Republicans talk about Mitt Romney's speech and how the Party is being redefined; victims of sexual assault have begun opening up about being a female comedian in Los Angeles; and is it ethical to infect primates with the virus?
Mitt Romney speaks, Republicans mobilize against Trump
Mitt Romney delivered a scathing speech this morning directly targeting Donald Trump as being unfit for the Presidency, calling him a phony misogynist whose temperament isn’t fit for the job.
It's unclear whether Romney's warning against Trump will connect with Trump's likely supporters. The issues Romney raises are all well-known, but haven't slowed down Trump.
Do Trump supporters care that his taxes might contradict what he says about his businesses and philanthropy? Do they care that US allies are worried, and that Muslims worldwide might see him as representative of US distrust of Muslims? Do they care that Trump's trade policies might start a trade war? Are they bothered by his un-Presidential temperament?
Exit polls show most Trump voters don't care that he doesn't share their values or that he's less electable than other Republicans. They feel good voting for him. How can Republican leaders counter a bandwagon that's largely based on a feeling of empowerment, rather than one of policies or character?
Watch the full speech here:
Guests:
Shawn Steel, Republican National Committee California National Committeemen
Jeffrey Lord, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, a former aide to Ronald Reagan and author of What America Needs: The Case for Trump
Ron Nehring, State GOP Chairman and RNC member 2007-11. National Spokesman and CA Chairman for Ted Cruz’s campaign
John Eastman, professor of law and founding director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at Chapman University and Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage,a D.C.-based nonprofit working to defend marriage and the faith communities that filed an amicus brief in this case
Sexual harassment and mob justice in the LA comedy scene
An improv comedy club with locations in Chicago and Hollywood announced a new zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy after allegations surfaced online that staffers and performers faced regular harassment.
iO Theater's artistic director Charna Halpern said the theater's new policy explains exactly what harassment is. Trained staff members have also been added to the team to handle incidents.
“We’ve actually taken more action than any theater anywhere,” Halpern said Thursday on AirTalk.
Katie Baker wrote about assault and harassment allegations in her Jan. 16 BuzzFeed article, "Standing Up To Sexual Harassment And Assault In L.A.’s Comedy Scene." Women in the local comedy scene shared their stories of harassment and abuse in a private Facebook group — one way that sexual assault survivors across the country have been able to band together.
Baker writes about comedian Beth Stelling who made national news after posting photos on Instagram showing bruises on her arms and legs. She alleged the bruises were from an emotionally and physically abusive relationship with a male comedian. Fellow stand-up Courtney Pauroso came forward and said she'd been abused by the same man.
Neither of them revealed his name but another comedian did and the alleged abuser was quickly ostracized.
That story and others led to some men in L.A.'s comedy scene being professionally shunned — even investigated. Baker wrote:
"At least three men whom they accused of sexual harassment and assault are no longer allowed at some of Los Angeles’s most prominent theaters. One comic is facing a police investigation. Another man’s reputation was so thoroughly destroyed that he had to move back to his Midwestern hometown."
This mode of justice has left many in the L.A. comedy scene feeling uneasy. Is it fair for these men to be forced out of their jobs based on unproven accusations?
Some commenters take a critical view of women taking to the Internet to accuse perpetrators and harassers, referring to it as "mob justice" and calling it a failure of the police.
Rene Amador writes, "The point of failure here is clearly the police. The central objective of a strong law enforcement institution (like the police) is to solve the hairy problems that mob justice isn't equipped to handle. We should view the fact that comics feel they have to self-police as a failure of our law enforcement to take these accusations seriously."
Others point out that sexual harassment and assault is not unique to the comedy world although the comedy scene has unique dynamics.
In improv comedy, performers adhere to the "Yes, and..." rule where they aren't supposed to "deny" anything said by another improvisor on stage. AirTalk listener John in Los Feliz called in to share his experiences of seeing female classmates get roped into inappropriate scenarios on stage.
"I definitely saw a lot of attractive female actors being hit on in scenes, and I definitely got the message that teachers weren't going to cut it off unless it crossed a really obvious line, yet I saw those actors being really uncomfortable," John said. "It wasn't so much those individual events, it was more the accumulations of how frequently an attractive woman was just hit on in a scene and how the male students didn't realize that was inappropriate."
This story has been updated. An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that both Beth Stelling and Courtney Pauroso had posted pictures of their bruises. Only Stelling posted pictures of her bruises. Afterward, Pauroso said she'd had a similar experience with the same man.
Guests:
Katie J.M. Baker, BuzzFeed reporter who wrote the piece, “Standing Up To Sexual Harassment And Assault In L.A.’s Comedy Scene” that was published on the site in January. She tweets from
Charna Halpern, artistic director of iO Theater, an improv comedy club in Chicago and Hollywood, which has institued new policy on sexual harassment
South Coast AQMD head’s performance to be reviewed as board member ideologies clash
When the South Coast Air Quality Management District holds its monthly meeting on Friday, one of the items on the agenda will be looking at the performance of executive officer Barry Wallerstein.
A recent shift in the board’s makeup, including several new appointees, was part of a campaign to change its focus to making life easier for business by rolling back pollution regulations.
The South Coast AQMD is made up of elected officials from L.A., Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties and is responsible for controlling pollution across Southern California.
Guests:
Tony Barboza, L.A. Times reporter covering air quality and the environment
Morgan Wyenn, staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council
Bryan Starr, senior vice president of government affairs for the Orange County Business Council
Debating value, ethics of infecting monkeys with Zika virus
Scientists at the California National Primate Research Center will soon infect pregnant rhesus monkeys with the Zika virus to determine whether it causes microcephaly in babies.
