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