1. Situation/Conflict with US and North Korea:
North Korea is a communist country. In 1993, North Korea announced their withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. A year later, the US and North Korea signed a deal where the US would help build 2 nuclear power reactors. In 2009, North Korea launched 2 missiles and in February of 2013, they launched another nuclear missile. There is a basketball player, Dennis Rodman, who is friends with Kim Jong Un. Kim Jung Un came from a line of North Korean rulers. His grandfather, Kim ill Sung, ruled first, and then came Un’s father, Kim Jong ill. Rodman came up with basketball diplomacy, which is where basketball players go over to different countries just to play basketball. Right now, there is a man from the United States that is held in the North Korean prison for "practicing religion". His name is Kenneth Bae. We, as a nation, have tried to free him, but so far, he is still in jail. In North Korea, there is no type of religion, and if the army finds anyone who practices religion will be either thrown in jail or killed.
2. Main economic and political systems:
Capitalism is business and their owners make products in order to make a profit. The practice of communism is a system of government that one person or a group of people control everything in the country. The theory of communism is a government would control everything coming into the country so that no one could exceed other people, creating equality. Socialism is a sway of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies. Absolute Monarchy is where a king/queen has complete power of a country. Constitutional monarchy is where a king/queen who has powers limited by a constitution. Direct Democracy is a form of government where the people that actually want to participate, have the power to decide for them what they want the government to do. Representative Democracy is a form of government where people are elected by the people to make laws for us. Dictatorship is when one person or a small group takes full control of all the people in the country. Anarchy is the absences of a government. Oligarchy is a form of government in which a small group of people have control.
3. Income inequality:
It doesn’t matter on what race you are, it matters on how much money you make. Some people start out bad, and they aren’t given any opportunities. Education is the ticket out of poverty. Brazil is the most unorganized country in the world. Their give cash payments to families of their children go to school. Australia pays their workers $15 an hour and college and health care are free in Denmark. Women get 10 paid paternity weeks in Norway. The gap between rich and poor is small; if you want the “American Dream” go to Denmark. The rich people are being hated because they are rich. Money is slipping through the fingers of people who actually need money. The rich stays rich and the poor stays poor. When someone is born into either richness, or poorness, they would stay that. High-educated people marry other high-educated people, making the people who have less education harder to move up the ladder. It’s hard for low-income Americans to become highly-educated because college is getting expensive. We need to break down the social barriers, meaning the poor and rich people need to be integrated. We also need to unify the public schools. There doesn't need to be many schools in one area, we can just combine them. Also, we need to raise the minimum wage. It’s impossible to live off of minimum wage when adjusted for inflation. We need to tax the rich at a reasonable rate. It could help out the lower class people. Richer people need to give money to the poor.
4. Difference between democrats and republicans:
In the case of abortion, the Democrats believe that it is the mother’s choice in deciding if she wants to have the child or not. The Republicans believe that the mother should not have an abortion no matter what. With gun control, Democrats believe that there should be more laws for it, and the Republicans want fewer laws. In the topic of education, the Democrats want to have an education system that follows President Obama’s plan. The Republicans believe that it should stay the same. In the environment, the Democrats want to stop all the cut downs of trees and deforestation. However the Republicans want to continue polluting the air and cutting of the trees. Both Democratic and Republican parties are pro-immigration, but the Republicans are against illegal immigration. The Democrats want to decrease the military spending and the Republicans want to increase military spending. The Republicans want to make marijuana legal and the Democrats want to make it illegal. Republicans say that having the death penalty legal, it would save money to tax payers. The Democrats say that we would have to pay for each death if we had it, so they believe we shouldn't have the death penalty. The Republicans think that it’s the person’s right if they want healthcare, or not. The Democrats want to use Obamacare for healthcare. The Democrats believe that gay marriage should be legal because everyone deserves equal rights, but the Republicans believe that it shouldn't be legal because it’s against the bible. Republicans want to help people by lowering taxes. The Democrats want to make taxes higher for the high people so they pay for public programs. Teachers shouldn't be enforcing prayer in school; the Democrats believe that it’s fine to be a part of a religion. The Republicans however, believe that people can do whatever they want to do.
Basically, whatever the Democrats would believe, the Republicans would be opposite of them.