Koen Van Rompay, Ph.D., a leading virologist at UC Davis who pioneered research preventing HIV transmission between pregnant mothers and babies, is leading the studies.
He explains the value of the animal study, “Microcephaly [in fetuses] seems to occur when women get infected during the first trimester of the pregnancy, but in humans there are a lot of co-factors, so it’s hard to be certain. The value of an animal model is we can really control so many factors. We can infect a monkey with just the Zika virus, and if we then see microcephaly that would provide the strongest piece of evidence that Zika is the cause.” The next steps at the lab would be to test intervention strategies, such as vaccines and drugs to block transmission and/or block infection.
However, the effectiveness of such animal research is being questioned, not just by organizations such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), but also the National Institutes of Health (NIH).A recent strategy paper from the NIH states: “Petri dish and animal models often fail to provide good ways to mimic disease or predict how drugs will work in humans, resulting in much wasted time and money while patients wait for therapies.”
Justin Goodman, Director of Laboratory Investigations with PETA, says “Animal studies on Zika are unnecessary because scientists are very close to determining the link to microcephaly based on the myriad human cases.”
Indeed in mid-February, the World Health Organization said it expects to decide within a few weeks if there is a link between the Zika virus and birth defects.
A Lancet-published study involving pregnant women in Brazil “strengthens” the theory that Zika is linked to birth defects. The research confirmed the presence of the virus in the amniotic fluid of two women who had Zika-like symptoms.
Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant director-general of the WHO said, “It seems indeed that the link with Zika (and microcephaly) is becoming more and more probable… I think that we need a few more weeks and a few more studies to have this straight," as reported by BBC News.
Yet the epidemic continues to spread rapidly around the world. Yesterday, the Pan-American arm (PAHO) of the WHO called for ramping up research.
"The bottom line is that there is yet much to learn about Zika. We have made some progress but we still need to learn much more about this virus," said Marcos Espinal, director of PAHO/WHO's Department of Communicable Diseases. "Laboratory detection, epidemiology, the dynamics of arboviral diseases, mapping new vector control tools, these are among our priority research topics today."
Goodman of PETA argues with so much known and so many resources dedicated to Zika research the animal researchers are simply using this outbreak to justify funding for their research – which wastes time and resources on a methodology that has bitter little success. “That causes harm when humans wait for a vaccine or a treatment in vain,” he said.
If the type of research and studies that PETA is advocating fails to provide enough timely knowledge to fight Zika, would you support animal research?
Guests:
Koen Van Rompay, D.V.M, PH.D., Virologist, California National Primate Research Center, UC Davis; Van Rompay pioneered research preventing HIV transmission between pregnant mothers and babies; he tweets from
Justin Goodman, Director, Laboratory Investigations Department, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Indian commercial urging men to #SharetheLoad of housework catches fire in US
A television commercial for a laundry detergent in India urging men to pitch in to help women with household chores has gone viral in the U.S., even earning a thumbs up from one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful women, Sheryl Sandberg.
The ad shows a father in India watching his daughter as she busily takes care of housework, her kid, and cooks after work, while his son-in-law sits idly in front of the TV. The scene eventually prompts the guilt-ridden dad to write a letter.
“My little baby girl. You’re all grown up now. You used to play house. And now you manage your own house and your office. I am so proud and I am so sorry,” the father says in the ad.
“I never told you that it’s not your job alone, but your husband’s too but how could I have said it, when I never helped your mom either,” the father continues. “Your husband must have learnt the same from his dad.... Sorry on behalf of his dad ... sorry on behalf of every dad who set the wrong example.”
Since its release last week on YouTube, the ad has traveled far from India. One notable fan is Facebook COO Sandberg, who posted the ad on her social network profile and applauded its message, embodied by the ad’s hashtag #SharetheLoad.
What do you think of the ad? Does what it depicts ring true in your own household?
Here are some caller comments:
Sarah in Yorba Linda: I’m an Anglo-American and I’m married to a Korean man who was brought up in Korean and lives here now. We both work, he comes from a very wealthy Korean family, very traditional. When he comes home he will always jump in and do the dishes [and] help fold laundry. We crack up because if his mother were to know, he would die. He would absolutely die. It’s just not appropriate for men in his culture to be doing dishes at all or folding laundry. Even though she’s a fabulous mother-in-law, it’s beneath their culture. Men do not do that.
Simon in Studio City: I’m geriatric 57 and I do all the cooking our house. My father was a policeman and my mother would kill you with her cooking, so my dad always cooked; so I learned from an early age to do all the cooking in the house. Because I work earlier, I do most of the cleaning, I do all the shopping and pretty much all the laundry apart from the folding and my wife does all the finances. So it works out.
Amy in Montrose: My husband is Native American and his father is so traditional, he’s never changed a diaper. So growing up in a household like that, it’s not that he doesn’t want to contribute it’s that he literally does not have the skills. He doesn’t know how to wash a dish properly; he can’t do laundry without ruining something that belongs to me.
You can’t teach him how to do that effectively?
Amy in Montrose: Well I’ll tell you what, we’re learning. He’s gotten much better in the last five years. He tried to get a job as a janitor in college and was fired. They told him, “You didn’t see the dirt, you didn’t do it right.”
Note: This comments have been edited for clarity.
This story has been updated.