Speakers at Donald Trump’s Convention: Tim Tebow, Peter Thiel, but No Sarah Palin? Donald J. Trump spoke at a campaign event in Westfield, Ind., on Tuesday. Tim Tebow, a former N.F.L. quarterback who played for the Philadelphia Eagles last year, is scheduled to speak on the fourth night of the Republican National Convention. Donald J. Trump, left, speaking with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, at a fund-raising event in the Bronx last year. JULY 13, 2016 CLEVELAND — A night highlighting the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya. An appearance by onetime football star Tim Tebow [ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/sports/football/tim-tebows-republican-convention-spot-fires-up-fans-and-detractors.html ]. A presentation detailing former President Bill Clinton’s sexual misconduct. Donald J. Trump [ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/donald-trump-on-the-issues.html ], the presumptive nominee, has been promising a different kind of Republican National Convention, and plans obtained by The New York Times show that he is eager to put his showbiz stamp on the party’s gathering, even as he struggles to attract A-list talent. The roster of speakers obtained by The Times, and confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of the convention planning, reveals a lineup lacking many of the party’s rising stars. Instead, it features some of Mr. Trump’s eclectic collection of friends, celebrities and relatives, from his Slovenian supermodel wife, Melania, to the professional golfer Natalie Gulbis. The parade of people seems to have been selected to broaden Mr. Trump’s demographic reach. There are several notable women speaking. They include Pam Bondi, the Florida attorney general, who tangled on television with the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper after the Orlando, Fla., nightclub massacre; Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a space shuttle [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/space_shuttle/index.html ] mission; Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma; Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa; and Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania. There are a few African-Americans, like Jamiel Shaw Sr., who became an outspoken advocate for tougher immigration laws after his son was killed in 2008 by an undocumented immigrant; and Darryl Glenn, who is running for the Senate in Colorado. From sports there is Mr. Tebow, the former quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner who is known for his conservative views; Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed martial arts [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/mixed_martial_arts/index.html ] organization; and Ms. Gulbis. Peter Thiel, a billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur, will represent the business community, along with Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who helped start a pro-Trump “super PAC [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/campaign_finance/index.html ].” In what could be an awkward juxtaposition, Mr. Thiel is openly gay and the convention is set to adopt a platform that opposed gay and transgender rights. The list of politicians scheduled to appear include people who have been out of office for some time, like Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and newcomers like Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. There are plans to emphasize different themes each night of the convention. Mr. Trump wants to touch on a few of his favorite hot-button issues, like the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, former President Clinton’s infidelities and border security. All four of Mr. Trump’s adult children are scheduled to speak. There also will be governors like Rick Scott of Florida and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and members of Congress like Representatives Sean P. Duffy of Wisconsin and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. The National Rifle Association will be represented by Chris Cox, executive director of the group’s political arm. Antonio Sabato Jr. is one Hollywood star who has been confirmed by the Trump campaign. Mr. Trump is still inviting people, his aides have said. And the people who spoke about his list of speakers cautioned that it could still grow. But what is striking, as much as who is on the list, is who is not. Several figures Mr. Trump had said he would invite to speak, like the boxing promoter Don King and Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, were not included. Neither was Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback, a hugely popular figure in the key state of New Hampshire. The list, which is subject to change, as obtained by The New York Times: Night 1: A Benghazi focus, followed by border patrol agents and Mr. Shaw, whose son was killed by an undocumented immigrant. Senator Cotton, Mr. Giuliani, Melania Trump, Ms. Ernst and others. Night 2: A focus on the economy: Mr. White, president of the U.F.C.; Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas; Michael Mukasey, the former United States attorney general; Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a vice-presidential possibility; Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader; Mr. Trump’s daughter Tiffany; his son Donald Jr.; and Governor Walker. Night 3: Ms. Bondi; Ms. Collins; Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker; Senator Ted Cruz of Texas; Mr. Trump’s son Eric; Ms. Gulbis; and the nominee for vice president. Night 4: Mr. Tebow; Representative Blackburn; Governor Fallin; Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_national_committee/index.html ] chairman; Governor Scott; Mr. Thiel; Mr. Barrack; Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka; and Mr. Trump. Even as they finalized the list this week, Mr. Trump’s campaign aides and party officials were also working behind the scenes to stave off any challenges to Mr. Trump’s nomination on the convention floor next week. Mr. Priebus was blunt about the need for party leaders to support Mr. Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton — even if the reasoning he offered appeared to be less than a full-throated endorsement. “If we don’t stick together as a party and stop her, then the only alternative is to get comfortable with the phrase President Hillary Clinton,” Mr. Priebus said in remarks to party leaders on Wednesday. [...] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/us/politics/republican-convention-speakers-donald-trump.html
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Ahead of GOP Convention, Cleveland Officials Affirm Protesters May Carry Guns
The Republican convention will be held at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, shown July 11. Photo: Angelo Merendino/Getty Images
But water guns, toy guns, knives, aerosol cans, rope, tennis balls are barred
By Byron Tau Jul 13, 2016 4:16 pm ET
CLEVELAND — Cleveland officials said Wednesday that they will uphold the right of protesters at the Republican National Convention to carry firearms even as they expressed opposition to the state’s open carry laws.
Speaking to reporters in advance of the Republican National Convention next week, both Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson and police Chief Calvin Williams they were bound by the state’s laws allowing people to carry guns even if they disagreed with them.
“Our intent is to follow the law. And if the law says you can have open carry, that’s what it says. Whether I agree with it or not is another issue,” said Mayor Jackson in a press conference.
That was a sentiment also echoed by the city’s police chief. Asked if he would prefer that people be prevented from carrying weapons at the Republican National convention, Chief Williams said, “Of course.”
“It’s the law in this state. As police chief, I’m bound to uphold the law in this state,” he added.
Just days after five Dallas police officers were shot dead by a gunman with a high-powered rifle at a protest against the police killings of two black men earlier last week, several groups of demonstrators have suggested that they may bring weapons to the protests at or around the convention.
The group Oath Keepers said this week that they would appear at the RNC armed, while the chairman of the New Black Panther Party also said that his group may carry weapons at an event designed to protest police brutality in advance of the RNC. Event organizers of the police brutality event later said that no armed demonstrators were expected [ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/us/politics/guns-rnc-cleveland.html ].
Cleveland has banned a wide array of items inside a broad zone in downtown Cleveland around the convention site, including water guns, toy guns, knives, aerosol cans, rope, tennis balls and others. But because of Ohio’s open carry laws, protesters who legally own a firearm will be allowed to carry it near the convention center.
The Secret Service bans guns within a much smaller security perimeter around the Quicken Loans Arena where the event is being held. That area is only open to credentialed attendees of the convention.
Emerging Republican Platform Goes Far to the Right
Donald J. Trump left the stage after he spoke at a campaign event in Virginia Beach on Monday. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
By JEREMY W. PETERS JULY 12, 2016
CLEVELAND — Republicans moved on Tuesday toward adopting a staunchly conservative platform that takes a strict, traditionalist view of the family and child rearing, bars military women from combat, describes coal as a “clean” energy source and declares pornography a “public health crisis.”
But the document positions itself far to the right of Mr. Trump’s beliefs in other places — and amounts to a rightward lurch even from the party’s hard-line platform in 2012 — especially as it addresses gay men, lesbians and transgender people.
As delegates debated in two marathon sessions here on Monday and Tuesday, they repeatedly rejected efforts by more moderate members of the platform committee to add language that would acknowledge or condemn anti-gay discrimination — something Mr. Trump has done himself.
The numerous additions to the platform on marriage, family, homosexuality and gender issues were a reflection of just how much society and the law have shifted since Republicans adopted their last platform four years ago. And the debate this week showed just how unsettled many Republicans remain with those changes.
But while public and legal opinion has moved steadily in one direction, the official declaration of Republican Party [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html ] principles appears to be heading sharply in the opposite direction. The party’s approach to social issues now threatens to disrupt the convention next week. Moderate delegates pushing for gay rights language in the platform secured enough signatures on Tuesday to demand a vote on their proposals from all 2,472 delegates.
Social conservatives in the party exerted significant influence over the drafting and amending of the platform this week, succeeding in almost all of their efforts to add language that pushed the document more to the right.
And what Republicans will probably end up with when they formally vote next week to ratify the platform approved in committee on Tuesday is a text that can seem almost Victorian in its moralizing and deeply critical of how the modern American family has evolved.
The platform demands that lawmakers use religion as a guide when legislating, stipulating “that man-made law must be consistent with God-given, natural rights.”
It also encourages the teaching of the Bible in public schools because, the amendment said, a good understanding of its contents is “indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry.”
The pornography provision was not in an initial draft that the Republican National Committee [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_national_committee/index.html ] drew up and released on Sunday. But delegates added it on Monday at the same time they were inserting many of the amendments opposing gay and transgender rights. It calls pornography “a public menace” that is especially harmful to children.
Much of the most combative debate centered on language in the platform that describes gay and transgender people, and efforts to strip those words out and replace them with language proposed by a minority contingent of socially moderate delegates.
An amendment to specifically recognize that gay people are targets of the Islamic State caused a stir among more conservative delegates who said they felt there was no need to single out any one group. As the delegate who offered the amendment, Giovanni Cicione of Rhode Island, argued his case — by saying he believed it was an “innocuous and important” way to tell gay people the Republican Party does not exclude them — another delegate moved to shut off the debate.
Jim Bopp, a delegate from Indiana, said the Republican Party had always rejected “identity politics.” Arguing against the measure, he said, “Obviously, there’s an agenda here.”
The amendment was defeated, as were others in a similar vein.
But nearly every provision that expressed disapproval of homosexuality, same-sex marriage or transgender rights passed. The platform calls for overturning the Supreme Court marriage decision with a constitutional amendment and makes references to appointing judges “who respect traditional family values.”
“Has a dead horse been beaten enough yet?” asked Annie Dickerson, a committee member from New York, who chastised her colleagues for writing language offensive to gays into the platform “again and again and again.”
Additional provisions included those that promoted state laws to limit which restrooms transgender people could use, nodded to “conversion therapy” for gays by saying that parents should be free to make medical decisions about their children without interference and stated that “natural marriage” between a man and a woman is most likely to result in offspring who do not become drug-addicted or otherwise damaged.
If Mr. Trump, who has children with three different wives, does not share all of the party’s most socially conservative stances, he could certainly be heartened by other additions to the platform, especially on national security and defense.
One section is titled “A Dangerous World,” echoing Mr. Trump’s assertions of the unstable nature of current geopolitics. There is specific reference to the failings of “the secretary of state” — a jab at Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s presumed Democratic Party opponent.
Mr. Trump’s influence was also evident in the absence of any mention of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement that was promoted in the last Republican platform.
Another tweak to the platform’s language on immigration will also please Mr. Trump: Though the initial draft called for building a “physical barrier” along the United States border with Mexico, that passage was amended yesterday to call specifically for a wall.
Yet it was the lack of much interference by Mr. Trump or his aides that seemed to set the tone for the platform’s direction. That allowed conservative activists like Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, to exert greater influence. Mr. Perkins’s hand could be seen in dozens of amendments on issues like gun control, religious expression and bathroom use.
“He is going to be the nominee for the party. He has his own ideas,” Mr. Perkins told reporters on Monday. “But this is a statement of not Donald Trump’s campaign, but of the Republican Party.”
‘Duck Dynasty’ vs. ‘Modern Family’: 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide
"Western Conservative Summit 2016 "
.. this is a bonzer of an article .. inside the top map changes to show where each show is popular .. find your slot with the tool at the bottom .. enjoy ..
By JOSH KATZ DEC. 27, 2016
Americans have been clustering themselves into cultural bubbles just as they have clustered in political bubbles. Their TV preferences confirm that.
If you had to guess how strongly a place supported Donald J. Trump in the election, would you rather know how popular 'Duck Dynasty' is there, or how George W. Bush did there in 2000? It turns out the relationship with the TV show is stronger.
That’s how closely connected politics and culture can be.
When we looked at how many active Facebook users in a given ZIP code “liked” certain TV shows, we found that the 50 most-liked shows clustered into three groups with distinct geographic distributions. Together they reveal a national culture split among three regions: cities and their suburbs; rural areas; and what we’re calling the extended Black Belt .. http://www.deepseanews.com/2012/06/how-presidential-elections-are-impacted-by-a-100-million-year-old-coastline/ .. — a swath that extends from the Mississippi River along the Eastern Seaboard up to Washington, but also including city centers and other places with large nonwhite populations.
Shows most common in urban areas:
Adventure Time .. American Horror Story .. Family Guy .. Game of Thrones .. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia .. Modern Family .. MythBusters .. Once Upon a Time .. Orange Is the New Black .. Saturday Night Live .. So You Think You Can Dance .. South Park .. The Big Bang Theory .. The Daily Show .. The Simpsons .. The Tonight Show .. Tosh.0
Shows most common in rural areas:
16 and Pregnant .. American Dad! .. America’s Funniest Home Videos .. Bones .. Cake Boss .. Criminal Minds .. Dancing With the Stars .. Deadliest Catch .. Duck Dynasty .. Fast n’ Loud .. Grey’s Anatomy .. NCIS .. Pawn Stars .. Pretty Little Liars .. Ridiculousness .. Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory .. Supernatural .. Teen Mom l.. The Vampire Diaries .. The Voice .. The Walking Dead .. Wipeout
Shows most common in the extended Black Belt:
106 & Park .. Bad Girls Club .. Empire .. Keeping Up With the Kardashians .. Law & Order: SVU .. Love & Hip Hop .. Real Housewives of Atlanta .. Scandal .. SpongeBob SquarePants .. The First 48 .. The Tom and Jerry Show
In the 1960s and ’70s, even if you didn’t watch a show, you at least probably would have heard of it. Now television, once the great unifier, amplifies our divisions.
This reflects the business of television as much as it does a fracturing national culture. In the past, notes James Poniewozik, the chief television critic for The New York Times, big network shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies” “reflected a business where sheer audience numbers were more important.” Now, advertising money is driven less by volume and more by demographics. You make more ad money, Mr. Poniewozik explains, by appealing to younger, more affluent, urban viewers.
Still, there are shows that find broader appeal. We’ve created a fandom map for each of the top 50 shows, ranked in order of the difference between their highest and lowest fan percentages. As you get deeper in the page, you’ll find the shows with more consistent popularity — points of unity in a splintering culture.
[ the 50 maps with a little blurb on each .. as this one for number 50
“The Vampire Diaries” is based on a book series for adolescents and young adults. A teenage girl becomes involved with vampires in a small Virginia town full of supernatural beings. Als with several other shows that focus on the supernatural, it’s slightly more popular outside of cities. That said, the show’s fandom has the smallest amount of spatial variation of all 50 shows.
Most Similar America’s Funniest Home Videos Supernatural The Tom and Jerry Show
Least Similar Family Guy Tosh.0 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Find which cultural bubble your town or city falls into by using this handy tool: .. it's inside,
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