Blog #4: Antiwar Media

    America's presence can be felt all over Earth. Our social and entertainment culture is the envy of most of the world and our technology is everywhere. What is just as widespread is our military. America has served as the world's largely unwanted police force for over two decades, but our military escapades have been around a lot longer than that, they've just been rebranded as antiterrorist. During the Cold War, America involved itself in conflicts in many different places, saying the reason behind their wars operations and wars to be to stop the spread of communism. Fear tactics kept most citizens from thinking anything bad of it. In this century, stopping communism has become stopping terrorism. 

    We have been involved in the Middle East for decades and with no signs of pulling our troops out anytime soon. Each election it seems that a candidate will run on the promise of bringing our boys home, just to do exactly what their predecessor did. Yet the topic is not as talked about as many other issues. This could be because what the US is doing in many scenarios is illegal and they are trying to hide it from the public eye. Currently, American forces are stationed in Syria without the permission of the Syrian government and without a declaration of war. Even though many media sources will point out many illegal things the government does, America's military actions are in another ballpark. Whistleblowers are still sought out by the US government today for simply doing their civic duty. 

    I believe that mainstream media is worried that the Federal government could enact the same kind of aggression on them if they were to expose the problems with our nations apparent need to conduct our armed forces however we see fit, legal or not. 

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/get-out-of-syria/

Blog #3: 6 Freedoms and #BlackLivesMatter

    The First Amendment is one of the single most important and ground-breaking principles adopted by our nation. As the very first thing that the founding fathers included in the Constitution, even back then, its relevance was clear. The First Amendment provides the citizens of America six freedoms; freedom from religion, of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. When first instituted, this was a revolutionary idea. Previously, the government of a nation had a say over what kind of beliefs their people could have. Now a days, it is hard to even imagine not being able to speak your mind freely without fear of suffering consequences of the law. 

    However, the First Amendment does not allow some kinds of speech that are considered dangerous or go against general law. The BlackLivesMatter protests have been at the heart of the news for months now and many people are questioning the legality of some of the demonstrations. There have been several instances widely covered by the media that show protests leading to violence and destruction of public and private property. This is not protected by the First Amendment because it is not only speech, but action. This being said, a report I found showed that only 7% of the 8,000 demonstrations became violent. While this does not excuse the actions of the protesters that took destructive means to protest from the law, it does show that the BlackLivesMatter movement is often inaccurately portrayed as being dangerous and unlawful. 

    In a world where we are more divided than ever over our personal beliefs and political parties, I think it is important to think of the First Amendment. In the 1700s, it was revolutionary to think that the government was not allowed to censor discriminate you based on your beliefs, maybe now it is time to realize that we as citizens should not as well. We need to become a more united nation or I fear for the worst. A nation attacked from foreigners can rebuild, a nation broken from the inside is much harder to put back together. 

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/america-in-crisis/93-of-black-lives-matter-protests-between-late-may-and-late-august-were-peaceful-group-says 

Blog #2: The Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court is an integral function of the government of our nation. Of course, as one of the three branches of the Federal government, they have a job in the checks and balances system. While this is gives the Court a large amount of power, that power has not always been as strong. 

    When our country began, the Supreme Court held little to no power compared to Congress or the Presidency. It was Chief Justice John Marshall that put the court on the map as the only branch that could interpret the Constitution and say what is constitutional and what is not. Judicial Review brought more respect, dignity, and power to the members of the Supreme Court, establishing their utmost importance in our political system. However, the court has made rulings in the past that limited their power for a time. In the incredibly controversial court case Dred Scott v. Sanford, the court ruled that black people could not be citizens and therefor had no rights. The case not only weakened the courts powers at the time, but remains a racist stain in the good reputation of the Judicial Branch even today. 

    We currently have a total of nine Justices in the Supreme Court, each with their own opinions and principles. Even though they are different, they all must work together for the good of the people of this nation. Without their hard work, we would not have as many liberties as we do today, because it is the role of the Supreme Court to amend the Constitution if necessary. 

Blog Post #1: My news sources

    I get news about what is happening in the world from a multitude of places, some of which are reliable. So, here's my list:

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
    When ever I am home with my family, we always watch the Nightly News. I grew up watching Brian Williams every night and still remember how upset I was when they took him off the show. I will say though, Lester Holt filled the position incredibly well and I actually prefer him now.

Instagram
    It sounds bad, but I usually find out about big news events on Instagram pages and then go research more into them on the internet. I would put a specific account, but there really isn't one. Many of the accounts I follow will post about what is happening in the world around us, and I usually like to fact check their information before I blindly believe it, there is also nowhere in specific I would fact check the information beyond just Googling it.

Yahoo Finance 
    I like to keep up with the stock market from time to time and I have used a fair share of sites that share information, but I find myself liking Yahoo Finance's format the most. I started using the site when I entered the stock market game in a class I had a school and I quickly found myself checking the stock market news more than the world news. However, since the stock market is impacted by the world's news, I can usually get some useful information.

NBC News: Stay Tuned Snapchat story
    I use to use Snapchat's "news" section a lot more than I do now. I never really trusted any of the information and I mostly would just check there to laugh at how dumb the stories were or how bad the clickbait was. The one story I somewhat trusted was NBC's story which was basically the same news on Nightly News, but much shorter and less information.

CNN
    I do not like CNN. I think they are too biased and focus too much on one story at times when they could be reporting more pressing matters. With that said, I do find myself finding out about news fairly often on CNN simply because of how popular it is. While I would say I am fairly moderate, my political views do lean slightly to the left. With the modern and technological era we live in, I have a suspicion that there's some algorithm that figured this out and gives me notifications from CNN frequently.