Assault or no?

On Sunday, it was just a normal day of baseball. That is until words were exchanged and it quickly built up to Papelbon, the Nationals pitcher, grabbing Bryce Harper, one of the top players in baseball, around the throat and throwing him against a wall. While the Nationals haven't had the best season, I don't think anyone thought this would happen. The response that came from the organization was that "boys will be boys". I don't think that is relevant, true or fair in accordance with this situation. I find this to be physical assault. Baseball player or not, if one person grabs another by the throat with the intent to physically harm them, it is assault. I don't understand why law enforcement hasn't taken a stance on this, it was plastered all over anything that had to do with sports. While Harper may have caused Papelbon's actions, that doesn't make it okay for something like this to happen. I think this is a serious problem with our society. Too many professional athletes get away with committing crimes that a normal person would get seriously punished for. It's unacceptable and unfair in the eyes of the law.

Secret Service Officials are allowed to do that?

John Roth hold a very high position at the Department of Homeland Security, shielded by law from outside pressure so that he can figure out the government's business. Recently, he was investigating the Secret Service and allowed officials from the service to work with him and his agents to figure out how bad information concerning a member of congress was kept from the agency. (Jason Chaffetz of Utah who is the chairman of a House committee overseeing the agency was once rejected for a job as an agent. Apparently, the involvement of the officials in the investigation threatens the integrity of it. This could be a problem if top officials at the agency want to embarrass Chaffetz and could hinder future members for coming forward with allegations of misconduct. It doesn't make sense to me why they would allow people that work for a certain agency investigate their own, they could cover up so many things and would definitely offer a biased opinion. It just doesn't add up. What is the need for this? I see it causing more problems than helping because it taints the reputation that the DHS has.

Obama's U.N. Address

On Monday, Obama gave a speech a to the U.N. that went against Russia and Syria, political foes, and defended the use of diplomacy. This being Obama's last speech to the UN during his presidency, Obama went on the offensive against Putin and al-Assad claiming that they went against international rules. His speech was also an outreach for help on the ISIS crisis and others, internationally. He shared his plans to spread diplomacy and end these crises. He also fought anti-immigration and put down politicians who were for it saying that they were "exploiting racist fears." His diplomatic wins: Iran nuclear deal and Cuba, give Obama leverage. He also criticized keeping tyrants in power. I think that because his presidency is coming to an end, Obama is really trying to make a lasting impact in world affairs. The influence the US government has around the country is large but not enough to keep diplomacy and prevent tyrants from ruining their countries. The hope is that this UN address inspires other countries to join the US fight against these things, I think Obama gave a great address, straightforward and inspiring.

Pope visits White House

Four days ago, the Pope made his first appearance at the White House. This amazing day was full of parades and a large ceremony with President Barack Obama. For the last two popes, their speeches to the public focused on abortion and homosexuality. Pope Francis spoke about children who die of hunger and bombings and immigrants who drown in the hope for a better tomorrow. He encouraged Christians to take care of our common home. His speeches were monumental, and his ability to connect with youth across the globe continues to astound people. I personally find it amazing that our country is so non-discriminatory that a major event like this could happen at our nation's capitol building. I love the religious freedom that allows this to happen. I think its extremely influential that the pope didn't fuel the fire in politics about abortion and gay rights, but rather focused on very important problems that are happening worldwide. The pope was greeted by joyful crowds wherever he went. He praised the country's devotion to freedom of liberty and religion and cautioned that we had a deep sense of moral responsibility due to our resources. He was also praised for his help in restoring relations with Cuba. The pope's focus on immigration was new and offered interesting perspective. I think this was a great experience for the country to have as a whole. It finally gave the news something good to report about.

Ignore sexual abuse??

Back in 2012, Gregory Buckley Jr. told his dad that he could hear the screams of boys that the Afghan police officers were sexually abusing, but he could do nothing to stop it. When he told superiors, they told him to look the other way because of their culture. This practice is called bacha bazi - "boy play" - and US troops are not allowed to interfere. Since American forces need the help of Afghan militias to hold territory, this continues and Americans are not only doing nothing to stop it, but arming pedophiles and putting them in charge. The picture below shows Dan Quinn, a former US soldier who beat up an allied officer recently for chaining a boy to his bed. He ruined his career by doing this - pulled from command and forced to leave the military. This American policy is called nonintervention and is meant to keep goof relations with allies and keeps the US from messing with other cultures, however we often find ourselves questioning how we are helping anyone if this is the result. Is this making the situation any better for the villages we are supposed to be defending? I find this disturbing, and not only in the sense that it's a bad situation, but that I am affiliated with the country that thinks they are doing the right thing in this situation.

The Economy - what is really going on?

The Census Bereau released the annual data on incomes on Wednesday and it shocked everyone who thought the economy was doing good. Average income lowered from 2013-2014. In the past year, middle class incomes were very flat. While this may seem good, by comparison to pre-recession it is below by 6.5% and 7.2% below what it was in 1999. It seems as if this won't change any time soon also. The only thing that seems to be helping is the drop in oil prices. These numbers are not determined by race or age, it is true across all groups. 2014 was just "not statistically different".

