The strategies of voters before an election; fact-checking Sanders' plan for free tuition at public universities and colleges and discussing the protests of "sanctuary city" governments in South Los Angeles
If you want _____ to win, vote _____: The logic and ethics of ‘strategic’ voting on Super Tuesday
It's Super Tuesday -- a dozen states holding primaries or caucuses and the largest number of delegates at stake on any day in the primary process.
Polls show that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are likely to pick up the most delegates, but opponents will be looking for any positives to grab before the next big primary day, March 15th.
There's always talks of strategic voting before an election. The Boston Herald reported today that some 20,000 Massachusetts voters re-registered from Democrats to Republicans or independents, in an effort to to curb Trump's momentum.
What is the ethics of strategic voting? What do Sanders, Rubio, and Cruz need to accomplish today to stay in the game?
Guests:
Christina Bellantoni, Assistant Managing Editor, Politics for the Los Angeles Times; previously political editor at "PBS NewsHour"
Christopher J. Galdieri, Assistant Professor of Politics, Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire
Peter Beinart, a contributing editor at The Atlantic magazine, whose latest piece is titled, “Why Liberals Should Vote for Marco Rubio”. He is also an associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York. He tweets from
Liberal economists debate viability of Sanders’s education plan
AirTalk fact checks one of the defining pillars of his campaign--and likely appeal to millennial voters--free tuition at public universities and colleges.
Sanders claims the $75-billion a year plan will be fully paid for by “imposing a tax of a fraction of a percent on Wall Street speculators.”
While there are left-leaning people that theoretically applaud the spirit behind making higher-education affordable for all, they question the pragmatics of the Sanders plan.
Might college students capable of paying tuition, forgo it in favor of attending a high-quality free public school, thereby overloading those colleges? Is it realistic to impose the taxes Sanders suggests? Where exactly are those taxes coming from?
Guests:
Gerald Friedman, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former Chief Economist and Economic Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden;
Discord between public and Cudahy City Council highlights line between free speech and disrupting government business
Self-described "anti-illegal immigration" activists are expanding their protests of small city governments in South Los Angeles that they believe are overly sympathetic to residents without legal status.
The group, called "We the People Rising," recently targeted Cudahy's Latino-dominated City Council after lawmakers declared Cudahy a "sanctuary city" — meaning the city will not generally cooperate with immigration authorities.
Huntington Park officials appointment of two local residents without legal immigration status to city commissions drew the activists to city meetings last fall.
Read the full story here and see video posted to YouTube by user 'grindall61' below of the Feb. 2 Cudahy City Council meeting where citizens and council members clashed during public comment.
Guests:
Jessica Levinson, professor of law at Loyola Law School and president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission; she tweets
Terry Francke, general counsel for Californians Aware, an organization focusing on public forum law, and former executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition
Anaheim mayor: KKK rally 'not a reflection of who we are'
It's been a tough week for Anaheim.
On Saturday, a Ku Klux Klan rally planned for the city's Pearson Park erupted in violence, leading to six arrests, at least three hospitalizations and a good deal of criticism of the response — or lack thereof — by Anaheim police.
A Ku Klux Klan leader who was injured said Monday stoked those concerns when he said that he'd called police beforehand asking for security and was told, "We don't do that."
AirTalk spoke with Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, as well as professor and former NYPD officer Eugene O'Donnell on what Anaheim officers did right and wrong in responding to the event.
Interview highlights
First of all, I’m sure you’re very disappointed to see this happen in your city. Your reflections on this. What happened?
Mayor Tom Tait: Boy, you know, you’re right. Of course I didn’t like to see this in my city. And to see the images go literally worldwide. It is not an accurate reflection at all of who we are in Anaheim and the good people who live here. Anaheim is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States and everyone gets a long really well and we’re a city of respect and tolerance and kindness and that wasn’t what was shown. I’m very upset about what happened.
A couple of things have been called into question by your city’s police department, one of which is alerting the public that the Klansmen were going to be there for this and wondering whether that sort of threw red meat out to those who would come and protest. The other issue is one of the Klansman said they had asked for police to be there out of fear that there would be violence at the event – as people responded to them.
First of all, should there have been more police on the scene when the Klansmen arrived and secondly, did the police do the right thing by publicizing this?
Mayor Tom Tait: Well, they're complicated issues and questions. And of course, I wasn’t there and I'm not a police officer and don’t know what tactics are, so I’m very hesitant to be critical... In hindsight, obviously something didn’t go well.
I can tell you that there were police officers there. If you went out to Pearson Park, you’d realize what a big park it is. The way I understand it, the car pulled up and that’s when things started and the police were at a different area in the park, but they did respond once things started happening they got there quickly — as quickly as they could. Which is not easy.
It’s a tough job. It’s not an easy job to run into a violent situation, but that’s what these guys did.
In a case like this, what sort of a police presence is usually called for?
Eugene O'Donnell: I think this really underscores something we’ve talked about, which is proactive policing has sort of got a bad name. I’m not saying that’s what happened here — I agree with the mayor, you don’t want to take cheap shots and second guess. But an inquiry should go into this. When the KKK announces that they’re going to be somewhere, with that comes the likelihood of violence, not so much that they’ll engage in violence but people will engage in violence against them.
There shouldn’t be any hesitation in policing that adequately, gathering intelligence information and having secondary plans should it really get out of control. And I’m not saying this occurred in Anaheim, but it does seems awfully like the climate right now for the police is that it’s better for them, as a political matter, to get there after everything is over than to run the risk of being criticized for proactively involving themselves.
With this camera generation now, people on both sides are criticizing police response. Police officers and chiefs often are afraid of giving these people what they want, which is often a provocative exchange, that’s captured on video. So, it’s an awfully difficult time for police to get this balance right….the KKK has the First Amendment right to at least engage in non-violent speech and that has to be upheld, as much as people find that unpalatable.
Guests:
Tom Tait, Mayor of Anaheim
Eugene O’Donnell, Professor of law and police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice; former NYPD officer; former prosecutor in Kings County, New York
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity.
This story has been updated.
Ex-NSA head Michael Hayden on why he backs Apple in fight over iPhone 'back doors'
The secret cellphone metadata collection program Stellarwind became household knowledge in 2009, after files obtained by CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden were published in the Guardian newspaper.
The man at the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time is Michael Hayden, author of the new book, “Playing to the Edge.” Hayden has the distinction to be the only person to have led both the CIA and the NSA, and uses the book to give Americans a chance to look at the inner workings of both agencies, and what the intelligence community does for the country’s safety.
Since the leak of the Snowden files, the work of both agencies have come under sustained attack from civil liberties advocates. Hayden defends the use of intelligence collecting programs like Stellarwind, asserting that robust safeguards have been put into place to ensure that these sensitive data do not fall into the wrong hands.
What does Hayden think about the dustup over Apple’s refusal to help unlock the iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists? How is the battle between privacy and national security going to play out in the future?
Michael Hayden will be at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda, CA today at 7:00pm to talk about his book and America’s intelligence wars. Click here for ticket information.
Guest:
General Michael Hayden, author of “Playing to the Edge: American intelligence in the Age of Terror” (Penguin, 2016). He was the head of both the CIA and NSA