C.I.A. Judgment on Russia Built on Swell of Evidence (late)

C.I.A. Judgment on Russia Built on Swell of Evidence (late)

American spy and law enforcement agencies were united in the belief, in the weeks before the presidential election, that the Russian government had deployed computer hackers to sow chaos during the campaign. The C.I.A.’s conclusion does not seem to be the result of specific new intelligence obtained. But instead, it was an analysis of what many believe to be overwhelming evidence. Evidence that others feel does not support firm judgments. “I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it,” Mr. Trump said on Sunday in an interview on Fox News. And yet Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, went public and accused the Russians of election interference. American intelligence officials also believed that Russia had access to the databases housing Republican National Committee data. More generally, the Russian government has blamed Mrs. Clinton, along with the C.I.A. and other American officials, for encouraging anti-Russian revolts during the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia and the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. A senior American law enforcement official said the F.B.I. believed that the Russians probably had a combination of goals. Such as damaging Mrs. Clinton during the election and undermining American democratic institutions. But the agency’s suspicions about a direct effort by Russia to help Mr. Trump.Or about possible connections between the two camps, appear to have waned as the investigation continued into September and October. Now that a partisan squall has erupted over exactly what role Russia played in influencing the election, there is growing momentum among both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill to have a congressional investigation.

The Dangers of Echo Chambers on Campus

After Donald Trump’s election, some universities, faculty members canceled classes for weeping, terrified students who asked: How could this possibly be happening? It is when students inhabit liberal bubbles, they’re not learning much about their own country. To be fully educated, students should encounter not only Plato, but also Republicans. Liberal outrage at Trump’s presidency will increase the problem of liberal echo chambers, by creating a more hostile environment for conservatives and evangelicals. At Oberlin College soon after the election, students erupted in protests after a local bakery was accused of racial profiling of a black student in a shoplifting case. The student senate endorsed a boycott of the bakery, and demonstrators carried signs calling the owner a racist. This is because of the bubble that students are taking way to seriously. The weakest argument against intellectual diversity is that conservatives or evangelicals have nothing to add to the conversation. The weakest argument against intellectual diversity is that conservatives or evangelicals have nothing to add to the conversation. Of course, we shouldn’t empower racists and misogynists on campuses.  underscores that we were out of touch with much of America, and we will fight back more effectively if we are less isolated. When universities are echo chambers, they become conservative punch lines, and liberal hand-wringing 

Gun Control (late)

Should guns be banned? Or not? Some say yes and some say yes, and some say no. It depends on the person and the reasons they come up with. It was on October 30th, that a group of three armed people attempted to rob a Pizza Hut in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sadly one of them was shot and killed by an employee during the process. The guy who was shot was Michael Grace Jr.. The question then comes back to, should guns be banned? Or not? Yes if there were no guns then Michael would not have been shot and killed. But you also have to think about all the other items the employee had a choice of using. If guns should be banned then so should all other things that could be used to kill or seriously harm other people. If we are going to out law guns then we should do the same to knives, shovels, rakes, bats, forks even. The list could go on and on. Also we should not ban guns, we should just ban certain people from buying guns. The people are doing more harm than the guns in some ways. Or another way to keep it under control is to just ban certain guns. There are guns like a fully automatics that we really don’t need to sell in public stores. 

Public Policy

Public policy is created from a wide range of different people. Actors, interests of different people, institutions, and a variety of processes for policies. Our students should know that the bureaucracy and the courts are all stages in the policy process. Also, students should investigate on policy and issue networks of the domestic and foreign policy areas. 

It is when the government decides to resolve a social problem that a public policy is made. There are five steps that are taken to make a public policy: 1) defining the role of government; 2) agenda setting; 3) policy formulation; 4) policy implementation; and 5) policy evaluation. In American history, the most important area in public policy has been economic policy. Our policy makers have always been debating on which idea they should support, laissez-faire free market principles or redistributionist interventionist policies. Laissez-faire free market principles are believing that the government should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs. Also, the United States has joined international trading organisations like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We had done that in order to raise our business with the rest of the world. It was before FDR that our federal government did not want to be a part of domestic policy making. But since we have gotten involved in domestic policies we have seen a rise in programs like Social Security and Welfare. 

American Creation (late)

In the book American Creation, the author, Joseph J. Ellis, he talks about how the majority would lose to the minority. Also that a new plan of government that has never been tried before would become so successful. It was in the year of 1783 when the War for Independence was ended that George Washington would have written his last Circular to the States. Washington saw it as the American Revolution. It was the continued battle for the eastern third of North America. Two signed treaties would ensure that the newly founded Unties states of America would stay just that uncontested. The Peace of Paris in 1763 had eliminated France and the Treaty of Paris in 1783 had eliminated Great Britain. Afterwards, Washington had proposed an American tour of the “New Empire.” That proposal was a breathtaking imperial vision that would late become to be known as “manifest destiny.” Washington later wrote, “We have indeed so plain a road before us that it must be worse than ignorance if we miss it.”  

Electoral College not about Democracy, but about Power

Electoral College not about Democracy, but about Power

Hillary Clinton blames the FBI for her losing the election. She thinks it’s because the FBI reopened the investigation into her emails. Also everyone was stunned by Trump’s big win in the election. Nobody thought that he was going to win. Now all the sore losers of the 2016 election are getting angry at the Constitution. these liberal officials have a point. The Electoral College is not democratic, if by democratic they mean rule by simple majority. But the Electoral College’s exaggeration of the power of the states is not some bizarre mistake or a constitutional version of the appendix. The very existence of the Senate, where the Constitution allocates two Senators to each state, runs directly counter to the idea of popular representation. And yet the Constitution requires the agreement of the Senate, where the majority of the people have no voice, to most of our most important decisions. In most of our democratic allies, such as Great Britain, Germany, and Japan, the majority party in the legislature selects a prime minister, who becomes head of the executive branch as well.