Blog Stage Eight

My View on "Hate Crimes Rising"

"Hate Crimes Rising" discusses the issue of hate crimes rising against the people who support Trump. I do believe that citizens are getting attacked sometimes for what they support and believe in, but, I do not think that we can blame parents for not setting a good example for their children. I also believe that in some of the "hate crimes", we do not know the whole story. An example with the MAGA students and Native elder.

 "The longer version of the incident is more complex, and now that it has surfaced, the rush to judge the teenagers, who were in the nation’s capital for the anti-abortion March for Life, is coming under attack. “I believed that by remaining motionless and calm, I was helping to defuse the situation,’’ Sandmann said. “I realized everyone had cameras and that perhaps a group of adults was trying to provoke a group of teenagers into a larger conflict.’’ Sandmann said he and his family have received death threats. “I am being called every name in the book, including racist, and I will not stand for this mob-like character assassination of my family’s name," he said." 

People were so quick to judge the students in the extremely short video even though they had no idea on what was actually going on. I do believe that there is some hate crime because of everyone's different beliefs and not knowing another way to express that, but I do not believe it is most parent's faults and not all "hate crimes" are what we think they are. 

Hate Crimes Rising

MAGA Students

Blog Stage Seven

We Should Fight Global Climate Change

I believe that it is our duty, just by living on Earth, to fight global climate change. It is the long-term rise of temperature in the climate system. "Though earlier geological periods also experienced episodes of warming, the term commonly refers to the observed and continuing increase in average air and ocean temperatures since 1900 caused mainly by emissions of greenhouse gasses in the modern industrial economy. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report concluded, "It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century". 
Once we understand that we are the problem, the national government should use their power to help us to minimize the damage. The climate change is a serious issue that affects all of us and I don't think we have enough people talking about it. Congress can drive progress with clean energy technology, reduce emissions with public recognition and on cars that are produced, and they can put a price on carbon emissions. Effective federal policy is needed in order to achieve long-term results and cause positive effects. I believe that Congress is responsible for authorizing laws to address this change. I also believe that climate change is something we should all be aware of and want to change. If we do not encourage Congress to get involved, there is little that people can do on their own. These reasons are why I believe that we should fight the global climate change by getting Congress involved and making the public aware. 

Global Warming
Federal Action on Climate

Blog Stage Six

My View on "Texas Tea"

In my opinion, I do not believe that contraception should be free of charge. I am also a women, but I view this differently. One of the reasons this Blogger gave was that if the government made them free, they would save on having to give money to parent(s) who can't afford to support themselves and another human being. If you and the other person really can't afford protection for sex, I don't believe that is a valid reason for it to be free. If someone wasn't at a place in order to obtain it, I would suggest that they shouldn't have sex if they were in fear of an accidental pregnancy. If they were unable to afford any form of contraception, I believe that they are not in a situation to be having sex.

Another reason they gave was that often women who can't afford it, tend to avoid attaining it. They give the reason from sexual abuse and if they were given free contraception, they would have one less thing to worry about after that horrific event. From my view, I don't believe that if a women had contraception or not would effect the sexual abuser. I believe that the women would get sexually abused either way. Having contraception is not likely going to effect the outcome the women is going to experience.

 Sex is something we can control, most of the time, and that is why I do not believe contraception needs to be free. I believe that people can make a valid argument either way. With my view, someone might say that food should be free because being hungry is something that we can't control while sex is something we can. It is difficult to be 100% for or against this topic, but these are my reasons for my view on should contraception be free or not.

"Texas Tea"

Blog Stage Five

My Opinion On Making Election Day a National Holiday

In my opinion, I believe that Election Day should be made into a national holiday. We should focus on giving everyone who is eligible to vote, the chance to vote. As an American Citizen, I believe that we all should have a say and feel as though we got the opportunity to share our opinion when we vote. There are many reasons on why people who want to vote, but are unable to, include things such as criminal records, voter ID laws, or registration difficulty. Recent studies have shown that older generations have a much higher consistency to vote than younger citizens. "Republicans have a millennial problem. Luckily for them, millennial's don’t consistently vote...To be clear, people ages 18 to 34 overwhelmingly vote for Democrats and prefer Democratic candidates even if they are registered as “independent.”"

I believe a way to make more voters actually get out and vote can happen by making Election Day a national holiday. If this were to happen, people would be off from work and school; thus making it much easier to make it to a ballot. I believe that this would give most citizens a better opportunity and have time to vote. I believe this can be a way to raise the number significantly on how many citizens vote.

However, if we were to do this and it made the number of voters rise, I would suggest that we make many more places open to vote from. Since all the schools will be closed for the holiday, they could be a good spot for more ballots. People wouldn't have to wait as long if we had more places for people to vote and this might appeal to the younger crowd. I believe that these are a few ways we can change in order to make the voting numbers rise. 

