Final Post- ISIS

Final Post- AP Gov
5/22/16

ISIS has been a large part of the media and political elections in the last year. The big question on everyone's minds is how to effectively deal with the radical political/religious group that is terrorizing Syria and other countries in the region.ISIS has been a problem since it began in 1999 and has only grown in power. Lots of destabilization from a number of different conflicts left a large vacancy in power in the middle east region which allowed ISIS to grow substantially. ISIS doesn't have overwhelming power in that region though, there are other Muslim that disagree religiously from ISIS. Iranians for the most part are Shia's, a different type of Islam than ISIS , which commonly fights against Sunnis like ISIS. The Kurds of that region also are against ISIS as ISIS has engaged them in battle so the Kurds have decided to wage war on ISIS.



The US and many other world-leading countries have done work to stop ISIS through repeated bombings. The US is the leader in bombing but that has proven to not be a foolproof way to stop the organization.  There was even a negotiation with the Iranians that showed progress of working together and synergy in that region. Many new ideas have surfaced on how to deal with the militants. The countries of the world must come together to work on defeating ISIS and eliminating their threat in that region. This will have to build on the negotiations between the world and Iran as they are powerful in that area and are against ISIS. All the countries including the US, European leaders, Russia, and Iran must join forces to effectively suffocate ISIS and cause them to dissipate. The world must turn on ISIS until they have no support from any group and are left in a economic drought. The use of military action might have short-term, small success but the long-term success of unity against the religious militants will cause them to deactivate.



Sources:
https://www.quora.com/How-did-ISIS-form-When-and-where-did-ISIS-begin

(video at the top of ^ page)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/20/world/war-on-isis-whos-doing-what/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/admiral-jim-stavridis-ret/bombing-isis-diplomatic-syria_b_8557148.html

http://toprightnews.com/russians-say-u-s-not-bombing-isis-at-all-obama-lying-to-the-american-people/      (picture)

Decision time arrives for controversy-shy US Supreme Court

Judiciary Branch 
5-15-16
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/4033226-decision-time-arrives-controversy-shy-us-supreme-court

In this article, the Supreme Court has a daunting challenge of not ending in a 4-4 tie in many of the upcoming cases. The majority of cases that will be heard by the Supreme Court in the near future are politically sensitive and are expected to divide the Justices. Each of the 4 conservative and 4 liberal justices will likely side with the others of their party on these issues. So far since the death of Antonin Scalia, there have been a largely surprising amount of passed issues in which the court has actually ruled. These rulings show that the justices can work to actually make rulings on issues while locked in a tie between 4 conservative and 4 liberal justices.

The supreme courts decisions will be heavily based on the justice’s judicial philosophy. Their philosophy divides them down the middle with 4 being conservative and 4 being liberal. The Supreme Court will see many different cases that will be strongly opinionated. One of these cases is a judicial review on the new contraceptive laws. By losing a justice in Scalia, the Supreme Court has the ability to now rule in tie that lets the lower court’s ruling stand.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is at odds with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality over the way it assesses impaired and polluted waterways in the state

4/17/16
Unit 4: Institutions of National Government Pt.3 The Bureaucracy
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/6988bb227c7a4087b76624b075028060/AR--Polluted-Waterways-Arkansas


The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality recently sent it's list of "Impaired Water bodies" for this year to the EPA for oversight. The EPA has had problems with Arkansas over the past years due to their assessments of pouted water bodies. The EPA hasn't passed one of Arkansas's lists since 2008 as their assessments haven't been up to EPA standards. The ADEQ changed their limits for water-body assessments in 2014 which increased the amount of minerals percentages in a certain water body to be above the standard from 10 to 20 percent. The EPA, as government agency, must uphold the Clean Water Act of which this new change from the ADEQ is violating. The EPA asked for scientific proof on why this change should be allowed, showing how this difference will make a difference. If the EPA does pass the ADEQ's list it will most likely be subjected to a large amount of testing.

The EPA is large part of the United State's massive Federal bureaucracy. It has to exercise authority by enforcing law such as the Clean Water Act in this article as an independent regulatory agency. In this case it is enforcing federal laws and making the environmental departs of Arkansas take take data of its bodies of water. It uses Arkansas as proxy government to take all of this data then decides if the data is taken to the specifics of the federal government. The EPA has to administer all of the governments laws pertaining to its feild in addition to it's discretionary authority which is what is happening in the article. The EPA is using its discretionary authority to decide whether the ADEQ's list is sufficient enough.

4/3/16
Unit 4: Institutions of National Government Pt.2 The Presidency

http://abc7.com/news/obama-world-leaders-urge-action-on-nuclear-security-terror/1274376/


This article talks about President Obama and his goals at the Nuclear Security Summit. Many world leaders gathered to discuss the current state of nuclear materials and how they might try to be taken by terrorist militants. Many leaders including are scared of what would happen if any terrorists got hold of nuclear weapons or dirty bombs. At the Summit, Obama talked with many other world leaders including China, South Korea, and Japan about the possibility and deterrence of  North Korea nuclear arsenal. Obama lead the idea of decreasing the nuclear materials in all countries. Many countries have already started in getting rid of these nuclear materials, the United States has even gotten rid of some of its large amount of nuclear resources.

