Climate Change Deal –

In Paris over the weekend of December 12-13, negotiators from 195 countries finally agreed to the climate change deal.  This effort began with a summit in Copenhagen in 2009 where very little was accomplished and it seemed to do more to pit countries against one another rather than bring them together for the common good.

In an article written by Coral Davenport titled, “A Climate Deal, 6 Years in the Making “published in the New York Times on December 13^th she outlines what she believes has changed since that unproductive summit in Copenhagen.  In Davenport’s view three key things have been altered in the last six years.  First, the view on climate change has shifted from being viewed as a “distant warning” to an “immediate threat.”  Secondly, the French government did a lot of work leading up to this summit and in particular was careful to be sure that all countries were being heard from not just the largest and the loudest.  Finally, “a fundamental change in the geopolitics of climate change.”

This new climate change deal focuses on accomplishes the following goal, to “limit the rise in the average global temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with 1.5 degrees Celsius being the ideal benchmark.   Some of the means by which the global community will achieve this objective are to stop burning fossil fuels to limit the amount of CO2 that is being released in the atmosphere.  .  Individual countries approaches may differ, but countries will be required to monitor, verify and report on what they are doing as well as to agree to meet again in 2023 and then every five years after that 

Government Spending Bill–

Once again our government leadership seems to be taking us to the brink of a government shut down once again.  This has become the norm rather than the exception in the recent years.  At issue currently is a $1.1 trillion spending bill.  The current government funding was to expire on Friday December 11^th at midnight and there was no way that the sides were going to be able to work out their differences by that time.  As such, a short-term spending appropriation was approved allowing the government to keep functioning until Wednesday December 16^th.

While some legislators stated that there were still a “bunch of issues” to be worked out, most assured the American public that they would get it done and get it done right.  The key issues seemed to be around Syrian refugees, lifting the ban on exporting U.S. oil as well as environmental provisions.  

As of mid-day on Tuesday December 15^th, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan stated that the bill is being put together and should be posted at some point during the day.  Still at issue seemed to be the Republicans “insistence on raising the export ban on crude oil.”  Democrats, to compromise, are asking Republicans to agree to environmental measures in exchange for Democratic support of the lift of the export.  

Presidents: Politicians or Celebrities?

With new media coming out every day do you think that the Presidency has become too celebritized? It is interesting to think of how there have been so many more appearances of candidates and the current president in the media. One example I thought of was Buzzfeed posts about Obama and his reactions to seeing cute babies. Presidents are beginning to be watched even more closely in an almost paparazzi like fashion and I wonder what the implications are for future presidents.

The intense GOP contest to be ‘not insane’ in New Hampshire

New Hampshires primary is coming up on February 9th, right after Iowa's. With that being said whoever takes hold of New Hampshire is put in the best position to win in the Republican race. As people are waiting for Donald Trump to mellow out a little bit, lower tier candidates like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina are focused on taking control of the New Hampshire primary. It is hard to believe that someone like Donald Trump or Ben Carson taking office over a Jeb Bush or a John Kasich  or a Chris Christie due to their kookiness and their party unwilling and not wanting to elect them. With the primaries coming soon there are still a lot of republicans still in the race opposed to the democrats 2 serious candidates. Most people believe Clinton will come out of the democratic side while Bernie Sanders is sitting right behind her. The republican race will still be interesting considering the guy leading it isn't getting much respect and from his party. So it leads you to believe once the primaries roll around, someone on the republican side who might not be the leader right now will roll away, and the person who does that will likely be the person who makes a spark in the first primary which is New Hampshire.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-contest-new-hampshire

Obamacare

As chief legislator, the Affordable Care Act is Obama's flagship policy, and the incarnation of years of promises from Democrats finally put into practice. Republicans slam the legislation for being a form of crony capitalism and corporatism, because it was written largely by health insurance and pharmaceutical companies largely to their benefit, according to this conservative website. It is for these reasons that almost every Republican presidential candidate has promised to repeal it, and until recently, relatively no progress had been made. Filibusters by Democrats had prevented a vote on the matter until yesterday evening, December 3rd. The Senate voted to repeal Obamacare 52-47 in what Republicans are considering a huge victory. Is this the end of Obamacare, can it even be repealed completely? I wonder if Rubio was even present for the vote...

Trump: A visit to NH

Perhaps one of the most polarizing candidates in the Presidential race belongs to none other than Donald Trump. The real-estate mogul has dominated in nearly every state poll and national poll since July. After announcing his Presidential bid in mid June, Trump has gathered support from all facets of the political spectrum. Social-Conservatives, defense hawks, establishment GOP and independents who have previously been disenfranchised by the political insiders and career politicians. Despite personal feelings on Trump, a visit to one of his town-halls was warranted for me, who is ultra curious to see what the buzz is all about.