"It's debatable whether election results would be different if the entire population voted, but voting determines more than which candidate wins or loses. It ultimately influences which policies elected officials enact and whose interests candidates ignore and acknowledge."

On The Sidelines Of Democracy: Exploring Why So Many Americans Don't Vote

Poll: only 28 percent of young voters say they will certainly vote in the 2018 midterms

Blog Stage Four

"Measles outbreak in NYC from one unvaccinated

 kid shows just how far the disease can spread"

Just by reading this title, you can already tell where the author stands. He makes it very clear that he believes not vaccination your kids causes problems for everyone. I believe the author's intended audience could be all the young parents who believe that vaccines harm their children. They also could be writing for the other parents who do vaccinate and want them to spread the word on their effectiveness. On this blog, we are able to see the author's credibility by looking at his profile on the website. We are able to see how many blogs and comments he has made, how often, frequent tags, and links to his most recent diaries. Seeing all of this information makes him have high credibility in our eyes. 

His claim is that everyone would benefit from every person being vaccinated. He gives a real life example that's happening now to show that it is an issue we are facing currently. He does not give much evidence in that unvaccinated kids are the sole reason for the outbreak. He does believe that's how it was spread, but shares no medical evidence of that with us. Some might view this as vaccines are just the logical and easy way to fix this problem. In my opinion, I believe that more people would chose to vaccinate their children if we showed medical reassurance that it would benefit us all. 

He concludes by saying, "This is a fact that is not up for discussion—whether you believe in the relentlessly debunked conspiracy theory that vaccines like the MMR cause autism, or you have joined the rest of the human race in realizing that any drawbacks and side effects to vaccinations are far outweighed by the benefits to society as a whole."

I believe that vaccines can be a good thing, but I do not believe people should be forced to have them.

Daily Kos Blog

Blog Stage Three

"Ex-security officials: 'No factual basis' for Trump wall"

This article, from BBC News, discusses the issue that Trump is trying to get the money to build a wall at the border. It says that people rebuked Trump because of the national emergency declaration. They say that "under no plausible assessment of the evidence is there a national emergency today that entitles the president to tap into funds appropriated for other purposes to build a wall at the southern border". They believe that there are many other uses and needs that the money could be used for. It ends by saying that after the national government shutdown, Trump signed an emergency proclamation in order to obtain money for the wall after Congress did not approve his request. 
I believe their intended audience would be citizens who are against the wall. Most of the article, the writer gives information showing that the wall is unnecessary and shouldn't be a priority. They also give quotes from people who are against Trump and the wall. It does not show who the author is and that can be hard determining the credibility. The writer does include a video and links to other sources to help you get a better understanding of it all. 
The author does not explicitly give their opinion on the topic, but all their information points to that they are against the wall and believe it to be unnecessary. They only share that side of the view and they do not include anything regarding that the wall might be necessary to other citizens. 
I do agree that I don't believe that the wall is necessary to us right now, but I do not have more information from different views to give a well thought opinion. I do wish this article could include more view and why they would disagree with them. 

BBC News Article

Blog Stage Two

"Senate Democrats Are Still Figuring 

Out This Whole Resistance Thing"

Zach Carter's article, "Senate Democrats Are Still Figuring Out This Whole Resistance Thing" discusses the important battle between President Trump and congressional Democrats. The Trump Administration has been sitting on Democratic nominations in the House of Representatives. Federal agencies are having the chairmen selected by the President and "there isn’t a whole lot they (Democrats) can do without Republican help to block a Trump candidate for these jobs." Democrats do have influence over the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Facebook had been operating under a consent order from FTC since 2011 and later "had agreed reform the way it tracked user data and shared those data with other companies."
"Chopra is one of the few Democratic nominees to make it through the Trump administration logjam" but the Republican FTC can not be controlled to do anything. Later, Trump picked Mark Calabria, who said he'd eliminate the government-controlled housing giants.
"Late last month, 20 progressive organizations signed a letter chastising Senate Democrats for inaction on Democratic appointees." They had been delaying Republic nominations. Some of the groups are now saying that Democrats should block Calabria's nominations. Even with all this going on, some Democrats are saying they have no power. "It’s true that Democrats can’t force McConnell or Trump to do anything they don’t want to do", but they will try their best to cause problems for them. Either way, the approach the Democrats are taking, doesn't seem to currently be working for them.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/congress-federal-agency-staffing-impasse_us_5c632fa0e4b08da0ec7fb62a

I believe this article was worth reading because it address something that is happening right now. It gave great information that was easy to understand. It also gave many links throughout to give you more information with other sources. It was a good size that wasn't too long and kept me interested to know more. I thought it was a great read and I believe that the writer was not being biased. These are just a few reasons that I believe others could enjoy it.