Independent Blog Post 12/16

I am, unfortunately writing this post slightly later than usual. You see, it's 8:10 PM currently, while usually I write my posts at 10:00 AM, so excuse me if I begin to ramble. On another note, tomorrow's my birthday!

Now on to the post!

Recently the North Koreans launched a rocket into the air and actually got it to launch a satellite. This is the first time that the launch has not ended up in the rocket exploding somewhere dangerously near Japan. The United States, and most of the world in fact have condemned North Korea for pursuing a space program, which they allege is a front for developing Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles(ICBM's) for use against the United States and other powers.

The North Koreans had initially announced that they may have to delay the launch of this latest rocket due to 'technical difficulties', the launch did however go ahead as planned. This is also the first time that North Korea has attempted two rocket launches in the same year. Their launch earlier in the year, however, failed.

All in all, these represent somewhat worrying developments in North Korean boldness, and willingness to disregard sanctions and other forms of pressure that have been imposed upon the nation by both the United States, and the wider global community via the United Nations.

Here's an embedded video of CNN coverage of the rocket launch.

Independent Blog Post

It's documentary time! 

For my group's documentary we chose to focus on the issue of statehood for Washington DC. This is somewhat of a contentious issue. DC residents (mostly) feel very strongly that DC should become a state, Congress, however, has voted several times not to permit the admission of a new state that would include DC. 

It is frequently argued that DC voters are disenfranchised by not being represented with a voting member in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Additionally, Congress retains a very large amount of oversight over the District, and has often tried to influence its politics. 

It is necessary, however, to examine the Constitution when discussing statehood for DC. The Constitution specifically provides for the creation of a Federal "District", which some argue excludes the possibility of DC becoming a state.

All in all, the issue of statehood for DC is a very interesting, and complex issue. I think my group is going to have a lot of fun.

Independent Blog Post

The Fiscal Cliff

     As the media so loves to tell us, the United States is heading for the 'fiscal cliff'. This means that if an agreement on spending cuts, and/or tax increases is not made by January 1st 2013, there will be automatic budget cuts, called sequestration.

     Absolutely no one wants that to happen. The issue lies in getting the two sides of the issue to sit down and actually talk to each other, without trying to bite each others heads off. Most Republicans, those who have signed Grover Norquist's pledge, do not want to raise taxes on anyone for any reason. However, if they do not come to an agreement with the Democrats, who see tax increases on the wealthy as necessary to close the deficit, then the Bush tax cuts will automatically expire, meaning that everyone in the country will have to pay more in taxes.

     Considering the delicate economic climate, neither side can afford to be blamed for stalling negotiations. Many Republicans, in fact, have reneged on their signing of the no tax increases pledge, saying that it can no longer be upheld and is no longer feasible.

     At this point I no longer really care about what the agreement, which I hope the politicians reach, contains. So long as we do not plunge into the abyss, I think that any solution will be welcome. The alternative is far too menacing.

Independent Blog Post #???

I am ashamed to admit that I have no idea what number blog post this is. The last week was quite hectic as we had mock Congress which took up a good amount of time. Anyways, on to the blog post.


Recently there has been quite a lot of noise about a possible Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. In fact, Israel called up an additional 75,000 reservists on Friday, a move that indicated that they could be preparing for a ground war.

For years relations between the Gaza Strip and Israel have been tense. The situation has been exacerbated by both sides repeated escalations. If Israel bombs a rocket site in Gaza, then they are met with rockets landing in their major population centers, and so on and so forth. Both sides need to take a deep breath, and step back from the brink of war. Another war in the Middle East would benefit no one, especially as most of the region is currently on not so good terms with Israel, and with a current Civil War ongoing in nearby Syria.

Either Israel or Gaza needs to be the bigger person and stop retaliating and show the world that their side is the one being attacked, and so win international support. Recently on the site Reddit.com a video was posted of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking candidly, without realizing that the cameras were rolling. Now this footage must be taken with a grain of salt, seeing as it was posted to a part of reddit which is notoriously toxic, r/politics, a den of extreme liberalism which is often controversial, and partisan.

Independent Blog Post #5

So here's an independent blog post!

This weekend the government of China changed its leaders for the first time in a decade. The government of China is composed solely of members of the CCP or Chinese Communist Party. I expect that the next ten years will see no significant changes with regards to their foreign policy. There are no apparent reformers in what experts suggest will be the newest crop of Chinese officials.

The Chinese government shifts its most important members every decade, and historically different factions have cut deals and waged intricate inside warfare to finangle their way to the top, the office of the Premier.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this newer generation of leaders and how they will react to the current world. Most likely they will just toe the party line and continue on the same path the current leaders are on.

Capture The Fall

I made this video today for a class assignment. I used WeVideo to edit it and it was a fairly horrendous experience. The exporting process was incredibly vague and had no sort of progress bar and was really tedious. Additionally I couldn't add music to the video with WeVideo, but I was going to use http://freemusicarchive.org/music/nisei23/Soft_Shapes/03_-_nisei23_-_Fall_-_Soft_Shapes.

Filmed with the phone.

Independent Blog Post #4

This post is going to be about my Crystal Ball, which I had to do last week. So for NSL we had to predict the results of the elections in our assigned state. Some students had partners if they had larger states, but I was alone. I was alone because I had one of the smallest states in the country. I had North Dakota.

Now North Dakota is actually an interesting state. It's composed of 700,000 conservative Americans. Apparently, however, North Dakota is something of a swing state. Calling this election was kind of fun, and there was significant research required.

Because North Dakota is not exactly the most interesting state to most, there weren't a lot of resources available. The fact that the local political parties didn't have great websites didn't help. In fact, the local democratic party had to merge with the socialist party a ways back because the socialist party kept...winning.

Now North Dakota has one House, one Senate and the Governorship up for election this year. The House and Gubernatorial races were easy to call, as the Republican candidates had major leads already. The state was also guaranteed to go for Romney. The Senate seat was however hotly contested. In fact, I called the race for the Democrat.

The experience itself was interesting, and maybe I will do it again next year, on my own. It was fun finding out what the people in an area cared about, who would turn out to vote, and for whom they would vote.




PS. I am a bad person for not doing the last four independent blog posts :(