A rainy, dark and slippery night brought me to Waterville Valley Athletic Club just north of here. Upon entering, a room of roughly 900 chairs was set up, a stage and the "Make America Great Again" banner perfectly positioned next to the American flag. What was most telling about this room was the amount of people there nearly an hour and a half before the start time. The press were relentlessly asking patrons of the crowd their thoughts on Trump and why they are supporting him as a candidate. The most popular answers that I overheard were that he is "Honest" has "Integrity" and that most thought he had an overwhelming sense of honor and patriotism to this country. A conversation with a man revealed to me that a lot of people in the crowd do not consider themselves Democrats or Republicans, but more Americans above all else.

Trump spoke for roughly 55 minutes on his main platform of strong immigration reform, building a wall at the border and enhancing security. Trump also went on to say that his speeches have changed significantly since Paris, noting that people all across the country have flocked to his campaign because of the necessity of someone who will stand up for "American ideals" and protect us from threats foreign and domestic. Trump also spoke at length about the importance of building the American economy again and unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit that made this nation great and that he can make the country great again. Trump opened to questions and took many questions from the crowd including about 5 of them from people under the age of 25. The questions were of all types including ones on energy, military and domestic policy, even including a question on Roe v. Wade.

From an objective standpoint, Trump could not have handled the room more appropriately. His orating skills and the ability to interact with people in the crowd came off as not only sincere but he managed to keep the room light despite a shout "Bernie 2016" coming from the back of the crowd. Trump dismissed Bernie by noting "Bernie lost it when he gave up the emails" With a loud applause, Trump rallied around getting another jab at Clinton. This event was nothing to what I was expecting, between the TSA security at the door, a mild Trump and a crowd of about 1000 people, Trump has exemplified that he is here to compete and has taken a shift to become more serious with his policy positions.

Time will tell how this transitions into further big-scale events heading into the Holiday season. Despite my disapproval of many things he has said, done and exclaimed, Trump showed that he can compete with any of the GOP heavyweights.

-Connor Brown

NH Primary; Power to the grassroots

Perhaps one of the most storied traditions of politics, the New Hampshire "First in the Nation primary" showcases to the whole United States how politics is our sport. The constant inundation of candidates, ads and campaign stops is only juxtaposed by the national media highlighting our state for it's rich political interest. In the most recent chapter in the FITN primary state, we have seen the political juggernaut of Donald Trump and the resurgence of a fight between Hillary Clinton and a democratic-socialist Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders.

Perhaps the most telling of this primary season has been the ground swell of support for grass-roots candidates. The two that I have singled out is Bernie Sanders (VT-I) and Ted Cruz (TX-R) both United States Senators. The most intriguing part of these two Senators journeys is that they both started their respective Presidential runs earlier on in the primary season than the swell of other candidates. While we have seen the likes of Chafee, Webb, Walker and Jindal bow their heads to the race, these two men have collected support in the grass-roots. Knowing how the NH primary breaks quite late, it is always important to have ground support in the roots. The winning of the 603 Alliance by Ted Cruz exemplifies that Cruz has the conservative base of the NH GOP on good terms with his social conservative firebrand agenda. This fairs very well with a candidate that seems to be on the up and up in key early states such as Iowa and our state, NH.

The second major player with grass-roots support is Senator Bernie Sanders. This is exemplified with his opensecrets.org page about individual contributions based upon labor unions and individual small donations. This is a ground swell of support from actual voters (i.e if you give money, the more likely you voter for that candidate) As compared to Hillary Clintons support which stems higher on the hierarchal donor spectrum (large corporations/big banks) is not creating the same buzz for younger voters.

It is still early to see what may happen over the next two months but these are two candidates who are positioning themselves nicely going into the FITN primary.

-Connor Brown








Relevant sources:
https://www.tedcruz.org/news/cruz-wins-603-alliance-selection-caucus/
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=n00000528&cycle=2016
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00000019

US and NATO

With the recent events in the Middle East concerning Russia and Turkey, the President has reassured Turkey of our continuing support through NATO.
For those of us who don't know, NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created during the Cold War to counter the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact bloc.

What do you guys think about this support of Turkey? They are a NATO member, and one of our closest allies in the region. On the other hand, the Cold War is over, and the Soviet Union is no more. Should we stand behind a government that is not afraid to violently provoke Russia?

Thoughts?

