Blog #13

Peaceful protests return to Baltimore streets

After a night of violence and looting peaceful protest has returned to the city of Baltimore. Demonstrations and protests are being carefully watched by 2,000 National Guard troops and 1,000 police officers trying to keep things calm. There is a 10pm curfew in place. Protests have been continuing daily since April 19th when a black man died in custody. There are still street battles and arson going on right now. 200 people were arrested and and over 100 cars were set on fire along with 15 buildings destroyed. Rioting came after Freddie Gray (a black man) was fatally injured while in custody. Some people think that they are taking advantage of the special situation to do things normally not allowed at all.

I neither agree or completely disagree with these protests. I think that the Black population is overreacting. I was not able to find any info about death in custody but I did find statistics related to arrest related deaths. The information said that 61.5% was by Homicide (Killed by someone else). This would most likely show that deaths are most likely from the police themselves. The interesting part for me was that the characteristics specified that most deaths were from White (42.1%), Male (95.4%), and from an age of about 25 to 34 (28.9%). So the graph and the math say that most police deaths are from young-ish white dudes. I am fairly certain (unless I am don't pay attention at all) that there aren't many anti-police protests about the Hispanic guy killed or the White guy killed. Only the Black guys. That's all I have to say about that.

This relates to AP-Gov because is shows the Judicial process and also the Executive power to call the National Guard (militia) and the Executive responsibility to enforce the law.

Link to Statistics done by the Department of Justice

Blog #12

Loretta Lynch confirmed as new US attorney general

Loretta Lynch was recently confirmed by the senate. It was a 56-43 vote that resulted in her being appointed. She is replacing Eric Holder for this position. Eric Holder has been the attorney general since Obama became president. During her hearings to become the attorney general she talked about her plans to protect against terrorist threats and increase cyber-security. She also plans on making better relations between law enforcement and minority communities. She is expected to take office on Monday.

I think this is good. Eric holder wasn't doing his job and hopefully Loretta Lynch will better enforce border security and do her job. When she gets into office she will be immediately met by several financial cases involving US banks helping citizens evade taxes. I hope that Loretta Lynch does her job and makes sure that everything goes smoothly.

This relates to AP Government because it is related to the approving process of the senate. It shows the checks and balances system in place to make sure no branch is to powerful. I am glad this is in place to make sure that random people aren't appointed to these very important tasks.

Blog #11

US fast food wage protests expand to other industries
Jack Farmer

Fast food and Home care workers are now demanding an increase in minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 and hour. They feel like they aren't getting enough money to support them self and they feel like $15 would support their needs. This would increase unemployment though. It would mean businesses would have to lay off many of their employees due to how much more they would have to pay. Almost twice as much as they are now. The other alternative is a price increase in the goods we buy. If businesses are paying more they have to make more money to support their new expenses by raising prices of their goods which would defeat the point of increasing the minimum wage. Barrack Obama does support this because it would help the economy even though the effects could be worse.

I think that the minimum wage shouldn't be increased so much for several reasons. This change would increase unemployment by 200% in fast food restaurants just because of the cost. Also if the minimum wage increase and people pay more for their products a devaluation will occur where the value of money decreases. If this happens inflation will occur and the cost of imports would increase which would in the long run hurt the economy. I also believe that unskilled labor should not be payed that much that much because they didn't go to college and get any skill that makes them useful to employers.

This relates to A.P. government because it shows the first amendment rights to assemble and petition. The employees protesting are practicing their rights. Today's efforts with protesting the minimum wage have been the largest protest made by this group yet.

Iran nuclear deal: Can the US Congress sabotage it?

Iran nuclear deal: Can the US Congress sabotage it?

The white house officials are happy about new framework made with Iran recently. Republicans in Congress are remaining skeptical about the situation though. The deal is to contain the Iranian nuclear program. They are planning to reduce how the uranium can be. It cant be strong enough to be a weapon and it also will be monitored by other countries.

I think that this is a good thing. I really don't think that Iran should have a nuclear program. I think that they would abuse this power and create nuclear weapons if they haven't already. I think that the senate should not get rid of this because of how much it limits Iran's power.

This relates to AP gov because it shows that senate has power to do things like control treaties and agreements made with other countries. This would be a check made against the executive branch by the legislative branch