C12-4 Intelligence Official and Leaks

Leaks have always gotten lots of attention no matter what the topic be from video games to politics. And as they have always had a big role politically they seem to be getting even more attention now. Early in his campaign, Trump loved the constant flow of leaks since many were against Clinton however with Clinton out of the picture now he is the target. Now that all the leaks are about Trump he has gone to war with the media and intelligence community over the "illegal classified leaking". With Michael Flynn, the former head of intelligence having resigned it gives Trump the job of appointing a new candidate which could be a interesting choice. 

Michael Flynn-the former Intelligence head

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/trump-turns-heat-his-war-intelligence-community-n721666

C12-3 Trump's National Security Powers

Throughout the course of history the executive branch, primarily the president has been given control of national security. However as we can see from the judge and Trump's travel ban, the judges do have power. But Stephen Miller, Trump's adviser says that the presidents power should not be questioned. This spawns much debate over whether or not an appointed judge in Seattle should have such great power over what the president can do. Some sides say that it prevents to much power in the executive branch while others say it gives to much to the judges leading to another debate on how the constitution is interpreted.

Judge James Robart who stopped the ban

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/13/stephen-millers-audacious-controversial-declaration-trumps-national-security-actions-will-not-be-questioned/?utm_term=.1a27fbb79464

C12-2 Food Disease Outbreaks

In response to the video we watched in class about food outbreaks and how the government is involved i decided to make this post about a more recent salmonella outbreak which took place in November of 2016. In the video we watched in class the outbreaks all came from poultry unlike this one which came from calves however is was the exact same strain, salmonella heidelberg. While the health regulations might have been fixed on the poultry this shows that they did nothing about the cow standards. I predict that if they do do something to fix this salmonella in cows, the cycle will continue with outbreak in a different meat such as pork or even a new disease in poultry or cattle. This outbreak is in the midwestern area as opposed to the previous ones which were farther west. Nobody has died so far which could indicate a weaker strain or advancement in medicine since the outbreak from chicken.

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/heidelberg-11-16/index.html

C12-1 New Political Party

As many know the former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was running for the democratic party but was different than typical democrats leaning slightly in the socialist direction. According to this article a group of people attempted to get Sanders to launch and be the candidate for a new peoples party for the next election however he turned that down, claiming he needs to work more on the current democratic party. He claims that the current democratic party is focused only on taking the current president down and not creating their own goals and messages so if they do take the president down they wont know what to do. The new party would be very interesting to watch grow even though it most likely wouldn't stand a chance with the current American political system.

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/sanders-rejects-effort-draft-him-starting-new-political-party-n719931

C11-4 Rogue Twitter Accounts

Following up on this article I've learned that there is now a large number Rogue twitter accounts, many of which are relating to a government organization such as NASA or National Park Services. Having used twitter for a while I knew that there were plenty of fake accounts under names like Bill Clinton but they tend to be used in a jokingly manner and not political action like these new rogue accounts are. According to the article the accounts are giving out information that the agencies normally don't or aren't allowed to say to the public which in my opinion is a very legal thing to do. And as the article says these accounts are a great way to serve against a media blackout. One bad thing is that the accounts could be giving out info appearing to be a professional service but in turn be run by a non educated individual. That in turn could lead to false information being put out. However the positives outweigh the negatives and I believe the people have all the rights to run these accounts.

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/01/27/512007632/its-not-just-the-park-service-rogue-federal-twitter-accounts-multiply

C11-3 Revenge of the Bureaucrats

As many already know, the Trump presidency is stirring up quite a few ordeals. Many tend to think about the wall and immigration policy and not what this article is about which is Trump's government worker action. He is currently attempting to cut down the number of federal employees and started that by freezing most federal hiring. While it seems that the action could cut down taxes on the people, which I first believed, I read on and realized that it could do the opposite. Many non government contractors cost much more than the federal employees so in turn using companies such as SpaceX instead of NASA could end up costing the government, and in turn the people more. But with the power federal employees have the process will take quiet a long time if it ends up going through. The power of federal employees seems somewhat extreme at times but understandable at others.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-government-bureaucrats-234019

C11-2 Russian Hackers and Treason

As many people know there has been the conclusion that Russian hackers did interfere with the election but what we don't know is what they did and to what extent they changed the elections. According to this NY times article two hackers in Russia were arrested for providing info to the United States government. Those arrests could be used as a scapegoat in order to prevent a large search and conflict within the Russian government and prevent the Russian government from appearing to have traitors inside. Another possibility is Russia using those hackers to hold above the United States, as releasing exactly what the hackers did could cause issues in the States with the election results and current president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/world/europe/russia-hacking-us-election.html