5. US diplomacy/foreign affairs:
George Washington said in his Farewell Address that we should stay out of foreign affairs. That it could end up in war, if we dealt with other countries. We were more worried about moving forward instead of trying to control Africa or some other country. That's why we wrote the Manifest Destiny. Later on, the United States were trying to build up our government, and trying to fix issues with Great Britain. We wanted to protect Latin America from the other powerful counties in Europe. The Monroe Doctrine makes it official that the European countries can't take the Latin American countries. The Civil War lasted from 1861-1865. The reason that it started was because the southern states wanted to have slavery, but the northern states did not. So the south would try to become its own country. President Abraham Lincoln didn't want to lose the states so he tried everything that he could so that the south would stay with the United States. The north won the war, and the south had to give up slavery and stay with the United States. In the Era of Imperialism is when the bigger, more powerful countries would take over the smaller, weaker countries. Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia were the most powerful countries in the late 1800's.The countries that were starting to become powerful were the United States, and Japan. Spain, Italy, Ottoman Empire, and the Austria-Hungarian Empire were the countries that were losing power. The only focus in Europe at the time was on Africa. The reason why World War 1 started was because of the death of the Austria-Hungarian King Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The treaty of Versailles was what officially ended the war. It was signed at the Paris Peace Conference, and the United States didn't sign it. Because of that, Germany lost land, and their military was dismantled, plus they had to pay $33 billion. When the U.S. was in the Great Depression, we tried to stay out of any conflicts with other countries. Japan invaded China to start WWII and attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. Then Hitler invaded Poland. U.S. and Soviet Union were the superpowers after WWII.
6. Articles and Amendments of the Constitution:
Article 1 sets up the legislative branch of government. Article 2 sets up the executive branch. Article 3 sets up the judiciary system. Article 4 is about the state power. In article 5, there needs to be a 2/3 vote in the Senate and House and 3/4 of the state’s vote to add/get rid of/change the amendments. Article 6 establishes the Constitution being the supreme law of the land. Article 7 ratifies the United States. The 1st Amendment talks about the different types of freedoms people have. 2nd Amendment is the right to bear arms and maintain militia. 3rd Amendment is no quartering the soldiers in people's homes. 4th Amendment is no unreasonable search and seizure. 5th Amendment is the right to a Grand Jury. 6th Amendment is criminal prosecution. 7th Amendment is common law suits. 8th Amendment is no excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment not allowed. 9th Amendment is citizens are entitled to rights not listed in the Constitution. 10th Amendment is the states have their own power. 11th Amendment is a citizen of one state can't sue the government of another state. 12th Amendment is the Electoral College has separate ballots for President and Vice President. 13th Amendment abolishes slavery. 14th Amendment says that anyone born in the US is a citizen. 15th Amendment is about voting rights that aren't denied to people of different race or color. 16th Amendment is the federal government can tax our income. 17th Amendment is the people directly elect their senators. 18th Amendment prohibits the sale of alcohol. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. The 20th Amendment moved the presidential/inauguration date form the month of March to January 20th. The 21st Amendment ends the prohibition of alcohol, it is now legal. In the 22nd Amendment, it states that all presidents are now limited to 2 terms. In the 23rd Amendment citizens of Washington DC received the right to vote in the presidential elections. The 24th Amendment outlaws poll taxes. 25th Amendment outlines procedures for the succession to the presidency. The 26th Amendment gave 18 year olds the right to vote. 27th Amendment says that Congress can give them a pay raise.
7. Climate Change:
Republicans say that humans are not the ones who cause climate change. The sea ice has decreased almost 50% and the thickness of the ice has decreased by 50%. Droughts are one way many people have to deal with climate change. We are suspecting hotter temperatures later in the century and that are based on the stuff that we emit globally. With having unpredictable weather, we won’t be able to have the right technology for emergencies. For example, they people who don’t usually get hot, will be getting hot weather and have to run air conditioners and use more electricity, making it harder in that area to get electricity, and things would start to break down after constant use. Climate change threatens life by creating wildfires, bad air quality, sickness through food and other resources. Also buildings and cities are being compromised by extreme weather. Surface and groundwater are starting to become scarce because of the demand for water. The climate change makes an impact on the water cycle. Floods and droughts would intensify, and precipitation would also increase. The climate change would impact the agricultural business. Rain wouldn’t rain as much and when it would, it would downpour. It’s also impacted indigenous people’s traditions, fishing and their ways of farming. It puts some landscape changing species life endangered. Climate Change has major effects on social services, human health, also the planning, design, and construction of roads, buildings, and bridges.
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