Donald Trump is Still Relevant?

What do you guys think about Trump? I've heard a lot in the news about him and all of his comments and assorted scandals, but what do we as Political Science majors make of all this?

Usually I don't compare anybody to Hitler, but Trump's proposed policies and much of his rhetoric sounds a lot like what Hitler used to get elected. Again, I'm not saying he's Hitler, just drawing comparisons and asking what you think. Why hasn't Trump fallen out of the race yet? Wasn't he supposed to be a small blip on the radar awhile ago?

The Uninformed Trump Supporter

The idea that Donald Trump could win the Presidency terrifies me. It's not because he would make a bad President that his harsh rudeness could piss off the wrong country leader. It's not because his fake tan and fake hair would make him an excellent addition to the Jersey Shore cast. It scares me because I STRONGLY believe people don't know what or who they are voting for. Today's Americans come from the age of excessive TV watching. That's exactly where Trump is from, TV. People have seen his name and his outrageous personality. I believe people are sucked into his campaign because he has the exposure. Then the uninformed American latches onto his every word and believe what he is saying is right.

Trump wants to build a giant wall to stop people from Mexico from coming to the US? Well, okay, all of Trump's supporters can work the fruit-picking job for three cents an hour so that food prices won't rise by 3000%. Oh, and Trump wants Mexico to pay for the wall. (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform) Recently, in reference to the oil fields in Syria and Iraq, he stated he would "bomb the s--- out of 'em." I'm not convinced this is the solution. What is the difference between ISIS going into France to cause mass casualties and destruction and the US going into Syria or Iraq to cause mass casualties and destruction? Now, I am not putting good (used loosely) and evil on the same playing field. What happened in France and other places around the world was absolutely devastating. It would be just as devastating to the non-ISIS members in those countries to have their whole world destroyed because of the radicals in their countries.

Trump supporters rally behind all of his words and don't think about what he is actually saying. But, Trump is new, flashy and exciting to watch. Trump isn't some boring Senator from some boring state; he's Donald Trump -- "You're fired!" -- Everyone knows who that phrase belongs to. I don't know if Donald Trump would be a great President or our next corrupt world leader. I also don't know who would be the best President all of the candidates we have been presented with. What I do know is, the American voter needs to be informed by real facts.

All of these thoughts are my own but I did draw some inspiration from the following:

http://www.bustle.com/articles/126490-5-times-people-attacked-donald-trump-said-exactly-what-you-thought-about-his-scary-campaign

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/09/19/donald-trump-reveals-pure-gop-heart-voters-dont-care-nothing-buy-presidency.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-bomb-isis-2015-11

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform

Donald Trump knows he needs more of a Presidential Attitude

Everyone expected Donald Trump to fall from the polls earlier and earlier, but he keeps going and going. Trump is starting to look more and more like a serious contender as people are dropping out and we come closer and closer to primaries and the 2016 presidential election. As people start taking himself more seriously, he needs to take herself more serious. And by that he can't mock immigrants, he can't call other running mates "stupid" and other terms he's used to attack them. As trump is facing protestors in the past he may have said something like "that person needs to get roughed up, opposed to now he is saying things like "please escort that person out of here". It is one thing to establish dominance to your peers but its another thing to just be rude and unprofessional. If Trump has a chance to win which I'm starting to think he may, then he needs to act more presidential so the swingers will go his direction.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/28/politics/donald-trump-sarasota-florida-rally/index.html

Presidential Debate Lies

The presidential debates, both Republican and Democrat, have been followed closely by millions of voters with great anticipation towards the first primaries and caucuses. Likewise, these debates have also been followed very closely by various media outlets with an excess of fact checks. Very often do candidates get their numbers and statistics a little off, or sometimes a lot. Most of these situations can be written off as mistakes or exaggerations, but all of these misquotations are by far overshadowed by outright lies. All mistruths and exaggerations aside, one candidate has told a great deal more lies than the others. Do you have any clue who I’m talking about? I’ll give you three hints: he said he’s going nuke ISIS, achieve what is physically impossible, and will add $10.2 trillion to the debt. If you guessed Trump, you assumed correctly.

Aside from many misquoted figures, Trump has told three very memorable lies during the debates. The first one occurred at the very beginning of the first debate, where Senator Paul accused Trump of buying politicians and Trump retorted that he gave the Senator plenty of money. In this context, this claim by the Donald is blatantly false: the total contributions of Trump to Paul’s campaign amount to zero. Trump had previously given $10,000 to the Moran Eye Care Center at the University of Utah as part of Dr. Paul's mission to provide eye surgery to those who cannot afford it in Guatemala. 

