Stop Treating Marijuana as A Potential Serial Killer

    I agree with my classmate, Jocelyn Hernandez, on the post she wrote. Whether we legalize marijuana or not, people are still going to use it. Marijuana is widely used, especially in adolescents and young adults. In the US, there are about 20 million users, about 7.5% of people aged 12 or older. According to a Gallup poll, 64% of Americans support legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Marijuana is a mind-altering drug, which is why its medical use is somewhat controversial. Although marijuana can help relieve some symptoms of certain medical conditions, its use is indeed illegal on a federal level because the FDA still has concerns about potential risks versus benefits. Some states have passed laws to allow the use of marijuana for medical conditions, and some are also making the move to decriminalize marijuana use by adults.

   Legislatures in several states recently passed legalization measures, and they are debating the regulations that would have to be set in motion with the legalized sale and use of marijuana. Massachusetts lawmakers were weighing bills earlier this year that would lower the amount residents can legally possess and place restrictions on stores. 

    Aside from the visibly decreasing crime rate, states where the use of marijuana is legal also observe lower unemployment rate. In the states where it has been legalized, the new industry is contributing to the various states' economies. According to Marijuana Business Daily, the number of jobs created by cannabis-related companies ranges between 100,000 and 150,000. New Frontier Data estimated employment within the industry may reach 300,000 by 2020. In all likelihood, the share will only continue to grow within the upcoming years.

Trump's Reversal of the Nation's Course

It is true, though, that Trump has undone many things that were put into place by the previous presidents of the United States. Since the beginning of his administration, he has taken various steps to turn over what his predecessors had set into motion. The most obvious one being the executive orders he has signed so far. Executive orders are assigned numbers and published in the federal register, similar to laws passed by Congress, and typically direct members of the executive branch to follow a new policy or directive. Comparing him and the previous presidents, he has signed alarmingly numerous executive orders. According to the American Presidency Project, George Washington issued eight while FDR more than 3,700 their entire time in office. On par with the modern presidents, President Obama signed 277 executive orders in his two terms. And now, Trump has signed 32 executive orders only in 100 days.

       The reality is that the U.S. stand in government has seldom been in such disarray. Neither America's friends nor foes know where they are to stand, just as U.S. citizens ourselves do not comprehend who takes decisions in Washington. Many people suspected that President Trump and the top officials of his administration came to office knowing next to nothing about the U.S. policies. According to Eliot Cohen, a former U.S. senior diplomat, this new U.S. administration is not divided into people who are loyal to Trump and those who are not. Rather, it is divided between those who know how to manipulate his vanity, his hatreds, his sensitivities, and those who do not. There are warnings that the Trump administration is doing many of the things to distract people from the real deal that the President is planning. For example, there are rumors circulating that the Las Vegas shooting was an incident that was purposely planned to distract attention from an upgraded nuke bomb testing which exploded in the desert north of Las Vegas. Also, church shooting in San Antonio is most likely a cruel attempt at distracting the U.S. public from the rapidly approaching indictment of two individuals extremely close to the heart of the Trump administration—Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn—who had been identified as utterly corrupt foreign assets.

       President Trump’s impact on American policy has been just a little short of catastrophic. With his almost uncanny ability for timing, he undermined every single one of our country's major policy initiatives, by simply tweeting, even at the most critical moment. He had evidently said that the world is the survival of the fittest, and all countries have to try to swallow each other.

Yes, 2018 Is Coming Around and Yes, Racism Is Still In Your Face

     I have to say I completely agree with Niha on her most recent blog post. Some people tend to see racism as an ongoing and pervasive condition of life, and others think of it as individual actions or attitudes of intolerance toward those who hold different opinions. But in general, racism means a set of institution that results in the oppression of the colored people based on a conscious belief in racial superiority.

     What forms this is the ongoing generalizations that support the overly common racial assumptions which persist in the society. Racism shapes society's assumptions about who deserves success and who does not, whose culture should be respected or not; all of it based on the first glance at one's skin color, last name and/or religion. Sure we've come a long way since the "separate but equal" society America used to know, and segregated schools are no longer a thing. However, the effects can still be observed everywhere today, made even simpler by the national government. According to an overview of the 115th U.S. Congress, as of January 2017, the Congress is the most racially diverse in history. Although, of the 535 members, only 9.6% of the membership are African Americans, 8.5% are Hispanics/Latinos, and 3.3% are Asian/Pacific Islander ancestry. This racial distribution of the U.S. Congress alone is enough to reflect what's going on. A United Nations committee has just recently called on the U.S. government to unequivocally and unconditionally reject and condemn racist hate speech and crimes, following a deadly white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

    If not addressed, this will continue to worsen. People have been and will keep denying its existence.

Trump's Era, a Temporary Aberration

    A lot of people are desperately trying to make sense of Trump’s presidency. Many other countries are closely watching his actions. Some people believe this era led by him is an anomaly that will not last long. They have a theory that this Trump phenomenon can be suppressed without doing lasting damage to the United States, because there will long-lasting effects presented by his key players, not Trump himself.  The somewhat optimistic view, although premature, is one of the last glimmers of hope that we have to hold on to.

