Blog 8: Critique https://thefederalpapers.blogspot.com/

I critiqued Taylor Davis who wrote on climate change. When I first looked at this, the title says “The Federalist papers”, but obviously it’s not about the Federalist papers it’s about global climate change. The student does a good job stating the history and facts of climate change. They mention the industrial revolution and how CO2 levels have greatly damage the O-Zone layer since then. This student talks about how the climate change is affecting the sea levels, the general weather patterns and increase in natural disasters. Then the student begins to talk about the Democratic candidates and how some of them in the 2020 presidential election plan to change policy related to climate change. This is very interesting and I hope that we can start finding some solutions to this extremely dangerous problem. This student talks about how New York senator Kristen Gillibrand plans to replace the current infrastructure and is really working on finding solutions for this global climate change issue. This student did a fantastic job with organization. They stated facts and history and then zoomed in on a particular political candidate who planned on changing the policies to find solutions for global climate change problems. It was a very interesting editorial to read and I have more information about this topic. I agree that we really need to do something soon or else our world is doomed. We are not taking this situation serious enough and scientist have said if we don’t do something, in about the next 12 years it’ll be too late.

Blog stage 7: Florida House passes bill that makes it harder for ex-felons to vote

The Florida House on Friday passed a bill that would require ex-felons in the state, who were granted the right to vote, to pay all financial obligations before they can head to the polls. Almost like a poll tax.The House, controlled by Republican, passed the Voting Rights Restoration Act last week, and the state Senate passed a bill that includes similar measures Thursday night. The House passed the Senate bill by a party line vote of 67-42 Friday, the last day of the legislative session. In November, Florida voters approved Amendment 4, allowing convicted felons who complete all terms of their sentence, including parole or probation, the right to vote, except those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense. The bill, however, would restore voting rights only for individuals who have completed all terms of their sentence, which includes fully paying restitution and fines or fees ordered by the court, not including fees racked up after sentencing. Financial obligations are met when they're paid in full, the "termination" of the obligation by a victim or court, or completion of all community service hours, if the court converts the financial obligation to community service. While Republicans have argued that the fees are part of an ex-felon's sentence and are  obligatory, Democrats and critics of the bill argue that the measure disenfranchises felons from voting and ignores the wills of Florida's people. Although the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida wouldn't comment on potential litigation, the organization said it will explore all options in order to ensure that the will of the people is carried out.

Blog 6: commenting on others blogs: What In Our Nation?! https://whatinournation.blogspot.com/

I will have to say that I agree with L Anderson’s point about how the Muslim people after September 11 or also known as 9/11 have been discriminated against. His points weren’t completely clear to me when reading until the very end but he had a lot of accurate facts and some history about the event. The reason I’m saying that his points weren’t completely clear is because I feel that when I read this I didn’t completely understand due to the lack of organization. He talked about how the event of 9/11 has set into motion a shift in the United States affecting the policy media and apparent racism against Muslims. I would disagree that it’s racism and more of discriminatory actions. We don’t think less of them as a race, the reason that some Americans reacted the way that they did is because it shot fear into their lives. This was the first real attack on the US and Americans were shocked and they didn’t have anyone to blame, but the people who caused it. So they put blame on the Muslim people as a precaution to keep it from happening again. 9/11 is similar to what happened with the Bombings by Japan who attacked the US. As a reaction to this hateful and dangerous event Americans put Japanese Americans in camps to keep them separated and prevent further attacks because they had no one to blame, but the Japanese Americans. This is the same response that the Americans had against the Muslims because of this horrific event that happened was caused by terrorist who were Muslim. All of these motivations and thoughts about Muslim people were only because of the fear that Americans had started to experience. In conclusion, it was a well thought out write up, but it lacked some organization. The history that he gave was very interesting and informative. I agreed with some of his argument and some not so much.

Blog Stage Five- Immigrants a problem? What is the solution?