Next, Trump got into a fight with Jeb Bush where Jeb claimed that Trump tried to buy him out on the issue of casino gambling. The Donald then claimed that he never wanted casino gambling in Florida, a statement that could not be more dishonest: Trump’s company is on record for trying to get casino deals in Jeb’s state for 21 years, with Trump even quipping in the past, "If Miami doesn’t get casinos, that would be a terrible mistake."
The third most memorable moment occurred in the third debate when the moderator asked him, "You have talked a little bit about Marco Rubio. I think you called him Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator, because he was in favor of the H-1B visa," to which Trump cut him off and responded, "I never said that, I never said that." However, a simple trip to Trump's website reveals the exact quote: "Mark Zuckerberg's personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorites."
If Trump is this eager to lie to millions of Americans right to their faces for political gain, how quick will he resort to familiar habits to cover his a** in the Oval Office? According to Trump supporters, he's the guy that's not afraid to tell it like it is. Apparently, he's not afraid to tell it like it isn't, either.

In light of the recent attack in Paris we have seen Obama taking a stand against most of Congress including members of his own party.  Today the House of Representatives passed a bill that would stop Syrian refugees from coming into the country until national security agencies can certify refugees will not pose a threat.  This stance by Obama shows him taking on many different roles of the presidency.  He is trying to take on a legislative lead as he threatens to veto the bill and work with Democrats in the senate to block and kill the bill.  He is acting as a party leader, unsuccessfully, as he tries to get Democrats to follow his position of accepting refugees.  Finally one can argue this is as much a foreign policy decision as a domestic one, depending on how America responds and acts it will shape how people view us around the world.  With France saying they will accept 30,000 refugees this could be embarrassing for Obama as we were not even the ones attacked or directly affected by the attack.  The only nations devoted to openly accepting refugees into their borders in the Western world right now are Germany and France, with most other nations making it hard.  Obama’s actions will shape the way in which other world leaders will deal with us in response to the refugee and Syrian situation.  The problem is though we are seeing Obama loose his grip on the Democratic Party as 47 Democrats voted in favor of this bill to restrict the flow of refugees.  On top of that many governors have already stated they will not accept Syrian refugees at all or until a more intensive screening process is implemented.  This is another test for Obama as refugee relocation is a federal power.  He can easily ignore governors and put refugees in their states but he runs the risk of lowering his opinion polls and threatening the next democratic presidential candidate’s chance of being elected.  A very complicated human right crisis has arisen and now is the time to see if America will step up to the plate and respond accordingly to it.  The only problem is like most things in America there are two sides and they will fight forever until the problem ceases to exist and both sides claim they win.  Obama’s actions can help to steer the nation away from the fear that currently grasps it and hopefully he will be able to keep fighting until people come to their senses or the tides sway back to his view.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/19/politics/house-democrats-refugee-hearings-obama/

GOP vs. Obama

An update on the ongoing debate throughout Washington... 



As of Monday November 16, the GOP is 'bashing' President Obama and his allowing Syrian refugees in the United States. Since the recent Paris terrorist attacks, the Democratic party has been put on the defense after reports that one of the terrorists involved in the attacks entered Europe as part of the wave of Syrians fleeing civil war. In response, Obama stated that the United States has to remain committed to its values of tolerance and accepting immigrants in the country. 

"The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism," Obama said in Antalya, Turkey, at a meeting of the G20. "It is very important ... that we do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism."

Republicans are however stressing and advocating for the importance of national security. The large influx of war-ton immigrants into the country has risen numerous security concerns, which has subsequently led GOP lawmakers and governors to announce that they would not allow Syrian refugees into their states and are encouraging stronger control of the U.S. borders. 

What do you guys think? Close up the borders to Syrian refugees? Or should we continue to allow immigrants into the U.S., especially those fleeing war-torn countries?

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/16/politics/republicans-syrian-refugees-2016-elections-obama/index.html

Obama and Israeli Prime Minester

Today (Monday November, 9) President Obama and the Israeli Prime Minister met at the White House to further discuss their original disagreement over the deal between the world powers and Iran in regards to its Nuclear program. This disagreement unfortunately had set back the relationship between the United States and Israel to its "lowest point in decades." Obama had previously back Prime Minister Netanyahu in their most recent conflict with the Palestinians, while the Israeli leader continues to fight for settlement with the Palestinians. This fight, as it seems as if it will never end, has already been through two peace initiatives put together by the Obama Administration, which subsequently, failed. Today's meeting at the White House seemingly resulted in both men trying to find common ground and subsided any mutual frustration between the two leaders. What do you guys think will happen with their relationship? Do you see a mutual agreement between the two leaders being kept in tact? Or do you think more disagreements are bound to come before President Obama leaves office? 