I think this is pretty concerning. I genuinely hope that whoever takes office in 2016 is preparing to tackle this, not things like abortion and immigrants.It's time that presidential candidates starting taking things like this more seriously and actually debating about the important issues our country is facing, not the ones that get all the media attention because they are more interesting and fun to talk about.

Fatal Hazing

Once again, the Fraternity scene is making the front page - negatively. Chun Hsien Deng was fatally killed during a hazing ritual on December 8th, 2013 at Baruch College in Ponoco Summit, PA. As a member of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity, he as a pledge, was forced to go through "the Glass Ceiling", a series of obstacles to be completed by the pledges. As Deng refused to do it, the fraternity members began to hit him harder and harder. When they were finished, Deng was dying from injuries to his body and brain. The officials are charging five people with third-degree murder and 32 others with a range of counts. Now, the story is out again because the grand jury finally released the report on Tuesday. Originally this frat was started to help Asian-Americans find a place in their college full of aspiring business people. It was permanently banned after Deng's death. The majority of students involved were forced to leave school.

Long story short, fraternities and hazing is out of control. It has slightly improved from back in the day, but not by much. With the amount of news coverage it is getting, it's hard for me to understand why colleges still allow some things.

Flight Attendant Suspended

Similarly to the post I wrote about the woman, Kim Davis refusing to do her job due to religious conflict, a Muslim flight attendant refused to serve alcohol for the same reason. She filed a complaint after she was fired with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday to get her job back. She had been working for ExpressJet for about three years. During that time she converted to Islam. As she got deeper into her faith, she learned that she could neither consume or serve alcohol. She asked her supervisor to work out an arrangement to fulfill requests. This worked out perfectly until a fellow attendant complained that she wasn't fulfilling her duties along with possession of a book with "foreign writings" and a headdress. She was then suspended for 12 months without pay. 

Personally, I think this is an infringement on her religious freedoms. Once again it seems that there is religious discrimination and it pretty much always involves race. I think this is unacceptable. It goes against what it means to be free and have equal opportunities in America. 

 

14-year old arrested for bomb look-a-like

On September 14, a 14-year-old in North Texas created a homemade clock and brought it to school to show his teachers. On September 15, it was in the Dallas Morning News that he had been suspended and may be charged for creating a bomb look-a-like. Some people are taking this issue to heart saying that he was arrested because of his name, Mohamed, or his race. However I think this is an issue primarily caused by the fine line schools tread on a constant basis having to deal with risks to students in schools. No guns, no bombs, nothing.

By creating a clock out of a pencil case, circuit board and power supply, people felt threatened because they didn't know what it was. While Mohamed seems completely innocent, and the situation out of hand, you can see where the teachers would be concerned. I don't think that suspension and arrest were the right solutions to this problem though. So what? He wanted to create something and it just so happened to look like a bomb to some people. They should have been able to figure out that it wasn't a bomb.

Kim Davis on religious liberty

On September 15, a woman named Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples saying that it went against her religious principles. Because of this she spent six days in jail. This didn't make her change her stance at all. She asked to remove her name and title from certificates to keep her constant with her faith, but this would probably invalidate the certificates. 

Kim Davis chose the form of nonviolent protest against laws that appear to her to violate natural law about sexuality and marriage. I believe Kim Davis has a right to her faith. It is in the Constitution that laws cannot interfere with someone’s religious freedoms. However, I don’t necessarily think that her refusing to give marriage licenses is going against her faith. 

She should not be doing that job if she refuses to do critical parts of it. She should definitely not have been jailed for standing up for her rights though. Because she is a government official, she is obligated to doing her job. If she cannot do so, she should not have that job. Someone who works for the government can’t just pick and choose certain things that they want to enforce. 

Federalism

What is Federalism? It is "a mode of political organization that unites separate states or other polities within an overarching political system in such a way as to allow each to maintain its own fundamental political integrity. They do this by requiring that basic policies be made and implemented through negotiation in some form, so that all members can share in making and executing decisions. The principles emphasize the primacy of bargaining and negotiated coordination among several power centers; they stress the virtues of dispersed power centers as means for safeguarding individual and local liberties."

There are approximately 196 countries in the world, 26 of which have a federal system of government. They are:

•  Argentina 
•  Australia
•  Austria 
•  Belgium 
•  Bosnia and Herzegovina 
•  Brazil
•  Canada 
•  Comoros 
•  Ethiopia
•  Germany 
•  India 
•  Iraq 
•  Malaysia
•  Mexico 
•  Federated States of Micronesia
•    Nepal
•  Nigeria
•  Pakistan 
•  Russia 
•  Saint Kitts and Nevis
•  South Sudan 
•  Sudan 
•   Switzerland 
•  United Arab Emirates 
•  United States 
•  Venezuela 

These countries include a large part of South America, all of North America and seem to include most a lot of the larger countries in the world. Both population wise and land wise. 

