Previewing the Republican Convention: A Closer Look
First Posted: Jul 15, 2016 05:16 PM EDT
The speaker"s list and the calendar of events for the 2016 Republican Convention are almost as unconventional as the presumptive candidate himself.
With festivities officially scheduled to kick off in downtown Cleveland on Monday, July 18, Donald Trump"s coronation includes a colorful mix of speakers topped by the likesof former rival Ted Cruz, daughter Ivanka Trump and billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel.
Tim Tebow to Speak?
A partial list of planned speakers was also recently released that included former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, but he quickly took to social media to refute such reports.
"I wake up this morning to find out that I"m speaking at the Republican National Convention," Tebow posted on Facebook. "It"s amazing how fast rumors fly and that"s exactly what it is-a rumor."
Live Streaming of the Event
Other rumored to be taking the stage in some capacity include UFC president Dana White, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. You can watch a live stream of the festivities here.
Word is the four night event will feature a different theme each night, among them immigration, security and the economy. Immigration is slated to be highlighted on the opening night, with Trump on record in insisting that he plans to deport millionsof immigrants if he is elected.
Mike Pence as VP Pick
Along with Cotton, speakers on the opening night include Jamiel Shaw, whose son was killed by an undocumented immigrant. The third night is reserved for Trump"s vice presidential pick to speak, now widely rumoredto be Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
The convention will wrap with Trump finally taking the podium on the final night of the event.
This year"s convention has also generated much interest for the number of high-ranking party members who have decided to steer clear of the festivities and Trump"s official crowning, among them former presidents George H. and George W. Bush and former party nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney.
TagsRepublican National Convention, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Tim Tebow, Ted Cruz
2015 Latin Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Oil is flowing unhindered through Turkeys pipelines and waterways, one of the worlds largest energy trading corridors, after a coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed.
The Turkish straits are open to shipping traffic, an official at the Istanbul-based shipping center said by phone ONSaturday. Crude oil shipments from Azerbaijan and Iraqinto Turkeys Mediterranean port of Ceyhan are operating normally, a port agent said as BP Plc, operator of the Baku-Tifilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, confirmed the oil flow was uninterrupted.
Our facilities in Turkey are open and operating normally, BP spokesman David Nicholas said in an e-mail in response to questions. There are no disruptions to the flow of oil through the BTC pipeline.
At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey is a vital conduit of crude transport from Russia and Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea. Millions of barrels of oil travel through the nations waterways and pipelines each day. The country is also on the fringe of broader conflict in the Middle East, with Syria bordering Turkeys southeastern edge. Oil futures rose as much as 1.9 percent on Friday after the coup began.
Any uncertainty in that region almost invariably results in an increase in oil prices, particularly given the interaction between what goes on in Turkey with Syria,Craig Pirrong, director of the Global Energy Management Institute at the University of Houstons Bauer College of Business, said Friday in a phone interview. Analysts will be looking for whether theres a spillover to the major oil producers, he said.
Oil Gains
Crude oil futures rose above $46 a barrel in after-market trading in New York following the unrest, extending gains from a force majeure declared by Exxon Mobil Corp. on crude shipments from Nigeria.
David Goldwyn, a former State Department special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs in the Obama administration, said its too early to assess the impact on energy transportation from the unrest in Turkey.
The coup attempt was foiled after hours of clashes that saw tanks blockading roads, soldiers fighting police and warplanes bombing the parliament in Ankara. Senior generals were among more than 2,800 military personnel arrested during raids on Saturday, after clashes that left almost 200 dead, including several dozen coup participants.
Choke Point
The Turkish Straits, including the Bosporus and Dardanelles, are one of the worlds major choke points for seaborne crude transit, with about2.9 million barrels of oil a day passing through in 2013, the latest year of data available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Turkey is home to pipelines that transport crude and condensate from nations including Iraq and Azerbaijan to Ceyhan, on the Mediterranean in southern Turkey. BPs Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline exported 67 million barrels of crude, or about 740,000 a day, from the port in the first quarter, according to the British company.
