Eric Garcetti was overwhelmingly reelected as mayor – we talk to him about his win and what’s next for LA; WikiLeaks released information about the CIA’s strategies for hacking personal devices – we discuss the implications of the info dump; you’ve encountered logical fallacies when arguing with friends and family – now we want you to share them with AirTalk; and more.
Now that Garcetti’s won re-election and another tax increase for homeless, Angelenos expect results
Los Angeles County voters appear to have narrowly approved sales tax increase Measure H to fund homeless services, marijuana Measure M got over the two-thirds threshold required and LA city's Measure S moratorium on large development was trounced.
Mayor Eric Garcetti was re-elected with more than 80-percent of the vote. Despite the defeat of Measure S, Angelenos are clearly unhappy with development being decided on an ad hoc basis. And now that Garcetti has pushed through passage of tax increases to fund homelessness with Measures HHH and now H, Angelenos what to know when they’ll see encampments go away.
Larry get the mayor’s his thoughts on what the election results mean for the city's future.
Guest:
Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles
Can Women’s March movement translate Women’s Day into actionable protest?
Today marks International Women’s Day.
It started back in 1911, but this year's observance comes amid questions over the direction of the women's' movement. A day after President Trump's inauguration, huge crowds turned out in cities around the world. The question now for women's' leaders is how to take the excitement of that day and strategically move forward.
One idea was calling for a women's strike today. Dubbed "A Day Without a Woman," it echoes last month's "Day Without An Immigrant." Women are being encouraged to avoid work in or out of home, to show their value to society. But the idea has also garnered intense backlash. What is the intended message? And what other options are there for advancing the women's movement, given the diversity of issues of concern?
Guest:
Jia Tolentino, a contributing writer for newyorker.com; she wrote about the women's strike
New state bill would make the ‘Idaho Stop’ legal for California cyclists
A new state bill, AB 1103, from Assembly members Jay Obernolte (R-Hesperia) and Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) would allow cyclists to essentially treat stop signs as yield signs.
Idaho has a similar law in place that has lead to a drop in bike-related injuries in that state, Assembly member Obernolte told the Los Angeles Times.
The latest California proposal came three years after the enactment of the so-called “three-foot rule,” which requires drivers to be at least 3 feet away when they pass a cyclist.
Guests:
Dave Snyder, executive director of the nonprofit organization California Bicycle Coalition based in Sacramento
Jay Beeber, executive director of Safer Streets L.A., and a research fellow with the Reason Foundation
Making sense of the big WikiLeaks CIA cyberhacking dump
WikiLeaks released a trove of secret files over the CIA’s efforts to hack into people’s computers, phones, and popular electronic devices.
Most analysts who have looked at the files believe they are genuine, and that what was released constitutes just the tip of the iceberg of what WikiLeaks holds.
What are the implications of the dump?
Guests:
Kim Zetter, a reporter covering cybercrime, privacy, and security who’s been following the story for the Intercept. She is the author of “Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon” (Broadway Book, 2015)
Bob Stasio, a fellow at the Truman National Security Project, a national security think tank. He is also former Chief of Operations of NSA’s Cyber Center
Jordan Robertson, reporter at Bloomberg who’s been following the story
The FDA asks: Can ‘healthy’ be redefined?
The Food and Drug Administration is hearing public comment in Maryland on Thursday to discuss modernizing the term “healthy.”
Foods currently need to meet criteria for amounts of fat and certain beneficial nutrients like vitamin D or potassium, but it doesn’t account for ingredients like whole grains. The controversy over an updated “healthy” label on food products was sparked by a dispute with LLC, the company behind KIND bars. Some of the bars contained a high content of saturated fat, which did not meet the FDA’s criteria for healthy despite being made up of unprocessed foods such as nuts and dried fruit.
But is the term “healthy” misleading for consumers? Is the term simply a marketing ploy?
Guests:
Lindsay Moyer, senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest; she is also a registered dietician
Adam Drewnowski, director, Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington School of Public Health
From the slippery slope to the strawman, which logical fallacy do you encounter most often?
If you allow your kids to stay up past their bedtime tonight, they’ll stay up late every night.
Real Americans eat meat. If you don’t, you’re not American.
This healing herb that I grow in my backyard is obviously better than any synthetic medicine.
The above arguments are all examples of informal logical fallacies - slippery slope, no true scotsman and appeal to nature, respectively.
A logical fallacy is a flaw in reasoning in which the premise doesn’t passably support the conclusion. Whether appealing to emotion, shooting down a strawman or begging the question, you’ve probably heard these debate shortcuts used by friends, family, politicians, and (if you can admit it) yourself.
We want to hear from you. Which logical fallacies do you hear most often? Are you guilty of relying on any logical fallacies? Which of these flaws in reasoning bothers you most?
Here is a graphic of various logical fallacies:
From: yourlogicalfallacyis.com by Southern California Public Radio on Scribd
Guest:
Foad Dizadji-Bahmani, professor of philosophy at Cal State Los Angeles; his areas of research are the philosophy of science and physics; he also teaches logic and critical thinking