The “Say It With Me: President Ted Cruz” Edition
Listen to Slate’s show about Sen. Ted Cruz, the Supreme Court’s Confederate flag license plate case, and the tragic Germanwings plane crash.
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On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, special guest Jamelle Bouie, staff writer for Slate; Emily Bazelon; and David Plotz discuss Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, becoming the first major candidate to launch his 2016 White House run, the U.S. Supreme Court case on Confederate flag license plates and freedom of speech, and the apparent suicide and mass murder in the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525.
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:
- Ted Cruz becomes the first major candidate to announce his 2016 presidential run (Hillary Clinton couldn’t be happier and Rand Paul is already fighting back). Who is he and why is he running?
- Is Cruz a contemporary Reagan and/or the GOP’s 2016 analogue of Obama? What does the conservative establishment think? John Podhoretz highlights the biggest challenge facing the Cruz campaign.
- Slate’s Jamelle Bouie argues that Ted Cruz has no chance of becoming president.
- In Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc., SCOTUS considers Confederate flag license plates and freedom of speech.
- What happened during oral argument? Might the case turn on a 2009 concurring opinion by retired Justice David Souter?
- Emily discusses how an amicus curiae brief by the American Civil Liberties Union and the opinion in Rust v. Sullivan might inform the outcome of the case.
- Another high-profile plane crash has raised concerns about aviation safety and low-cost airlines. What happened? Did the co-pilot intentionally “destroy the plane” in an apparent suicide and mass murder, and could it have been avoided?
- Will this latest tragedy inform how pilot background checks are conducted, the debate over human error and automation, and the discussion surrounding pilot mental health?
- Slate’s Jeremy Stahl answers the question: Have there been more plane crashes recently, or does it just feel that way?
Emily chatters about Shani Boianjiu’s powerful novel, The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, a fictionalized account of her experiences in the Israeli army.
Jamelle chatters about the 2015 Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, Disney’s Big Hero 6.
David chatters about the The Land, the fantastic new documentary about a Welsh “adventure” playground where kids are empowered to learn to manage risks on their own. Earlier, he also chatters about Slate’s Working, which this week explores what its like to be a bail bondsman.
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Podcast production by Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Tarik Barrett.