At least 10 crude tankers were signaling Turkish ports at the time of the attempted coup, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They included six Suezmax and two Aframax ships bound for Ceyhan and two Aframax ships destined for the Turkish Straits.
Before it"s here, it"s on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE
Previewing the Republican Convention: A Closer Look
Each presidential election year, Republicans eagerly await their national convention a four-day celebration that draws thousands of GOP operatives, donors and lobbyists who are ready to party.
This year the year of Trump its anything but a party.
Story Continued Below
Many GOP regulars are skipping Cleveland entirely. (I would rather attend the public hanging of a good friend, says Will Ritter, an up-and-coming Republican digital strategist who worked on the three previous conventions.) And among those who are making the trek, theres an overwhelming sense it wont be fun at all. At a time when many Republicans are deeply dissatisfied with their nominee, pessimistic about their prospects for victory in the fall and alarmed about the direction of their party, theres a reluctance about attending the convention more typically reserved for going to the DMV, being summoned for jury duty or undergoing a root canal.
This is the first year in the past two decades that Republicans arent excited about attending the convention. Normally, were all jazzed up about getting together and celebrating our nominee, said Chris Perkins, a GOP pollster who has attended every Republican convention since 1996. Theres nothing to celebrate this cycle. Im going because I have to, not because I want to.
Those who are going often say theyre doing so out of a sense of obligation to meet with clients or to hold meetings before making a beeline back to the airport. As the Republican Party prepares to nominate a figure who is registering historically high disapproval ratings, some dont want to advertise their presence in Cleveland. Dont use my name, said one senior party strategist. I dont want anyone to know Im there. (A few days after the interview, the strategist got back in touch, having decided not to go, after all.)
I am there for one day on business, said Danny Diaz, who served as Jeb Bushs campaign manager and advises a number of the partys most prominent figures. It is business and nothing more.
In many cases, people are bailing altogether. The idea of a blowout party, they say, just doesnt seem appetizing at a time of such uncertainty and division within the GOP. For some, itll be the first time in decades theyll be missing a national convention.
Whats there to celebrate? asked Jay Zeidman, a Texas health care executive whose family has been a major benefactor of the Republican Party. The party has hit rock bottom in terms of leadership.
I dont want anything close to the appearance of supporting Trump, said Jason Roe, a veteran party strategist. This ship can sink without me as a passenger.
For most, the conventions lack of appeal boils down to one thing: Trump. The New York businessman has shunned the establishment class, reaching out to few of the operatives who worked for his primary rivals and making little effort to bring them on to his team. As a result, many of the Republican ad makers, pollsters, and fundraisers who populate Washington have little desire to witness his expected nomination.
That many of those same strategists remain convinced that Trump will imperil the GOPs down-ballot prospects makes it tougher.
The convention is usually a four-day political party that every operative wants to go to, but its different this year, said Ryan Williams, a former Mitt Romney aide who will be skipping Cleveland. Republican political operatives are not excited about the nominee, and they dont believe it will be a worthwhile convention to attend.
Yet there are other reasons why Cleveland might not be the bash national party conventions typically are. Chief among them: security. At a time when the nation is reeling from a series of mass shootings, there is widespread concern about safety in Cleveland. Increasing the worry is the nature of Trumps campaign events, which have at times resulted in racially charged violence between his supporters and critics. The convention is expected to draw scores of protesters, ranging from Black Lives Matter to white supremacist groups.
Law enforcement officials have provided relatively few details about the security measures theyre taking. The Cleveland Police Department has said that about a third of its 1,700-person force will be devoted to the convention and that it would also be relying on local, state and federal authorities for assistance.
Yet not everyone is at ease. In an email, one senior Republican National Committee official wrote that he is concerned as heck about the potential for some homegrown violence/native ISIS type threat. If you want to make a statement in America, what better place to do it?
While security preparations had been extensive, the official said, protecting the entire city will be challenging.
