News Post Cycle 9

I have previously heard of minimun wage protests in the past but i had no idea it was on this big of a scale. Protesters, many wokring in the fat food industry, are demanding minimun wage to be lifted to 15 and hour which just seems ridiculous to me. The only state so far to sign on the $15 minimun wage in New York where the minimun wage was previously $9. Some other states, 2 being Arizona and Maine have lifted the minimum wage to $12 an hour which seems much more logical than $15. The previous wage in Maine was 7.50 while Arizona was $8. So a raise to $12 is still a pretty big deal. It will be very interesting if these changes come to Alabama as the wage here is 7.25 and 12 would be a big change while 15 would be monumental.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-fast-food-workers-lead-day-protest-15-183907701.html

News Post Cycle 9

As many know the Clinton email scandal was one of the most major debate topics in the presidential race. Throughout the campaign Trump claimed that he would win the race then charge Clinton for what she did. However now that he has won, he claims to have dropped pursuing charges on Clinton which is very interesting. Now that he is in office, trump seems to be a little softer on issues as he has to appeal to everybody rather than the one party he targeted in the race. While that issue doesnt truly matter anymore, it makes me wonder if hes going to stick to his word on other issues such as a wall, which he mentioned during the race along with other things just like the email scandal.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-will-not-pursue-charges-against-hillary-clinton/

News Post cycle 9

With the election being over I thought all the drama would be over but boy am i wrong. A green party candidate has called for a recount of votes which makes no sense unless they are supporting the Clinton party. Right after losing the election clinton said she would accept the results and look to the future, but now that the green party has called for a revote, the clinton campaign is calling for one also. The green party calling for a recount raises questions on what the clinton campaign had to do with it. If a recount does happen and the results change, there will be even bigger issues than the protests going down right now. And even more claims about rigged elections will arise. Either way the people need to grow up and realize you dont always get what you want and to just accept the results.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/politics/pushback-trump-vote-fraud-allegations/index.html

News Post Cycle 8

With media being one of the most influential roles on politics its no surprise that New York Times is finally being accused. Prior to the election many news channels were sided on the election and showed it by giving much more attention to clinton's scandals while avoiding Trump while some were the other way around, focusing on Trump and avoiding Clinton. New York Times was accused of being bias against Trump which makes sense to me as New York tends to be a democratic state. Seems silly that New York Times is getting labeled with a "bias alert" while much more popular news channels are getting away with no major mention. However this is a Fox News article and Fox tends to be republican bias. That means that a democratic site could be giving another paper a "bias alert" for being republican.

Informal and Formal Powers of the Senate

The senate has the formal powers of impeachment, nominations, treaties by 2/3 votes, expulsion, censure, and contested senate elections. Those are formal due to the powers being granted in the constitution. The senate's informal powers are investigations, filibusters, and cloture. Those are informal as they are not granted or mentioned in the constitution.

News Post Cycle 8

Prior to reading the news article I had no idea France was approaching an election as all the media is focused on the United States. France isnt far into the race which is most likely why there isnt much about it. While i havent read much about the candidates and their views, this could come out very interesting. Many of Trumps views seems as if he wants the United States to be out of all the unions, following what Britain did with Brexit. So depending on who becomes leader in France, they could join too. The ex president has already backed out of the race so there will definitely be somebody new. I picture that starting a wave of EU succession which could make things very interesting for the good or bad.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38047046

News Post Cycle 8

In recent news Russia and the U.S.A. are still arguing over Syria, nothing new. Nearly all other news stories are about Trump and i figure it will be that way for a while. Back to Syria, Obama and the United Nations are teaming up againsts Russia for doing something they dont like. I would much rather side with Russia as they are one of the bigger threats as the United Nations wont doing anything due to the most powerful countries being teamed up. In my opinion the powerful nations should just leave the middle east alone, all they are doing is causing more problems between eachother and making people mad.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/16/middleeast/syria-talks-kerry-london/index.html

News Post Cycle 8

While there is already a lot of drama involving the election, theres even more. The protests have been going on for a while now even though theres nothing they can do about the election results. Now colleges are giving students "stress relief" activities to help deal with the election. The problem with that is that many people's money are being invested into the colleges wether it be tuition from government, parents, or school itself. Either way its a waste of money. This seems to be stemming from the politicaly correct culture which is prevalent nowadays. While that can prevent rudeness, it also takes away the harsh realities of the real world which in the end cant be avoided.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/16/suck-it-up-lawmaker-wants-to-cut-funding-for-schools-coddling-students-over-trump.html

