With republican candidates ranging from Jeb Bush to Donald Trump set to debate on Fox News next week, are national polls the best way to determine which candidates debate? Also, the Los Angeles City Council has unanimously voted to ban firearm magazines with a capacity of more than 10 bullets. Then, author Mark Lewis argues that addiction is not a disease and why the disease model prevents healing.
Republican debate preview: Candidates vie for attention amid crowded field
Republican presidential candidates will face off next week in a debate hosted by Fox News.
The debate is scheduled for August 6th in Cleveland starting at 6 PM PT. Fox News will limit the opening debate to the top 10 contenders leading in the most recent national polls.
There will be a second debate at 2 PM PT with the remaining six candidates, reflecting a last-minute rule change by Fox that has allowed all nationally polled candidates a chance to participate.
With Republican candidates ranging from Jeb Bush to Donald Trump, is this the best way to determine which candidates debate?
What are candidates doing to rank high in the polls? Is this debate beneficial for American voters? We’ll discuss these issues with a panel of political analysts as well as what they expect will be the talking points at next week’s debate.
Guests:
Arnold Steinberg, political strategist and analyst, he’s a court-recognized expert witness who has testified on public opinion and attitudinal formation, demographics and voting patterns
Luis Alvarado, Republican political consultant and analyst for CNN Español and Telemundo; he’s a former campaign staffer for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and was the Los Angeles Regional Chairman for the 2008 McCain/Palin presidential campaign
John Feehery, Republican strategist and President of Quinn Gillespie Communications; he’s also a columnist for The Hill
Twitter CEO remarks lead to questions about relevance of short-form social media
For those of us in the media business, Twitter can be an invaluable resource.
It can connect you with a source or give you an early lead on breaking news/ If you love following the lives of celebrities/athletes/famous folks, Twitter allows you not only to see what they’re up to, but actually communicate with them -- and maybe elicit a response if your Tweet is good enough.
But for those who don’t get their jollies from scooping the competition or knowing what Kim Kardashian had for lunch, is Twitter really necessary?
Despite posting a massive growth of 61 percent in the second quarter, Twitter co-founder and interim CEO Jack Dorsey said in a recent call with analysts that he was unhappy with the impact produced by recent product initiatives, and called it “unacceptable.”
Twitter has struggled in the social media economy, with dysfunctional management and slow growth leading to disappointed investors. Dorsey says he wants to improve marketing to increase the site’s draw for new users and implement strategies to make Twitter more relevant and less complicated to use.
Why do you or don’t you use Twitter? Is Twitter too hard to use? Are there simply a finite number of people who want to talk with the world? How does Instagram’s usage compare with Twitter? What about Snapchat? What percentage of people with a Twitter account regularly Tweet? What’s the incentive for non-users to start using Twitter?
Guest:
Sree Sreenivasan, social media expert and chief digital officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He tweets
When it comes to stealing jokes on Twitter, the joke’s on you
As long as comedy has been around, people have been stealing others’ jokes.
In 2015, when sites like Twitter exist for users to conceivably publish their every thought for the whole world to see, it creates an entirely new platform for joke theft, and apparently not even the biggest comedians are above scrutiny.
San Diego-based writer and Twitter user Alex Kaseberg is suing late night funnyman Conan O’Brien for more than $600,000, claiming that several of his jokes were stolen and repurposed in some form in blog posts and Tweets from Conan’s show.
Twitter is also cracking down on joke thieves. According to this article from The Verge, Twitter users can report instances of possible copyright infringement, and Twitter then decides whether to remove the Tweet on copyright grounds.
Do you think Mr. Kaseburg’s lawsuit has merit? Can/should Tweets be considered intellectual property? What questions does this raise about what kinds of online content are intellectual property?
Guest:
Ann Bartow, professor of law and director of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at the University of New Hampshire School of Law
2 views of LA City Council's ban on high-capacity gun magazines
The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously voted (with three members in absentia) to ban firearm magazines with a capacity of more than 10 bullets.
The legislation carves out a number of exempt groups, including police and individuals who purchased guns before January 1, 2000 that can only be used with such magazines. In addition, the council will vote on a proposed amendment to allow certain retired police officers exemptions.
While the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups have threatened to sue the city, the bill’s authors based their legislation on similar bills in San Francisco and Sunnyvale that have withstood legal challenges.
The move is a firm, if rare, attempt to impose more gun control in a national climate that has seen very little action since the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and the more recent shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Do you agree with the city council’s vote to ban high capacity magazines? Will the ban be effective in reducing gun deaths in the city of Los Angeles? What effect will this have on the national debate between gun rights and gun control?
Click here for more on this story and to read the actual bill
Guests:
Sam Paredes, executive director of the advocacy organization, Gun Owners of California
Juliet Leftwich, legal director, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence based in San Francisco
First step to treating addiction? Quit calling it a disease, says neuroscientist and recovered addict
In our highly medicated and over-prescribed world, drug and alcohol addiction is often treated as a disease.
In "The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease," author Mark Lewis argues that addiction is not a disease rather a natural result of our brains searching for pleasure and relief, and why the disease model prevents healing.
A cognitive neuroscientist and former addict, Lewis examines how treatment for drug addictions can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery. He shares the stories of addicts that have struggled professionally and personally with addiction and the scientific findings that could help addicts in the future.
Guest:
Marc Lewis, a developmental neuroscientist and author of numerous books on the subject of addiction. His latest is “The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease” (PublicAffairs, 2015)
With OC Fair in full swing, a look back at the fun, fried history of county fairs
Fried butter? Check. Pig racing? Check. Overpriced carnival games? Check. It must be county fair season.
For the most season fair-goers, that means it’s time to break out your best pie recipe for the pie-making contest or show off your most impressive cattle. The rest of us just try and find the most bizarre fried food possible. Fried beer, maybe?
County fairs in the US go back 250 years. Back then, they were largely about bringing people together to explore the latest developments in agricultural technology. Now, agriculture plays a big role, but county fairs over time have turned into meccas of entertainment, sideshows, and the famous fried foods.
In Orange County, the fair runs through August 16, then LA’s county fair kicks off September 4th and runs through the 27th.
Do county fairs conjure nostalgic visions of small towns coming together to show off the prized cow, biggest tomato or most delicious jam? Or maybe just dust, heat and funnel cake? Why do you go to county fairs? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em?
Guest:
Marla Calico, Chief of Operations at the International Association of Fairs and Expositions