First Quarter Reflection

This class has been very challenging.  Though i thought i understood our government, turns out it is much more complex than i had expected.  After doing the project on the constitution i have grasped a much better understanding on the peoples rights and the powers that the government has on people.  I also see food industries completely different now.  I never want to eat chicken unless it comes from Costco, thats for sure!  While doing my blog posts, i have been amazed at how much is happening around our country.  I have learned so many new, interesting, stories just by reading a few articles a week.  Before these i had never been up to date on current events.  Now i have signed up on a news website to get daily reports on what has been going on.  I am eager to see what the rest of the year has in store, and i plan on continuing to work on my discussion skills, because i have noticed my classmates are further ahead of me in that field, but i think their advanced conversations will push me to improve.

Trump's Tax Plan

Donald Trump has a tax plan, but it does not come at a small price.  His proposal would reduce revenues by $9 trillion over a decade.  His plan is to let those with the lowest income pay no taxes and reduce the higher class tax rate down to about 25%.  Trump promises his plan will not add to the countries debt and is hopeful that the economy will continue to grow so that his tax plan can be successful.

Americans Killed by Iran

Obama will not inform the congress of how many Americans were killed by Iran.  The US is preparing to release $100 billion in assets concerning the previous nuclear deal, and experts are saying they are going to use the money directly for terror operations. People have been very suspicious about this deal for a while and keeps getting more suspicious.  Failure to answer the question "How many US citizens have been killed by Iran, including Iran's terrorist proxies, since 1979?" has made experts question the situation and wonder why they disregarded the question to begin with,

Planned Parenthood

In Utah, planned parenthood beat the governor in court who was trying to cut off their funding.  The judge chose to keep the Women's Health Organization open.  The district judge issued a restraining order against the Governor because he wanted to revoke all federal funds.  There were secretly recorded videos that had to be cut off citing of officials discussing the topic.  The videos distorted the issue.  The public's interests were much stronger than the defendants to cut funds

24 Years on the Run

After 24 years of running, Paul Jackson was finally arrested in Mexico for kidnapping and rape.  Him and his brother were indicted in Oregon in 1990.  After 1 year, in 1991, they fled.  15 years later Jackson's brother turned himself in and was sentenced to 108 years in prison.  Jackson was one of America's most wanted nearly 10 years ago.  Andrea Hood, the girl captured by Jackson and his brother, was chained to a bed and tortured for 2 days.  When the brothers left the room the was able to escape the chains and break out through a window.  Jackson was finally arrested on his way to work in Mexico.  There is still not a set date to bring Jackson back to the United States.

Volkswagen Scam

The car company Volkswagen has, for years, been telling their customers that their cars run on a "clean diesel" engine, but recently it has been reported that this has been a lie all along.  Volkswagen cars produce up to 40 times more than the legal lethal pollution limit, which can cause diseases.  VW tricked us and put a special mechanism in about 11 million cars that ensured that the vehicle would pass the government test.  VW has been getting away with this for years, and finally admitted to it.  We will soon see how the government is going to react to the situation.

Police Officer Shot During Traffic Stop

In Phoenix, a police officer was shot during a traffic stop.  The person that shot him (or shooter) are still on the loose, and left the police officer severely injured.  He was shot multiple times and was lucky to have been wearing his protective armor.  The officer had pulled over a car, and after he stepped out of his vehicle he was shot many times in the chest and it is said that he only survived because of his vest.  Investigators have no information linking to reasoning behind the shooting yet.

Obama's Peace Prize....A Mistake?

The former secretary of the Nobel Peace Prize committee says President Obama failed to live up to the Peace Prize expectations. Many argues that Obama had not been president for a long enough amount of time in order to impact our nation.  Many people believed Obama was not worthy of this prize.  It was not only those who disagreed with Obama's political views, but even many of his supporters did not believe he deserved the Peace Prize.  Geir Lundestad, who had been secretary of the secretive committee, stated that the committee "thought it would strengthen Obama and it didn't have this effect."  The controversial question as to whether or not President Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize or if he should return it is still floating around, and many people cannot agree on whether or not they believe he was worthy.

School Bans Confederate Flag Symbols From Vehicles

In Christiansburg, Virginia, 3 students at one of the local high schools were called in to the principals office and were told they had to take the confederate flags off of their cars. Two of the students said that the school had threatened them with suspension if they failed to remove the symbols, but the school denies that accusation.  Christiansburg is the only school in the county that has a parking contract stating "students cannot display any flags or symbols that are deemed offensive to any race, religion, or ethnic group, or sexual orientation." One of the mothers of the students says "i did not think it was a problem around here" and that she simply had not read the guid lines. 

Navy Limits Sonar Explosives Near Marine Mammals

Sonar explosives can harm dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals, and that is why the navy has agreed to limit their uses of these materials to protect wildlife.  Most people concerns are areas off the southern coast of California and Hawaii.  There had been many environmental groups place law suits against the navy because they had been harming wildlife and their habitats which makes it difficult to train and test in these areas.  The Navy has finally agreed to reduce their use of explosives for the sake of marine life. 