Convention officials insist theyre ready.
Were confident Cleveland will be secure and convention-goers will be able to do their business and experience Cleveland, said Kirsten Kukowski, a convention spokeswoman.
Dampening the mood, however, will be the decided lack of star power. While conventions typically attract the partys leaders, many of the GOPs biggest names from rising stars like Kelly Ayotte and Ben Sasse, to past nominees like Mitt Romney and John McCain, to ex-presidents George W. and George H.W. Bush wont be in attendance. And many of the partys most prominent figures have said they wont be a part of the speaking program. As of Monday evening, convention officials had yet to release a speakers program.
Plus, the parties are typically paid for by corporate sponsors, and a number of them, including Wells Fargo, Ford and Apple, have decided to pull funding for this years convention.
On Friday, Cleveland Scene, a local news outlet, reported that some of the citys caterers have reduced their number of convention-related events and let go of some staff because of the lack of corporate sponsorship.
Not everyone, however, is unhappy.
If anything, some are convinced that the unusual nature of Trumps candidacy will make the convention a spectacle unlike anything in years past.
This campaign has been unlike any other in American history, said Alex Conant, a former top aide to Marco Rubio, who will be heading to Cleveland. Why wouldnt the convention also be unlike anything weve ever seen?
Alan Vega – Jukebox Babe / Collision Drive ( 1996 ) FULL ALBUM
(photo: Jordi Vidal/Getty Images)
Alan Vega, one half of the pioneering electronic protopunk duo Suicide, has died peacefully in his sleep at 78. The news was first announced by Henry Rollins, who shared the following statement from Vegas family via his website:
With profound sadness and a stillness that only news like this can bring, we regret to inform you that the great artist and creative force, Alan Vega has passed away.
Alan passed peacefully in his sleep last night, July 16. He was 78 years of age.
Alan was not only relentlessly creative, writing music and painting until the end, he was also startlingly unique. Along with Martin Rev, in the early 1970s, they formed the two person avant band known as Suicide. Almost immediately, their incredible and unclassifiable music went against every possible grain. Their confrontational live performances, light-years before Punk Rock, are the stuff of legend. Their first, self-titled album is one of the single most challenging and noteworthy achievements in American music.
Alan Vega was the quintessential artist on every imaginable level. His entire life was devoted to outputting what his vision commanded of him.
One of the greatest aspects of Alan Vega was his unflinching adherence to the demands of his art. He only did what he wanted. Simply put, he lived to create. After decades of constant output, the world seemed to catch up with Alan and he was acknowledged as the groundbreaking creative individual he had been from the very start.
Alans life is a lesson of what it is to truly live for art. The work, the incredible amount of time required, the courage to keep seeing it and the strength to bring it forththis was Alan Vega.
Alan is survived by his amazing family, wife Liz and son Dante. His incredible body of work, spanning five decades, will be with us forever.
Born Boruch Alan Bermowitz in Brooklyn in 1938, Vega studied fine art at Brooklyn College under Ad Reinhardt and Kurt Seligmann, going on to pursue a career in visual art after graduating in in 1960. Seeing the Stooges perform at the New York State Pavilion in 1969 inspired him to start a band, and he soon formed Suicide with his friend Martin Reverby, naming the group after a Ghost Rider comic book issue called Satan Suicide. With Vegas vocals and Revs primitive synthesizers and drum machines, the two pioneered a minimalist, hypnotic protopunk sound in fact, they were one of the bands to describe themselves as punk, and their raucous, confrontational live shows became legendary in the New York scene. Their 1977 self-titled debut became an influence on everyone from Bruce Springsteeen to Radiohead to M.I.A., and they went on to release four more studio albums and a few more live albums.
Starting in 1980, Vega also released several rockabilly solo albums, and he collaborated with numerous artists including Ric Ocasek, Alex Chilton, Lydia Lunch, and Genesis P-Orridge. Following a stroke in 2012, Vega again shifted his focus away from music and towards visual art. Revisit some of his work below.
