Monday- Went over forum posts for this week. One of them is about a new reporter and camera-man being killed on camera by a man that used to work for them but got fired. We started looking over the map of Canada. Quebec is the only province that speaks French. Quebec is afraid that the Canadian-American language is going to dilute their French heritage and language. Canada and Britain are very closely tied. The Official Head of State of Canada is the Queen of England, Elizabeth. Australia doesn't have any political power either. The Canadians say "eh" a lot. Justin Bieber is from Canada. To remember some of the provinces you can use "BASMOQ" (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec). Turkey is a close ally of ours.
Isis or Isil- (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/The Levant) They have a lot of money. They promise things like cars wives and other expensive products or ideals. They take money from banks and have organized crimes. They promise all these things, AND FOLLOW THROUGH WITH IT. To some people this can look way better than their current situation. Some girls have even tried and gone to join so they can have a husband that's a Isis fighter.
Islam- Mohammad was the founder of Islam. Islam believes in Jesus but they thought he was a prophet. Islam practices peace. Radical Islam are people that buy into the radical ideology that they think Islam is. Islamic Radicals have high-jacked Islam. Muslims are people who practice Islam. The Islamic World is mostly in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and the country in the world that has the most people practicing Islam is Indonesia.
Why Join?
There aren't any good paying jobs. Most of the time it's oil jobs. Who controls oil, what do you do? There aren't many opportunities for jobs. Therefore people turn to terrorist groups.
- President Bush started the war in Iraq because he believed that they were hiding nuclear weapons. They didn't find anything, so President Bush was heavily criticized.
Why is Isis destroying ancient artifacts?
Isis says that God says to destroy these artifacts because people earlier were worshiping them instead of Him. These artifacts that are hundreds and hundreds of years old are being destroyed and if not destroyed are sold on the black market for lots of money. They also destroy them because they want to destroy hope for the future, and "it goes against the Islamic Religion".
Immigration- This is a hot topic right now. It affects everyone. Some say they should stay. These people don't like saying Illegal Immigrants, but say Undocumented instead. The politically correct name would be Undocumented. There are roughly eleven million undocumented workers in the United States right now. The vast majority come from Mexico and Central America, but there are even some from Canada. Donald Trump says they should go back and enter the right way. He is also calling for a wall on the Mexican-American border and tougher border patrol. Others say that law-breakers should be sent back but contributors to the society should and could register and be given a green card to stay for three years so they can work for their citizenship. Basically they're saying to focus on the bad ones and send them back.
Tuesday- We went over and read through the map of Canada in class.
Birthright Citizenship- If you are born in the United States you are a citizen of the United States.
Anchor Baby- A baby born in the United States and the parents are illegal immigrants. This title helps the immigrant get to the top of the list to become citizens of the United States. It helps you stay here because you have a baby that's a US citizen. Plus, it is possible you'd have to wait up to 20 years normally to become a US Citizen. It takes a very long time to become a citizen legally.
- Lots of people running in election don't go for the topic about illegal immigration. This is because they will most likely lose voters because they are saying they need to get read of all the Undocumented.
- Hispanics mostly vote for democrats because they are more likely to compromise about illegal immigration.
The Confederate Flag
The Confederate flag is in trouble right now, especially in South Carolina. Now people think this flag should come down because it show "racism". One side thinks that this flag promotes slavery, but the side that wants to fly it says it promotes their heritage. South Carolina's capitol building flew the Confederate flag up until about a couple of weeks ago.
- This is a lot like some of the football team mascots. For instance, the Washington Redskins. These mascots offend some of the people of this heritage. A lot of groups say we're giving these groups credit for all they did in history, not make them look bad. However, if it offends small groups, in our country today, you will most likely see change.
They even took "The Dukes of Hazard" of TV because the Confederate flag was painted on top of one of the main vehicles, "The General Lee".
Same-Sex Marriage
This is now allowed in all 50 states. The only two ways to make it illegal now is through the supreme court, if they come back and over-rule their decision. Also, it was a 5-4 decision, which is very close. The second way is if they make a constitutional amendment. This is great for some people but others aren't very happy about it. This was very big news this summer.
Other Countries that allow Same-Sex Marriage: Europe, Canada, New Zealand, some South American countries, some states in Mexico, etc. The Netherlands was the first country to allow Same-Sex Marriage.
China and North Korea won't allow it because of Communists. Also, Islam is very strict about homosexuality, and sometimes the Christian religion too.
More people support this movement than oppose it.
What is the tallest point in the United States?
Mount McKinley!
However, now it has been renamed. The tallest point in the United States is now called Denali. This is supposedly because most of the locals originally called it Denali, and President Obama didn't want to argue with them so he changed it. Ohio isn't happy about this because they think it's part of history and it was originally named after President William McKinley.
Auschwitz-
This is known as probably the most infamous death camp from the Nazi Era and is now a museum. This summer there was a major heat-wave, so part of management decided to put mist showers in the entrance before you walk in. It was a bad idea with good intentions because most people were offended. It reminds them of the horrors that actually happened when this death camp was running.
