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 talk with Iranian listeners in the LA community about their reaction to the escalating U.S.-Iran conflict; get a preview of CES 2020; and more.
Week In Politics: Iran Latest, Witholding Pattern On Articles Of Impeachment, Castro Is Out 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 that we’re following this week:
Iran latest:
Iran abandons nuclear deal
Iraqi Parliament votes to expel all foreign troops
Impeachment watch:
Pelosi withholds Articles from the Senate
Schumer and McConnell deadlocked over witnesses
GOP Senators Collin and Murkowski raise impartiality concerns
Fed Appeals Court hears impeachment-related cases
2020:
A CBS News poll is showing a three way tie in Iowa between Sanders, Biden and Buttigieg
Does Klobuchar still have a chance?
Dems and Trump release fourth quarter fundraising numbers
First debate of the year on January 14th
How have the demographics of the electorate changed since 2016?
Is Trump losing evangelical voters?
CA Democratic Party settles harassment lawsuit
U.S.-China set to sign trade deal on Jan. 15th
Chief Justice Roberts warns of ‘rumor and false information’ in annual report
Republican members of Congress urge Supreme Court to reconsider ‘Roe V. Wade’
Guests:
Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College
Amanda Renteria, president of Emerge America, a national organization that works to identify and train Democratic women who want to run for political office; she is the former national political director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and has been a staffer for Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI); she tweets
Conceptual Artist And Icon John Baldessari Dies
Conceptual artist John Baldessari helped build the art scene in Los Angeles.
The renowned figure died in his home in Venice at the age of 88. He started as a semiabstract painter in the 1950s, but took his traditional paintings to a funeral home in San Diego for cremation, according to the New York Times. He used humor and irony in his influential conceptual artwork and taught at the California Institute of the Arts in the 1970s and 80s and UCLA in the late 90s and early 2000s. Today, AirTalk looks back on the life of Baldessari and his significance to the art community.
Guest:
Jori Finkel, regular contributor for the New York Times covering visual art, she’s based in Los Angeles; she tweets
After Soleimani Strike, We Zoom In On The Demographics Of LA’s Iranian Community
Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran, and with it, a diverse range of ethnic and religious perspectives.
Some are in emphatic support of the killing of the Quds Force general, while some are wary of the geopolitical fallout of the strike. We want to know, if you’re an LA resident of Iranian descent, regardless of your faith or birthplace, what’s your reaction to Soleimani’s death? Where do you think this is going, and what does it mean for Iranians abroad?
Guests:
Benjamin Radd, lecturer at UCLA’s Center for Middle East Development, an expert on Middle East Politics and US Foreign Policy
Ali Akbar Mahdi, lecturer in sociology at Cal State University Northridge and professor emeritus of sociology at Ohio Wesleyan University
What A State Report On Racial Profiling And Traffic Stops Can And Can’t Tell Us
Black drivers in California face more traffic stops and searches by police than other drivers, according to the state’s most recent analysis.
The report looked at stops of more than 1.8 million people and black residents accounted for just over 15% of them. But they only make up 6% of the population, according to the L.A. Times. Authorities stopped latino and white drivers at more proportional rates to population. The report released by the state DOJ is the third one released and required under the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015. But this is the first to include stop data. “For the first time ever, Californians have comprehensive racial and identity data on each stop and search conducted by police officers at the largest law enforcement agencies in the state,” said California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board Co-Chair Sahar Durali in a statement. Many advocates say the data confirms racial profiling is in play and that being a black driver increases chances of an encounter with police. Others, including law enforcement officials, say the data is leaving out important details and information, creating a skewed representation. So what does the data really tell us?
Guests:
Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego, an empowerment organization focused on civic engagement and social change, she’s also a member of the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board that releases the annual report; she tweets
Liberty Vittert, professor of the Practice of Data Science at Washington University in St. Louis, she’s also a visiting scholar at Harvard University, she tweets
Jody Armour, professor of law at USC; he tweets
Connie Rice, civil rights lawyer; she is on the board of KPCC trustees