to write opinions expressing that although they feel ethnic studies to be an important course, the proposed curriculum is extremely left-leaning and filled with cumbersome jargon that would become a vehicle to argue politics rather than critical thinking about race, ethnicity and indigeneity.
Among the criticisms: Capitalism is vilified and listed together with racism and white supremacy, Israel is presented as a Palestinian oppressor with scant mention of the Holocaust, faddish language like “cis-heteropatriarchy,” “misogynoir,” “positionalities,” “nepantlas” and more.
A number of groups have been calling for a complete overhaul of the model curriculum. California’s Education Department is soliciting public comments for the draft online until Aug. 15.
We discuss the draft and implications of teaching ethnic studies in California. Call us at 866-893-5722 to weigh in or comment below.
Guests:
Stephanie Gregson, deputy superintendent for the California Department of Education
Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat representing the 45th district, which includes Calabasas, Sherman Oaks and Northridge. He’s the vice chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, which issued a letter to the Department of Education detailing concerns about the curriculum; he tweets
Bill Evers, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He served as assistant secretary of education for planning, evaluation, and policy development during the George W. Bush administration.
Gaye Theresa Johnson, associate professor, Chicana and Chicano Studies and African American Studies at UCLA; she wrote the curriculum for the Ventura Unified School District; she tweets
How One Man Attempted To Hide From Silicon Valley’s Surveillance
Joel Stein didn’t just throw all his electronic devices out the window and lock himself in a dark room.
He did the opposite in order to chip away at his data history. He used other devices, gadgets and apps to do the job, which helped clean up his “digital exhaust” and gave him the ability to mask his phone number and hide years’ worth of photos that had been collected, for example.
And to purchase these apps online, Stein got a hold of a card without a name on it, which is apparently simple to do. But there are a lot of other things to worry about if you’re trying to hide like this, including facial recognition, license plate recordings and more. It becomes a lot of work trying to protect your information.
The lesson: maybe privacy issues can’t be fixed by one individual alone.
Guest:
Joel Stein, journalist who wrote the Bloomberg piece, “I Tried Hiding From Silicon Valley in a Pile of Privacy Gadgets;” he was a long time columnist for TIME Magazine and also wrote for the Los Angeles Times; he tweets