Japan-
Japan has had major suicide rates lately. Right now, it's the leading cause of death in children. September 1st has had the largest amounts of suicides. This is the date that school starts in Japan. There is a lot of pressure for Japanese students to do well in school, so lots of students commit suicide to get rid of his problem.
Wednesday- We went over the map of Canada several times.
Politics-
Scott Walker said that 12 states will elect the next president. This is because of how many people you have in Congress. The Electoral Congress is how the United States chooses/votes the next president. You need 270 votes to win. But this is not what Scott meant. Scott was talking about swing states. For example, the New England States are very important. Swing states are states that could go either way. California almost always votes democratic, and Texas almost always votes republican. Florida is also kind of a swing state. In 2000, Florida was basically the state that made the final decision. Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio(this one is important), North Carolina(also important), Wisconsin, and Colorado are also swing states. The really important ones are Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina. This is where most of people running spend time working with and visiting. The Southeast usually goes republican. The Great Lakes States usually go democratic. Most of the votes depend on population. Republicans do better with the countryside counties and the Democrats usually do better with the big cities. This is kind of because of religion. This is why democrats lots of time wins. Young people trend to vote democratic. Also, women and black people tend to vote more democratic. This is because democrats work more with people rights. There are lots of third parties in the United States. These are parties other than the Democratic party and the Republican party. These parties have a very tiny chance of winning a presidential election. Donald Trump is considering of running as a third party. Third parties have better chances with smaller elections. Trump knows that if he runs as a third party there is probably no way he is going to win.
North Korea: One of the five communist countries in the world today. It is a stringent country. The leader is Kim Jong Un. We've been enemies with North Korea ever since the Korean War. North Korea is a major problem for us because they are one of the countries that have nuclear weapons. They aren't supposed to have nuclear weapons. Every once in a while North Korea does something to irritate South Korea. If North Korea attacks South Korea we will come to help and North Korea won't stand a chance. North Korea is a major threat to our allies like Japan.
Thursday- We took the class Canada map test and got a 10/10.
Labor Day:
After the Industrial Revolution jobs were multiplying and people started making and joining Labor Unions. On Tuesday, September 5th, 1882 tons of workers in New York marched to legalize the labor day holiday and for eight hour work days. Cleveland signed a bill to make Labor Day a national holiday to appease the people after rail workers went on strike and two were killed.
Refugees from Syria Dying-
Lots of people from Syria are trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to safety. The number of deaths this year is more than 2,600. More than 350,000 people have made it to safety in Europe trying to get away. A whole truckload of refugees have died, and others have died from boat fumes while trying to cross. People have also been falling off ships and their bodies are washing up on shore. This is a really bad situation. These people are also dying because they can't get food and they're on the ships for long amounts of time.
Politics-
The vast majority of Americans are right in the middle with liberal (more democrat) at the left end and very conservative (more republican) at the right end. There is the Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant. We signed out third parties and are going to do research on them. Teddy Roosevelt was probably the best third party runner we've ever had. Most people that run in a third party just want to get their word and point out because they know they're not really going to win. There are three mid-major parties. These mid-major parties are the Libertarian, the Green, and the Constitution. I was given the Socialist Workers party.
The Socialist Workers Party-
- The current chairman is Jack Barnes.
- It was founded in 1938.
- It's ideology is Communism, Marxism(The Theories of Karl Marx and the practice of Communism), and Castroism(Theories of Fidel Castro)
- Fidel Castro is a Cuban politician and revolutionary. He was a Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959-1976.
- This group is extremely supportive of Cuba.
- They aid strikes.
- Their color is red.
- They have a newspaper called "The Militant". (Weekly Newspaper that dates back to 1928)
- The political position of this group is the far left.
- Focused on workers' rights
Friday- We went over the Canada map.
Tom Brady-
He got in trouble with the rules in the NFL. There were suspected texts, and Brady actually destroyed his phone. He got a four game suspension for a while. However, then it was taken away. The league has filed an appeal, but as of now Tom Brady will be back on the field. This is good news or bad news depending on your opinions.
U.S. Economy-
Unemployment Rate: People who don't have jobs and aren't seeking jobs for a certain amount of time. This is always one of the biggest indicators of how the economy is doing.
Today we have hit the lowest unemployment rate in a long time: 5.1%
President Busch bailed out the biggest banks of the United States because they were going to go under unless they weren't bailed out. This happened because they gave out too many loans, and they weren't doing good background checks. His philosophy would actually say that when you make a mistake as a business, you should shut down and close. If you're not good at business, you shouldn't be in business. But President Busch said he couldn't let this huge banks fail, it would lead the whole economy to devastation.
The worst unemployment rate in the U.S. was during the Great Depression, and it was 25%. It took years to climb out of that depression.
It helps the economy when people have jobs because then they spend money and companies make money so they can give out more jobs. But this can also go the opposite way.
Donald Trump
He is leading the presidential election polls bigger than he ever has before. He also decided that he is not going to run as a third party, he is going to try and run for the Republican nomination. So he is either going to get the nomination, or drop out.
Comments
Excellent job!