"It is no secret that the Prime Minister and I have had a strong disagreement on this narrow issue, but we don't have a disagreement on the need to make sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon and we don't have a disagreement about the importance of us blunting destabilizing activities that Iran may be taking." -President Obama 

Source: 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/09/politics/benjamin-netanyahu-obama-meeting/index.html

Marco Rubio Police Rhetoric

The amount of police brutality has either gone way out of proportion or has just been in the national spotlight. Marco Rubio did talk a lot about police brutality and how it has escalated to very violent measures. He does say, "'The overwhelming and vast majority of law enforcement officers in this country are just trying to do their jobs," Rubio told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. "It is troubling that there are groups and rhetoric out there now that is encouraging people to demonize law enforcement, to target law enforcement or in some cases, quite frankly, to misrepresent what law enforcement is trying to do.'" I agree with him here on how law enforcement is just trying to do their jobs, there are instances where there are definite evidence of people being brutalize, but the attention it is getting doesn't seem to be reaching the white house. This seems to be a national issue that we need to focus on since it's starting riots and people causing chaos in the streets. It's getting a little ridiculous and I definitely think that all the presidential candidates should be talking about this and worrying about the future of law enforcement. 

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/27/politics/marco-rubio-police-rhetoric/index.html

America only recently left Iraq a few years ago and in that time frame we have seen the rise of ISIS.  With the entire region in disarray trying to deal with ISIS and how to fight them US troops may end up in Iraq and the Middle East in some capacity to help fight and contain the threat of ISIS.  As the fight against the Islamic State seems to have come to a standstill President Obama has been pressured to increase American military presence and involvement.  The recent involvement of Russia and its apparent targeting of US backed rebel groups only adds to the dangerous mixture and time constraint to fix the problem, if America waits too long with Russia’s help Assad could regain control of Syria.  This problem went from simply being a Middle East conflict into a power play between two world powers.  Over the past few months Obama has been meeting with his military advisors to discuss his options, ranging from moving forward with boots on the ground, establishing a no fly zone, continued training of Iraqi soldiers, small strategic strikes against ISIS with US special forces in conjunction with Iraqi security forces etc.  All the options at the president’s disposal shows the expanded role of the branch has acquired over time.  Go back a hundred years no one would believe the president could basically start a war around the world without the approval or even a vote by congress. I personally hate the idea of the president wielding such power as this.  I understand in times of crisis, such as America being attacked, the president would have to use the military without congress but for actions like this congress must be involved.  We wonder why people around consider America to be a bully this is why.  We act unilaterally and without a lot of help.  Recently Obama has done better with forming coalitions to deal with international crises but recently America has been taking a larger role as it considers devoting combat troops.  How can America champion democracy when we have presidents who are so apt to use force instead of negotiating in instances, granted the problems with ISIS would not be able to be solved with diplomacy.

Source

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-weighs-moving-us-troops-closer-to-front-lines-in-syria-iraq/2015/10/26/4ae2f36c-7bec-11e5-b575-d8dcfedb4ea1_story.html  

Blog Posting Schedule

Be sure to post on or before Thursday of the week scheduled

Week of October 26

Kenny Louzier

Aaron Maddux

Week of November 2

Cassidy Spencer

Zachary Franklin

John Rescigno

Connor Brown

Week of November 9

Erin Campbell

Zachary Franklin

John Rescigno

Kelsey Dustin

Week of November 16

Erin Campbell

Kenny Louzier

Joseph Hall

James Morrow

Philip Wettengel

 Week of November 30

Cassidy Spencer

Aaron Maddux

James Morrow

 Connor Brown

Week of December 7

Kelsey Dustin

Joseph Hall

Philip Wettengel

 

Welcome to our Presidency Class Blog for Fall 2015!

 Welcome to our Presidency class blog! The first step for class members is to set up an account with Blogger.com so I can add you to this blog so you can get started posting! Look for an email from me, if you do not receive one, let me know. I will send a sign up sheet around and publish the posting schedule.


(I took this photo when then Senator Obama spoke to us here at PSU).



A few rules to follow:

1. No profanity or obscenities! This Blog will maintain professional standards of discourse!

2. No jerks.

3. No incivility. You are expected to treat one another with respect and offer constructive comments.

4. follow all rules about fair use of material--copyrights etc.

5. You are expected to post a story on or before Thursday of the week assigned below.

Now--get blogging!