News Post Cycle 8

As many know following the 2016 election, one of the most influential classes during the election was the white working class. It seems as if in the past years the government has done very little regarding that class which gave Trump the upper hand as he specifically target the rather large group. Clinton seemed to go for races other than white more than she did white people themselves along with targetting the working/lower class voters. While Trump did win many votes from the lower/working class voters, had Clinton gone for more white working class voters, she would have had a much better chance at winning some of the many swing states.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/14/bernie-sanders-humiliated-democrats-cant-talk-to-white-working-class-voters.html

News Post Cycle 7

Following Trumps victory in the election i thought it was anything but a close race as trump got 290 electoral college votes. However population wise Clinton got more votes than Trump which raises questions. Only 4 other candidates have gotten more population votes yet lost the election. There must be reasons why the electoral college works that way but it makes me question the government as less power seems to be going to the people. Some states split those electoral college votes while others dont which i dont understand why.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/09/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-popular-vote/index.html

News Post Cycle 7

Following Trump's victory it is definetley going to be interesting to see if the United States follows Trump's theme about getting our jobs back and taking a Brexit style path. Following Brexit, Britain when down on the trade line for many places including the U.S. but now that Trump has won they might go up as he is opposed to the European Union trade committees. However with Trump having a good side to Russia that might change as Britain and Russia arent the best of friends and trades with one side could hurt ties to the other.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/09/opinions/will-trump-keep-special-relationship-alive-merrick-opinion/index.html

News Post Cycle 7

While the trump victory has many predicted ups and downs, one of the best ups seems to be Trump and Russia. As many know the Syria conflict has caused even more heat between Russia and the United States and Trump and Putin seem to have a good relation as they each say good things about eachothers. So hopefully with these two in office, they will come to terms about Syria and other issues to help get rid of the tension and form greater relations with Russia.

California District 25

comimg from the 2016 elections, the republican Steve knight won district 25. Personally I thought the democrat running against him carforio would win due to the democratic population. Knight most likely won due to people who know little about politics voting for him since he is listed as holding the position on the ballots. Most people don't keep up with the house races which could explain why.

News Post Cycle 7

While the police shooting protests  seem to have died down for a bit, the Dakota pipeline is the new trend. While reasons of protest are completely different than the ones in the past, they still seem to be following the same guidelines: something happens, issue rises, people protests, gain attention, protests escalate. I havent looked much into how it all began but in summary the pipeline was being built in Native American's sacred lands and now they are protesting, trying to stop the building of the line and have it done elsewhere. Had the government been building the pipeline through the reservation without permission, issues definitely would be expected. However this pipelines building location is outside of the reservation and on government/company owned land. Which gives the builders the complete right to do it. This issue seems a lot like the epi pen issue that recently came up. The oil company is like the owner of the epi pens and they have the complete right to build there/raise pen prices, but they are pressured not to do so under moral standards.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37855774

News Post Cycle 7

While gun control is a large issue in the presedential race, people only think about losing their guns and not the other effects that come with that. For any investor a smart move would be to invest in gun companies if Clinton ends up winning. Obama's actions on gun sales such as background checks, have already shown a huge spike in gun sales. So if Clinton ends up doing what she claims such as more background checks, gun sales will greatly increase prior to her actions, giving anybody who invests in gun companies a good amount of money.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/01/background-checks-point-to-gun-sales-surge-if-clinton-wins-wall-street-report-says.html

News Post cycle 6

As anybody who goes on the internet, news, or tv have heard, the FBI director has reopened the investigation on Clinton's email servers. As expected, he has received criticism for doing so so late in the presedential race which I agree is a silly thing to do, especially since he could have just continued with the same investigation on Clinton which was going on earlier in the year, and which he concluded was not worthy of a charge. Now if Clinton is elected, the FBI is going to have to let Clinton go, drop the charges if they come with any, or arrest Clinton while she is president, something that would definitely turn out interesting. While it seems rude to Clinton to re open the investigation right now, I personally think they should treat it as any normal investigation and treat Clinton as a normal person, not letting her rank get her out of any situations to come.

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37827156