    It is pointed out that the fear that the President would swiftly sweep away American democracy have faded, compared to its initial stronghold, moments nearing his election. President Trump's predictable behavior remains erratic and outrageous, but it certainly does not look like a plan that is consistent enough to destabilize the country’s democracy.

    America's major institutions have also risen to the challenge, knowing Trump’s administrations will have effects on them. The courts were able to give a hand in striking him down, one of which is the early version of Trump's travel ban. The press has also been observing relentlessly in its pursuit of his malpractice.  It started after the unnecessary dismissal of the former FBI Director James Comey , which happened immediately after the FBI started an investigation into the 2016 election regarding Russian involvement. Now recently, Health and Human Services Secretary, Tom Price, was found to have spent more than US$1 million of government money on his private jets. The result of his extensive use of chartered flights? Trump’s health chief’s neither sacked nor imprisoned, he’s only forced to resign.

     As of now, President Trump's approval ratings have sunken even lower. His failure to deliver the promises he declared during his election has led many to conclude that he is extremely unlikely to be re-elected. His victory last year demonstrated that the majority of the public indeed does not support him, as proven by Clinton swamping him in popular vote.

     The fact that President Trump has demonstrated that there is still room for one of his key players, the most notable one being the low-profile Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist. Although, Trump declared in a post interview, “I am my own strategist,”. Bannon’s role was downplayed, but that doesn’t mean his influence will cease to exist. Many believe that Bannonism has the capability of growing into a movement that outlasts President Trump. Although Bannon runes a fairly low-profile, he has been immensely influential. With the agenda he had prepared, he will have a lasting influence on Trump's administration. 

Power Can Be Intoxicating, but Simmens is Sober

Back in May, Lance Simmens, a political activist and an author on political issues, published an article on Huffington Post, From Hope to Hate. The article compares Richard Nixon, the 37th U.S. president who is best remembered as the only president ever to resign from office, and Donald Trump, the 45th and current President of the United States who has been in office since January 20, 2017.

The article does not start off as another boring, political piece. It does not contain many complicated terminologies that I usually encounter when I try to comprehend political articles/news meant for adults or political maniacs. The author’s intended audience could be people of all ages and political views, since he does not put anyone or any party down. The author also kept the article interesting and fun to read by using amusing terms such as intellectual giant and Hater-In-Chief.

In terms of credibility, the author’s words are quite to be trusted. Simmens has served in senior level positions in government, politics and public policy over a career that spanned four decades. He has also worked with two U.S. Presidents, two U.S. Senators, two Governors, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and been active in local government and community issues. He did claim without providing any evidence that Richard Nixon was a crook. However, his basis for that is a well-known fact that had profoundly affected many in his generation and undoubtedly the country as well, therefore stating the evidence is not necessary. Everything Simmens wrote about President Trump in this article seems to be true so far we’ve seen after his nine months in office, such as: “Power can be intoxicating and Trump is consumed by it. His inability to control his tweet addiction, lack of self-discipline to refrain from straying off script, temperamental disorder. . . “ (Simmens).

Kris Kobach and His Inaccurate Accusations

    The article in the New York Times written by their editorial board is on the subject of the presidential election back in 2016. Last year Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire, a competitive state that leans democratic, by 0.3% points. The Kansas Secretary of State and Vice Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Election Integrity, Kris Kobach, claimed that there was voter fraud in the New Hampshire election, in his latest column for Breitbart.

      The article has a misleading title, for starters. When reading the article, I realized that the title does not represent the content well. Or rather, the author phrased it wrong. As a muggle who doesn’t even know who Kris Kobach is, the title “Kris Kobach and His 5,313 Fraudulent Voters” gives off a negative vibe towards Mr. Kobach. Whereas the article is essentially criticizing the circumstantial evidence that Mr. Kobach offers in his post, it is not about his having 5,313 illegal voters. In fact, he doesn’t have an army of a few thousand illegal voters like it initially came across to be. What he did do was make irresponsible accusations against New Hampshire regarding the illicit votes that had allegedly happened.

     With the purpose being convincing the readers to doubt Mr. Kobach and his accusations, the article also presents the hidden details that Mr. Kobach had omitted when trying to expose the fraudulent New Hampshirite voters. “New Hampshire law does not require people to be residents to register and vote. They must only be domiciled in the state, meaning that New Hampshire is where they currently live and spend most of their time – a description that applies to college students. In 2016, the towns with the highest rates of voters who registered using out-of-state IDs were all home to college campuses” (New York Times). By giving those statements, the readers are informed about what Mr. Kobach had left out from his “evidence” after inaccurate readings of the state law and data.

So, a President Walks up to a Microphone... is an article definitely worth reading, despite being purely for amusement. I stumbled upon it by chance as I was scrolling through The New York Times op-ed pages and the title caught my eye, as it's supposedly "different" from other news articles. Written by the former editorial page editor of the New York Times, I thought the article should be good. The content is pretty lighthearted and it provides insights into President Trump and his well discussed sense of humor. I'd say reading the writer's explanation of the President's words is fairly entertaining!