So recently in America there has been a huge problem of the federal government being overwhelmed by central American refugees arriving by the thousands. There are two reasons for that. One reason is that president Donald Trump‘s policies sent the signal that this may be the last and best chance to find safety in the United States and second, the existing laws make handling immigrants from America more complicated for administration. On Friday, on the news Trump declared to the refugees that “the system is full. We can’t take you anymore… Our country is full so turn around” This was declared during a public discussion with border security officials in El Centro California. Trump was primarily speaking about the terms of drugs and gangs. He also talked about the limitations of military forces that he has sent to reinforce border enforcement agents in dealing with the immigrants. Continuing this speech President Trump declared, “they rush our border and we have military and they are great military people but they can’t act the way they would under other conditions and there’s not a lot that they can do”. President Trump is trying to find solutions to this growing problem of immigrants who are trying to come to America. He had thought about closing the border of Mexico and America, but that might be detrimental to the United States trading. A lot of American produce is actually from Mexico and this would cause a decline in our trading and access to bulk produce. President Trump has announced that he will postpone the closing of the Mexican border until 2020 that is all we know about this situation so far.

Blog stage four: Congress has a breaking point this week Trump might have found it

In my blog stage four, I have read “Congress has a breaking point this week Trump might have found it” by Cheryl Gay Stolberg and Michael D Shear. This article is about how in decisions that Trump has made, Congress has decided to fight back. It’s saying that Trump has found the breaking point of Congress. In a remarkable series of bipartisan rebukes to the president Congress pushes back. Twelve republican senators abandoned the president to pass legislation, already adopted by the House, that would block Trump from declaring a national emergency to build his border wall. This was an act of defiance that he vowed to overturn with the first veto of his presidency. One of the senators, Patrick J Toomey said “it’s about separation of powers! It’s about respecting the principles of the Constitution” which they believe building the wall will violate. Until this event, Congress has for decades been considered a constitutional weakling, excessively differential to president, but this is a moment in history where the legislative branch seeks to assert its power and reverence. The audience of the New York Times is typically more for liberal biased people so this would attract people who would not support Trump and his decisions. The New York Times has very high credibility for liberal biased news but for republican they call it wish washy and not as factual. I believe that since the New York Times is more of a liberal magazine article it tends to take the side of the liberals. Trying to make Trump look bad in many situations, some are justified and some seem like they’re trying to make him worse than he is. I do believe that the New York Times in this situation has done an adequate job in explaining the situation with Trump and Congress. I support what this article says and the facts that are given.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/politics/trump-congress-rebuke.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Blog Stage three: Disappointment in Washington

I have read the article “Disappointment in Washington” : The Conan show was another failure of Democratic imagination written by The Washington Times. This article from the beginning shows a specific opinion on this topic due to its critical title. This article is filled with criticisms on this topic, The Washington Times starts this article by saying “The best laid schemes of rats and politicians gang aft agley, as the poet Bobby Burns might put it, and this is a lesson that events have been trying to teach Democrats embittered by losing the 2016 election since shortly after all the votes were counted.” This article mentions Robert Mueller had yet to put Donald Trump on the perp walk. That is apparently something the democratics have been dreaming of. This article talks about former lawyer to the president, Michael Conan and how he has revealed some things about President Trump being a con man, a cheat and a racist on many occasions. But for some reason, Michael Conan reveals that now he’s finally telling the truth. Obviously the tone and attitude of this article written by The Washington Times is indirectly stating that they do not support Trump or any of his decisions and his lawyer has a lot of bad things to say about him but wont. This opinion on these events that followed show that the author of this article does not agree with our decision in 2016 that made Trump President. The authors intended audience would most likely be people who do not support Trump as well and would support him on his strong worded opinions. His credibility is solid because most of his sources came from what Michael Cohen, himself said. All in all this article is not supportive of Trump and is trying to reveal his flaws by having the source that was close to the president expose him.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/28/editorial-disappointment-in-washington/

Blog Stage Two-Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Border Wall

I have read the article "Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Border Wall" by Peter Baker and I believe that it should be read. This article talks about how President Trump declared a National Emergency to put his big plans of constructing a border wall into action. Building this wall would cost billions of dollars, and congress has said no to funding for it. This was transforming a highly charged policy dispute into a fundamental confrontation over the separation of powers. President Trump said that he would sign a declaration to protect the citizens of the United States from drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants. Instant condemnation from Republicans and Democrats, they both called it "unconstitutional abuse of his authority." Both Republicans and Democrats agreed that the president is not above the law, yet President Trump is trying to go outside the bounds of the law. The spending package for funding the wall was passed by Congress on Thursday, after the 35 day government shutdown. Congress did not want a second shutdown so they complied with President Trumps request for the billions of dollars for funding the wall. The President signed this spending package on Friday and wants to put it into action.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/us/politics/national-emergency-trump.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage