This heat wave is going to be a sticky one, the tech community reacts to support for Donald Trump, the relation between police and the military.
Donald Trump's tough talk on terror could help him in November
Delegates to The Republican National Convention are leaving Cleveland and heading home today.
The last endorsements have been given (or not given), and party devotees have heard from a variety of voices, many touting Trump and chiding Clinton. One popular point of contrast for many of those speakers: Trump's take on terror.
"Make America Safe Again" was the official theme of the first day of the gathering, but it became a through-line of the entire convention. Supporters of the Republican nominee say they like his strong stance on security; it's been part of his message since the start of his campaign.
He reinforced his hardline attitude in his acceptance speech last night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2jTkWxMZU
A string of high-profile terror attacks over the past year has led many to worry about safety on US soil. Could Trump's tough talk about terror bring more people to the polls?
For answers to that, Take Two spoke to Robert Trager. He's a professor of political science at UCLA, currently on sabbatical at Yale.
Highlights
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he will be tougher on terror than Hillary Clinton. It's been about a week since the terror attacks in Nice. Historically-speaking, how do fears over national security play out at polls?
In the past, when a tough-talking candidate has been elected, have they faced scrutiny from their constituents when they wound up taking a lighter, more diplomatic approach?
Out of curiosity, what brings voters out the most?
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
Donald Trump finds unusual support in Silicon Valley
The state of the economy may be what matters the most to Presidential voters.
The tech industry is one of the strongest sectors of the economy. One of last night's Republican National Convention speakers is a prominent player in that field.
Billionaire Peter Thiel is one of the co-founders of PayPal and a Trump supporter. But beyond Thiel, Trump's reach in Silicon Valley falls short.
"Silicon Valley does not like Trump," says Politico's Tony Romm.
Last week, a group of more than 140 tech entrepreneurs and executives published a letter online opposing Trump’s run for the presidency. This includes Steve Wozniak of Apple fame, the CEO of Yelp, and LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, who all believe Trump is a threat to the internet.
Despite Thiel's speech, it won't move Silicon Valley to support the GOP presidential nominee.
"The tech industry just likely isn’t going to gravitate towards Trump even with folks like Peter Thiel speaking on his behalf because of all the negative things Trump has said about the industry and some of its top companies," says Romm.
Click the blue player button to listen to the full interview.
NBA takes a stand on LGBT discrimination
The National Basketball Association announced yesterday that it will be pulling next February’s All-Star Game from North Carolina.
This is in protest to the state’s House Bill 2, which limits anti-discrimination protection for LGBT people.
In a statement released, the NBA stated it cannot "successfully host" the All-Star festivities because of the "climate created by the current law."
"Adam Silver, since he took office, has been very clear about his position on discrimination," says Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of Outsports. "Adam Silver is very serious about using his platform to bring social justice."
In 2014, Silver banned Donald Sterling, then-owner of Los Angeles Clippers, for life for making racist remarks and fined him $2.5 million.
"In the past, these leagues have threatened, they've made statements and haven't had to move anything because generally the laws have gotten changed in Georgia with the Super Bowl and Arizona with the Super Bowl...The NBA has really set a standard for all these other sports leagues to follow," says Zeigler.
This could have an economic impact on the state, which stands to lose billions in revenue now that the game is moving.
"I think to the psyche of the people in North Carolina, this has to do something," says Zeigler.
Click the blue player button to listen to the full interview.
Summer concert preview: music at LACMA
One of the best things about living here in Southern California - all the options we have for entertainment.
Especially in the summer which is a great time to go outdoors and hear some music. Throughout SoCal, there are some great places to enjoy concerts without a roof overhead and in the weeks to come we'll be telling you about some of those options.
The series kicks off with a look at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art or LACMA.
Mitch Glickman, LACMA director of musical programs, joined the show to discuss how music and visual art are paired, the history of the ongoing series, and more. For more information on LACMA's Jazz series and upcoming concerts, click here.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Are Southern California heat waves getting more humid?
A major heat wave is set to hit Southern California this weekend, bringing with it dangerously hot conditions and an increased risk of wildfires.
A high pressure system settling over the region is so strong it's eliminating the marine layer, which would normally exert a cooling influence, according to Todd Hall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
An excessive heat warning has been issued for the valleys and mountains until tomorrow night.
"We are looking at temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal for this time of year and in addition we already have dry conditions in place so that will be bringing us critical fire conditions for this weekend as well," Hall told KPCC.
Once we get through the weekend, however, we'll be getting a different sort of heat. Unlike the usual scorcher, this one will bring sticky heat.
"Humidity is going to get a lot stronger next week although the heat's not going to be quite as much," Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, told Take Two.
Historically California’s heat is very dry, will a cooling effect in the evening, but as a long-term trend humidity is rising in the region, Gershunov said.
"What we see in the statistics of heat waves over the past several decades is that they're getting more humid, so it's the nighttime temperatures that are increasing very, very strongly. Much more strongly than the daytime high," Gershunov said.
Click the blue player button to listen to the full interview.
Veterans react to back-to-back shootings of police by former military men
Earlier this month in Baton Rouge and Dallas, police officers were fatally shot. The shooters in each situation were military veterans.
Gavin Long, the shooter in Louisiana, was a data network specialist in the Marines and served in Iraq before being discharged as a sergeant in 2010.
Micah Johnson of Dallas was an Army reservist working in carpentry and masonry who was deployed to Afghanistan once in 2013. He was still a member of the Individual Ready Reserves when he was killed by police after the shooting incident.
These tragedies have created an unusual tension between law enforcement and the military - groups which have traditionally shared a close bond.
It's a situation AP writer Julie Watson has been writing about. She joined Alex Cohen to talk about it.
To listen to the whole interview, please click on the blue player.
How terror plots have become more simple and harder to detect
It's been a week since a truck plowed into a crowd of Bastille Day revelers in Nice, France killing 84 people and wounding hundreds.
ISIS claimed the attack was carried out by one of its "soldiers."
Today, French President Francois Hollande announced new plans to fight ISIS extremists in Iraq.
But there is growing concern that the nature of terrorism is changing— from precise and planned to simple and crude.
Joining Take Two to discuss:
- Steve Simon, Senior Director of the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration
Meet DC Comics' Midnighter superhero: Violent, sarcastic and openly gay
Imagine this pitch for a comic book hero:
An extremely violent, sarcastic, and unapologetic Batman-type who's openly gay and dating a Superman-type character.
Sounds like everything you've ever wished for in a superhero? Well, you're in luck because this fall it's hitting the shelves in the form of the new DC comics' Midnighter and Apollo.
Steve Orlando, the writer behind the series, joined Take Two to discuss who Midnighter is, the state of LGBTQ representation in comics and more.
Interview Highlights
Who is Midnighter?
"Midnighter is a character who was created about 20 years ago in the pages of a book called The Authority, which is sort of like a pro-active alternative take on the Justice League and in-line with that, Midnighter was created to be the Shadow, if the Shadow was directed in a movie by John Woo...very based around doing these action movie things and being basically Bruce Willis in Die Hard in a superhero costume and in-line with that it happened that Midnighter was actually in a relationship with Apollo, the Superman character from the authority as well and so back in 1998 when they came out they were some of the first and definitely most visible mainstream out characters in comics.
Flash forward to today and we've moved him into the DC universe so he's standing right next to Batman and Superman and all the people you know...is bringing his own brand of explosive energy and unabashed pride to the DC universe."
What's been the impact in the comic world?
"It's been extremely well received, Midnighter was one of the best regarded book in 2015 and so far in 2016 and beyond that it's reaching new audiences and that's the most exciting thing, bringing new people into comics and showing them that there's someone like them. Comics is built around that idea you know 'Oh, my life is terrible, my life mundane', but so is Peter Parker's and he has this amazing other life and maybe I can have that too, maybe my life can be mythic. That's what everyone deserves in comics and with Midnighter we've done that for people– There were qualms when the book first started 'Oh, he's so violent in these things' is he a type of role model? Not that reading the book means that we think you should go out and explode people's heads like melons, it's more about the character. It's the way he lives his life. He has no secret identity. He's Midnighter everywhere he goes and there's no shame about who he is, there's 100 percent confidence about who he is and he doesn't care who disagrees and that is the greatest impact on people, giving them that type of confidence."
How personal is this project for you?
"These characters, in particular are very close to me. I read The Authority when I was younger and read everything that Midnighter was in and it was a big influence on me to show that there is not one sort of rubric or mold to fit into as a queer man, or even in a new type of label, you don't have to be gay or straight you can be bisexual. Because you read him and you realize that he doesn't necessarily live by anyone else's expectations except his and more so doesn't even let them bother him and that is a huge influence on me at a time when media examples of queer men were relatively limited. You wanted a counterpoint, you wanted someone to say 'You don't have to be like this, you don't have to act like a certain person you've read about or seen on television, you just have to act like yourself'."
How do you feel about the current state of LGBTQ characters in comics?
"In general, these characters are getting more visibility. Not just with us, but with others, with Marvel, with Image comics, with Black Mask Studios. Books that are putting trans characters first, books that are putting queer characters first anyone non-binary, anyone non-traditional. These things are coming up, but there's a lot more work to do because no one character can pay homage to the life experiences of everyone in a community, it's impossible. And if you try to, it kind of becomes pandering and pedantic.
So all we focus on with each of these characters, at least what I'm doing and I think all of my fellow creators is, making them well rounded. Making them respectful. Making them people and not just tokens. Making them characters and not caricatures. But we have to do that for a wide breadth of people, we have to engage intersectionality...there are so many places to go and people that deserve that moment that the majority of people had had in comments but not the minority of people. So those are the next steps, we have to diversify and increase the types of representation we're doing and then we have to diversify and increase the types of people that are doing it."
To hear the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Answers have been edited for clarity.