Reading List: Unit on Politics in America

What do Americans Think About Their Government?

Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government (Overview)
Pew Research Center   11.23.15

Who Votes?  Who Doesn't?  And Does it Matter?

Kentucky, Beacon for Health Law, Now a Lab for its Retreat
 New York Times 11.27.15

Political Polling 

Are Polls Ruining Democracy?
New Yorker 11.16.15

The Front-Runner Fallacy
The Atlantic  12.2015

Buying Power 

A Wealthy Governor and His Friends are Remaking Illinois
 New York Times 11.29.15


The Families Funding the 2016 Presidential Election 
New York Times 10.10.15

Mass Incarceration

In the wake of our study of The New Jim Crow, I will link here to various articles on mass incarceration.

The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration 

The Atlantic     by Ta-Nehisi Coates  

Baltimore police respond to a call at the Gilmor Homes, where Freddie Gray was arrested before sustaining a fatal spinal injury in April while in police custody. July 28, 2015. (Greg Kahn)

Mass Incarceration:  The Silence of the Judges
New York Review of Books     by Jed Rakoff

Iran's influence in Iraq grows as Tikrit fight ousts militants

Iraqi security forces and Iranian-trained militias have been fighting ISIS in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit for control of the city, and the militias seem to be winning the battle. However, this brings other issues to the forefront. The Iraqi government, led by Haider al-Abadi, is unwilling to accept military aid from Sunni tribes in the conflict with the Islamic State, and they turn to the aid of Ayatollah Khamenei to fight the militants. There is a feeling that Iraq is "what they could not do in the 1980s they have done now with American help, which is enslave Iraq." One Iraqi Sunni leader said that "the Persians have become a cancer to Iraq." As the conflict goes on, propaganda posters dedicated to Iranian generals and Ayatollah Khamenei are being put up around Baghdad as it enters more into Iran's sphere of influence. Sunnis feel that the separation between them and the Shiites has not changed much, and there is no mutual trust.

This article in the Sacramento Bee does have a small bias against the Iranian support of Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State. Interviews shown in the article all speak of the problem from the Sunni perspective, not showing any reasoning that Iranians or Shiite Iraqis give for teaming up against ISIS. Iran is depicted by the article as trying to take over Iraq influentially. However, the article does do a good job of depicting the stressful conflict still going on in Iraq with militants that have taken over whole cities.

Some questions that could be raised about the conflict are:
1.What is the reason for Iranian assistance in Tikrit?
2. Are the Sunnis actually fully barred from assisting in the conflict?
3. Does Iran seek influence in Iraq?

Global Warming/Energy Links

As we prepare for our first class UN conference, I will post here useful links and articles on our conference topic, Global Warming and the Energy Future.

First, here is the remarkable Guardian announcement from last week:

Climate change: why the Guardian is putting threat to Earth front and centre

 

In the above piece, the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, references Bill McKibben's 2012 article in Rolling Stone, Global Warming's Terrifying New Math.  Hard copies were handed out in class. The link is here.

 

Supreme Court Slides

Supreme Court lecture notes here.

Slides from Recent Lectures

I promised to post the slide decks from our recent class lectures.

Money Talks: Campaign Finance 

Campaign Finance and Special Interests

Congress: The Basics

The President and Executive Branch

Electoral College by CPG Grey (below)

 

Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone?

Here is Lee Fang's important article in the Nation from earlier this year explaining why Washington DC lobbyists are de-registering and moving their influence peddling underground:

Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone?

On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding into Washington, DC, like never before. What’s going on?

MLA Sample Title Page

Here is a sample title page from the Purdue Online Writing Lab.   You are to follow this style for  your term paper.  Repeat: This style.  No cover page!   Please refer to the Purdue site, as necessary.

Sample Works Cited Page

For my term paper writers, check out link below:

Purdue University Online Writing Lab: Sample Works Cited MLA

Room 202:   Halloween and Dia de los Muertos 2014

Painting Oscar

The Artists and their Masterpiece

Xavier and Maren

 

Matea

Athena and Desiree

Athena

Mateo

The Atlantic: How to Make a Hit Song About Ebola

Nearly half the population of Liberia is under age 18.  Approximately 40% of Liberians can't read.  These are daunting barriers to educating citizens against the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.  As this piece from The Atlantic explains, the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in collaboration with HOT FM 107.9 Liberia and UNICEF, is working with local musicians to write and produce songs about Ebola prevention for popular television and radio airplay.
.
Listen to one of the most popular songs in Liberia today:

Hott FM Liberia Ebola Song: "Ebola is Real"

Geography Students: US States

Quiz yourself in preparation for our test on Monday:  I Like 2 Learn U.S. States Quiz

Politics and the English Language

Periods 5 and 6 read George Orwell's Politics and the English Language this week.  The essay is an appropriate starting point for our study of government and politics because it focuses on language and writing, specifically how the modern decadence of our language is both a cause and effect of our corrupted thoughts.    Political language is especially important because, as Orwell, argues,  "(i)n our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer."