Lesbian T-Shirt Gets Teen Suspended From School

Briana Popour is a students at Chesnee High School in South Carolina and got suspended for wearing a shirt that read "Nobody Knows I'm A Lesbian" in big bold letters.  She was told to change her school or go home because school officials said it was offensive which violated their schools dress code in the handbook, even though she had worn it to school before and didn't have any problems previously.  The school still hasn't reacted to any of the media covering this story and Popour has not backed down.  She is still wearing her so called "offensive" t shirts and says that she is happy with who she is.
 

Federal System

1. "Federalism is a mode of political organization that unites seperate states or other polities within an overarrching political system in such a way as to allow each to maintain its own fundamental political integrity."
2. There are 196 nation states.
3. About 25 countries have a federal system of government including Argentina, australia, austria, belgium, bosnia, brazil, canada. cosmoros. etheopia, germany, india, iraq, malaysia, mexico, nepal, nigeria, pakistan, russia, saint kitts and nevis, south sudan, sudan, switzerland, united arab, venezuela,
4. The countries under a federal government are mostly larger countries
5. Unitary means it is a sovereign state governed by a single entity
6. There are more than 150 countries that are unitary states, the largest 5 being indonesia, france, ukraine, china, tanzania
7. the federal system unites states under one system where as the unitary states are all a single entity.
federalism leaves more power to the people than a unitary system.  Federalism leaves a lack of unity throughout the country.
8.

It is difficult to have benefits and authority, you only get one or the other.  The man accepts the benefit and declines the authority.  States would rather have the benefits of the government than be ruled by them.  States refuse the authority but expect the benefits.  States want the perks 

9. 

Federal government uses power against the helpless and infringes on peoples lives

10. 

Federalistic governments allow states to be in control over their self, but when a states suggests or proposes something to the federal government it gets disregarded or shot down.  They say they are for states rights, unless it is something they don't agree with.  

11.  Federalism is the base of the "layer cake".  Everything else is builds off of federalism and they split the powers up.

12.

If the chocolate is federalism and the white cake are all others, your eye is directly drawn to the chocolate because it takes over the white cake.  Just like the federal relationship, it takes over everything, and sometimes without even trying, but it is so powerful it takes takes control of most everything.  The power swirls through everything.

Half of New York City is Living In Poverty

Although the employment levels have rise, around half of New York City still lives in poverty.  The city's poorest population group is the Asians, which has recently surpassed the hispanic peoples. Often times these people have trouble going to government funded programs because they cannot even speak the language because they are immigrants. Since the recession, there are more adults working full time but still almost half of the population continues to struggle financially and many barely make it by day by day.  New York city is simply not affordable to most people. Because of this huge issue, in the past year, the city has discussed letting non citizens vote in municipal elections. 

Trump's Loyalty Pledge to Republican Party

Donald Trump signed a pledge saying that he will not run as an independent candidate if he doesn't win the GOP nomination. He got nothing in return for signing this pledge accept for reassurance Of coarse, being Donald Trump, he spoke his very honest opinion on many topics today at the Trump Tower in Manhattan. There were many reporters there asking a variety of questions in which some he chose not to answer because of the inappropriate topic and others that were controversial.  Many of his supporters still stand behind him and his efforts to "Make America Great Again!"

***I chose to do a blog on this because i actually got to walk past the Trump Tower during his speech when i got to New York! It's the first time i had ever been in such a politically diverse environment.  There wasn't much happening outside but after i figured out what was happening i kinda got a better feel for what was going on around me.  It was pretty cool!!!!!!!!

Iran Nuclear Deal

Obama got 34 votes from senators to move forward with his deal with Iran concerning nuclear weapons.  34 is the very minimum amount of votes you can get to advance the deal.  Despite what happens with the congress, Obama has the votes and is can now focus on getting more votes to avoid potential veto.  Many republicans are still opposed to the entire situation along with some democrats. Now Obama will go through with a deal regarding foreign policy despite the fact that a vast amount of the United States congress does not support his decision.  This gives Iran a nuclear program, thus the United States must trust they will follow through with the deal, which concerns a variety of different matters.  President Obama says "This deal is not built on trust; it is built on verification", but we will just have to see if that is truly the case sometime in the future when it is already too late. 
 

Kanye West for President

Kanye West has announced he is running for president in 2020.  If Kanye were to win, making Kim the first lady, producers already plan on making a segment on television called Kim and Kanye take the White House.  Running for political places seems to be an ongoing idea considering Kim wanted to run for Mayor of Glendale, California.  This sort of situation is similar to the Deez Nuts situation, but Deez Nuts sends a true sign to the people of the United States where as Kanyes aspirations are only taken as a joke and to most people, considered a waste of time.

Kentucky Clerk Refuses to Give Marriage License to Gays

After the legalization of same sex marriage, Kentucky clerks were required to give marriage licenses to same sex couples, but Kim Davis, one of the clerks, refused. She was sewed and ended up taking her case to high court.  Davis argues that issuing a license to a gay couple would "irreparably and irreversibly violate her conscience" and violate her due process rights.  Davis suggested that these couples just get a license from the clerk beside her to solve the problem.  Davis' hearing is soon because of her resistance to follow the law.