Unitary system is a system of political organization in which most or all of the governing power resides in a centralized government. It contrasts with a federal system.

There are 170 of these types of governments. The five largest by GDP are China, Japan, UK, France and Italy. Largest by population are China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Japan, and the Philippines. Largest by area are China, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Saudi Arabia. 

A unitary system differs from the federal system because the power is very ordered. In a unitary system, The upper level government controls the lower level government and then both control the citizens. There is a power hierarchy. This can create a faster acting government, but it can also easily become unstable due to the large amount of power concentrated within few people. However, in a federal system, power and authority is shared between the upper and lower level governments which creates a more balanced power system in the government. This also allows citizens to have more power in their government. Decisions are typically made slower, but it also promotes compromise and stability. 

The cartoon shown below shows how often in a federal system, states want to have their own rights. They like to have the benefits of a federal system, such as money. However, most of the time they don't like to have the authority and responsibility that comes from making big government decisions. The federal system is not perfect, but is any system of government perfect?

The next picture demonstrates how sometimes the federal government and state governments disagree and it causes tension. Recently, marijuana has been legalized in some states but not across the whole country. In cases like this, it becomes difficult to determine what is legal and illegal. Medicinal use of marijuana is a case that is both confusing and difficult to take a stance on. 

The next photo is a clear example of how many federal governments believe that states should make choices and be involved but as soon as states decide something that is out-there or not similar to what the central government is saying, the federal government changes their minds and doesn't want the states to make their own decisions. 

The video says that federalism is like a three layer cake. Each layer handles different things and the issues become bigger and bigger with less people involved in decision-making the higher up the level of the cake(government) is. 

In the picture below, it depicts a federalist government differently. It's a marble cake, demonstrating how the different levels of government not only handle different issues but rely on each other and are very intermixed. Each layer of  government effects the other layers and they work together with separate powers. 

Trump pledges allegiance

On Thursday, Donald Trump announced that he was pledging his allegiance to the Republican Party. Now all 17 GOP candidates have signed the pledge. Trump says he has no intention of going back on his pledge. He thinks that the best way for the Republicans to win is for him to be running against whoever the Democrat runner is. However, this pledge is not legally binding at all and he will most likely go back on what he is saying now, given his history. Personally I don't even think this should be news. If Trump becomes president I would say that America has gone to trash because I don't understand how that many people could actually vote for someone who didn't take government seriously. If he loses in the primary and decides to run as an independent in the general election I don't think it would be a surprise to anyone, especially me.

Unarmed white teen shot

Hammond was shot to death during a drug investigation outside a fast-food restaurant on July 26. Seneca Police Dept. says the officer fired in self-defense when Hammond tried to run him over with a car. A private autopsy indicates the car wasn't moving when he was shot outside of the Hardee's in South Carolina. It was supposed to be a simple drug investigation. A small amount of marijuana was found in the front passenger compartment. The real question here is why this isn't being made into a bigger deal. The only difference is that in this situation, the victim is white. I think that this issue has a deeper meaning. Lots of problems are occurring because of the unnecessary use of deadly force in simple situations. The thing we need to be worried about is if the police are actually protecting us or not, it seems like there are more and more innocent shootings every day. 

Otto Perez Molina to jail

 

On Thursday September 3rd, Guatemala's president was not only removed from office, but thrown into jail. An arrest warrant was given due to a corruption investigation that recently broke out. Molina submitted his resignation which was approved in a 118-0 vote. The VP was sworn in and the former president was sent to jail. Apparently he received bribes in exchange for lowering taxes for companies that were seeking to import products into Guatemala, he denied this about a month ago. The country is scheduled to hold presidential elections on Sunday. The ex-VP was also detained last week. This is concerning for the US because Guatemala's government and politics in general are very delicate as of right now.

Kanye to run for president in 2020?

At the VMAs, Kanye West made a rather interesting speech saying "I don't know what I finna lose after this. It don't matter, though; it's not about me. It's about new ideas. New ideas. People with ideas. People who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could've guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president." No one really knows how serious Kanye really was. Personally, I think having Kanye as president and the Kardashians in the White House would be the worst thing that could happen for our country. I think Kanye just has a thing where he likes to make national headlines in awards shows. However, the Democratic Party did tweet at Kanye saying that they were glad to have him. I think its completely ridiculous. 

Pope Francis shakes things up - again

On Tuesday, Pope Francis announced that during holy year, or the "Year of Mercy" priests around the world will be authorized to forgive the "sin of abortion". He says "the forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented". Abortion is considered a grave "moral evil" in the Catholic church. Many Vatican officials responded to this calling it a "widening of the church's mercy". Many priests in the US already had the power to do this. The fact that he is making it a global statement is big news. It does not change the church's doctrine and only applies in the upcoming year. However, this may continue in the future. In the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church) says that anyone who has an abortion is automatically excommunicated. Usually this requires the Bishop's intervention. I think this was a great call my the pope to extend the welcoming arms and spiritual forgiveness of the church to more people.