President Obama is fulfilling the presidential role of  Chief Diplomat by going and meeting with the other world leaders at this summit. While at the summit he talked about the importance of getting rid of nuclear weapons which was  a part of his public agenda. The President used his own inherent powers to order the protection and sometimes decrease of nuclear weapons. The President also dealt with many other national leaders, making executive agreements on how to deal with North Korea. The President used his roles of Chief Diplomat and Chief executive to try and solve nuclear problems both in America and other countries around the globe.

Alan Lowenthal: California’s 47th district

Alan Lowenthal served  large stints in the California State Assembly and in the California State Senate before being elected California’s 47 district representative in the 2012 election. With 6 years in the state assembly and 8 years in the state senate, Lowenthal moved to the national assembly, becoming the first democrat to represent a part of Orange County since 1985. In both of his elections he used his majority of votes from Los Angeles to counter the republican-leaning orange county for victory. In the House, he serves on the Committees of Foreign Affairs and Natural Resources. Lowenthal was part of the those who voted for the Economy in Motion: The National Multimodal and Sustainable Freight Infrastructure Act of 2015. 



He would most likely support the ENCRYPT act because he has lots of technology in his district which would want to be able to encrypt their products. Also the  sentence reform act because it was bipartisan which means it was liked by many of both parties. But not the Aviation Innovation act because hes a democrat and for more government control and against important policies being controlled by private sectors.

Big-Donor Money Has Not Worked in the 2016 Campaign. Yet.

3/1/16

Unit 3: Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Mass Media

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/opinion/big-donor-money-has-not-worked-in-the-2016-campaign-yet.html?_r=0

This presidential election has been very unusual in many different cases. People with large amounts and small amounts campaign finances have both dropped out of the race. Jeb Bush used up to hundred thousand dollars and has little to show for it, dropping out recently from the republican primary. Many campaigns with little money dropped early such as Scott walker who had little impact on the campaign. Bernie Sanders though has done surprisingly well for being funded by no PACs. The problem with the PACs is that it causes lots of private business influence in the elections and not as much influence of the people. Some congressmen are trying to pass a bill that allows the people to donate more to the candidates directly so that PACs will have less power and money over the future leader of our government. One of the big hindrances to this bill is that most congressmen are elected through this PAC-funded election system so getting them to vote against their means of re-election will be tough.

This large power that the PACs and super PACs have in the election create large dependence on them. This leads to PACs practically shaping the election process through their money. While campaigning and using mass media correctly is large part of winning the PACs are the ones who finance most of this and in essence win lots of the support. The lobbyist behind the PACS are made of interest groups who push their ideals in the election so that while the people may be the ones actually voting, the interest groups are supplying the choice the people have to choose from. This influence is found in both the general election and the primary, some larger donators haven't even come out yet to finance, waiting for their time in the general election. Although this new bill could go against Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and allow the people to have more say. This bill may take a certain occasion of lame ducks to help pass it as it would have to be voted by many who believe in it but wont be re-elected or believe they could still win with the new law.

Polling snapshot: Survey raises questions over Latino vote in Nevada

2/22/16
Political Beliefs and Behaviors

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/22/politics/polls-nevada-caucuses-democrats-latinos/

Bernie Sanders

This article talks about the unexpected ways the Latinos voted and polled in Nevada during the recent Democratic caucus as well as what is expected to happen in the next democratic primary: South Carolina. In the Nevada primary there was lots of talk about how the two candidates would fare with the Latino population. Clinton fared better with all groups other than the white voters, which was expected, but did slightly better than predicted with Latinos over Sanders.There is some discrepancy though as these polls might not represent the whole Latino population as they mainly focus on places with either heavy Latino populations or by not asking any Latino voters because they were not seen due to having non-Latino last names. Sanders did have a large majority of the younger votes as most younger Latinos voted for him over Clinton.Finally, there was lots of speculation about if Sanders' popularity with the young demographic as Clinton has so far had a greater percentage of African American votes which is what dominates the South Carolina democratic primary.

This article shows how political culture is comprised of many different demographics, based on many cross-cutting cleavages. Each candidate controls a different side of the gender gap with Bernie having a strong hold on the younger and Clinton gaining the majority of the older population. While both are liberal politician one is from a farther end of the political spectrum yet has the greater control on the up-and-coming voters with his more radical, progressive approach to government. It also showed how polls may not always be the most accurate as in the case of the one about the Latino votes where the difference was greater than the sampling error. There are many different factors that contribute to voters and right now Clinton's values are allowing her to persuade the general public opinion in her favor.

Hillary Clinton

Jeb Bush Calls For Amendment to Fix Citizens United

2/9/16
Constitutional Underpinnings and Federalism

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/jeb-bush-calls-amendment-fix-citizens-united-n514251

 

This article is about how Jeb Bush, a candidate in the republic primary, wants to make another  informal amendment to the constitution about the right of private corporations to use as much money as they can to finance political campaigns. This would make it so that candidates would no longer have practically unlimited financial resources. Jeb also said he wanted to implement a rule so that the funds now could be donated directly to the candidate themselves, so they would have the power of what is said and done with the money directly. Many other candidates have also talked about implementing this rule to make campaigns more fair.

This amendment would go against the Citizen's United vs FEC case that allowed unlimited money to be used in campaigns as long as the money wasn't controlled by the candidate. The original law is based off of the first amendment  of the bill of rights  by citing that money in this case is a part of a freedom of speech. This amendment would limit the amount of money used in a political race. It would put a limit on the first amendment but at the same time make it so there are more constraints on the political election process.