Baton Rouge police shooting: Officials ask residents to stay vigilant
BATON ROUGE Baton Rouge residents gathered Saturday afternoon to form the newest chapter of the New Black Panther Party.
The New Black Panthers arrived in Baton Rouge last Saturday to protest the officer-involved shooting death of 37-year-old Alton Sterling. Two videos of the shooting sparked national outcry and protests across Baton Rouge.
Jerald Justice said the group was approached by local residents like Edwin Smith to help establish a Baton Rouge chapter.
It is time for new leadership and a new organization to step forward in Baton Rouge, Smith said. I feel like the New Black Panther Party is the organization that can bring new leadership to Baton Rouge.
Founders met Saturday to formally establish the chapter as well as gather names for new members. WBRZ News 2s Earl Phelps was able to briefly attend the event on the condition that he does not reveal the meetings location.
With the help of the New Black Panther Party, these members should be able to handle any or everything in their city, Justice said.
Over the course of five days, authorities arrested 185 protesters in Baton Rouge. Friday, District Attorney Hillar Moore said that his office will not prosecute 100 protesters who were only charged with misdemeanor crimes.
Justice said that the Black Panthers were involved in the protests, but none of their members were arrested or were carrying guns during the demonstrations.
Not one official member arrested. Not one official member hurt, Justice said. Every member went home.
Lafayette is the only other city in Louisiana with an active New Black Panthers chapter. Justice says that there was also a New Orleans chapter, but it is not active now.
Another honor killing, RIP Qandeel Baloch, you will be missed!
ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistani fashion model Qandeel Baloch, who recently stirred controversy by posting pictures of herself with a Muslim cleric on social media, was strangled to death by her brother, police said Saturday.
Her parents told police one of her six brothers strangled her to death as she slept in the family"s home in Multan, police spokeswoman Nabila Ghazanfar told The Associated Press. She said police are searching for the suspect.
Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, was little known until recently, when she offended many conservatives by posting pictures of herself with Mufti Qavi, a prominent cleric. She said the two of them enjoyed soft drinks and cigarettes together during the daylight hours in the holy month of Ramadan, when practicing Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.
The pictures and allegations caused a scandal in conservative Pakistan, and the government removed Qavi from the official moon-sighting committee that determines when Ramadan starts and ends in accordance with the Islamic lunar calendar.
Baloch had said Qavi told her he wanted to see her face before the committee met to determine the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, which was observed earlier this month.
Qavi denied the allegations, saying he only met with her to discuss the teachings of Islam.
Earlier this month, Baloch sought protection from government, saying she was receiving anonymous death threats.
Hundreds of Pakistani woman are murdered by family members each year in so-called honor killings, which are seen as punishment for violating conservative norms.
Pokemon Go | Evolve Eevee into Vaporeon | IT"S NOT RANDOM!
In Pokemon GO evolving Eevee is a bit different compared to the other Pokemon games. In the mainline games Eevee could be evolved into its many evolutions by fulfilling conditions like using a stone or training it at a specific time. Pokemon GO which currently has only Kanto Pokemon, allows you to evolve your Eevee into Jolten, Flareon or Vaporeon.
Update:Eevee evolution has now been confirmed to be done manually using the trick mentioned in this article.
Like many other things in Pokemon GO its not clear if there are certain conditions needed to evolve Eevee into a specific evolution.
Some people say that Eevees evolutiondepends on the second attack it has resulting in an Eevee withDig evolving in Flareon, one withSwift evolving into Jolteonand finally an Eeveewith Body Slam evolvinginto Vaporeon. Personally I havent tested it out but many people say this is the case.
Pokemon GO: Can you catch Legendary Pokemon like Mewtwo, Mew, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres?
Others state that its completely random and you just level them up and hope that it evolve into the one you want. Theres even a spreadsheet so players can find out what exactly leads to a specific evolution. As you can guess we still dont know much about the game yet.
So whats your experience been like with evolving Eevee in Pokemon GO? Let us know in the comments.