And when language suffers, so does thought.

Orwell tells us that fight against bad English is a noble one and a starting point to some improvement "to our present political chaos."    In the pursuit of that cause, students brought to class today examples of slovenliness of language that may be a result of our foolish thoughts and a source of them.  We discussed each.  Take a look.

Euphemisms; "words and meaning part(ing) company," "defense of the indefensible"

"Necessary Show of Force"
                (Reference to Israel's bombing of Gaza and killing of civilians, including children, made by former Israeli defense official, Michael  Herzog, in the Guardian in July 2014.)
                                                                                               ~ Syeda H.

"Enhanced interrogation techniques"
                  (term first emerged during George W. Bush Admin: treatment of prisoners...torture)
                                                                                               ~ Simon M-P.

"Already allies are flying planes with us over Iraq."
                   (President Obama avoiding phrases that sound like war in speech on ISIL 9/10/14)
                                                                                              ~ Ethan A.

Obama Administration not using term ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) but ISIL (Islamic State in the Levant)
                                                                                             ~ Mercedes P-E and Heidi A.

"Self-deportation"
                  (Mitt Romney Republican debate regarding undocumented  immigrants, 2012)
                                                                                             ~ LJ

 "If you threaten America, you will not find a safe haven."
                  (Obama, ISIL Speech 9/10/14)
                                                                                             ~  Sandy V. and Julie X.

"Operation Rolling Thunder"
                  (Vietnam War: three years of intense bombing of North Vietnam)

                                                                                             ~ Noah T.
"Ethnic Cleansing"
                                                                                            ~ Leo M.

"They have no vision, but to kill."
                   (President Obama's ISIL speech)
                                                                                           ~ Riley W.

"...America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat."
                  (President Obama's ISIL speech...so what countries are part of this coalition?)
                                                                                           ~ Jennai W. and Ryan T.
"Death with Dignity."
                                                                                          ~ Kariya L.

"Change we can believe in"
                                                                                           ~ Yami U.,  Tiera F.

"The U.S. has to stop this widespread threat like cancer."
                    (President Obama's ISIL speech)
                                                                                           ~ Chanel A.

 "Stale" metaphors, similes and idioms

"I want to spend some time, even as we're getting all our ducks in a row, for the executive action."
                   "  (President Obama on ISIL)
                                                                                             ~ Vereniki L.

 "fly in the face of danger..."
                   (President Obama ISIL speech 9/10/14)
                                                                                               ~ Gina L.

"boots on the ground"
                                                                                              ~ Mickenzie M.

"air campaign"
                                                                                              ~ Mickenzie M.

Student, Kali A. brought in a series of statements by Ferguson, MO Chief of Police Jackson foisting responsibility off on the media for his release of two store videos suggesting that Michael Brown may have been involved in a store robbery before being shot and killed by police.  Jackson later admitted that the circumstances on the tape, whatever they were, had no connection to the police shooting of Brown.

"(L)ack of precision...vagueness and sheer incompetence..," "hackneyed" phrases, "meaningless words," appeals to emotion

"Believe in America"
                  (name of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's economic growth/jobs plan)
                                                                                                 ~ Anna H.

"Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was likely struck by multiple high energy objects from outside the aircraft, causing it to break up over eastern Ukraine, a preliminary report into the deadly aviation disaster concluded Tuesday."
                   (Yahoo News July 2014)
                                                                                                 ~ Martin V.

"Here We Stay" "Here We Roar" "Here We Play"
               (public opinion campaign to keep the Kings pro-basketball team in Sac and with that fund a new arena ...always hinting that not true Sacramentan if you don't support the Kings)
                                                                                                ~ Alex P.

"I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are..."
                (President Obama's ISIL speech...from Nancy L.: "this will never end! How will you know when you've hunted down every terrorist? )
                                                                                               ~ Nancy L.

"...USA meeting them (ISIL) with strength and resolve."
                 (President Obama's ISIL speech)
                                                                                              ~   Alex S.

"This is American leadership at its best."
                  (President Obama's ISIL speech)
                                                                                              ~ Christopher I. 

"Substantial counterterrorism capabilities."
                    (President Obama's ISIL speech)
                                                                                               ~ Sue T.

"It is very difficult, practically impossible, to fight against the will of the people."
                    (Vladimir Putin)
                                                                                              ~  Aidan F.

"American power can make a decisive difference, but we cannot do for Iraqis what they must do for themselves, nor can we take the place of Arab partners in securing the region."
                                                                                               ~ Jessica P.

                                               

Stop and Seize: How Aggressive Policing is Taking the Property of Those Never Charged with Crimes

Many of you in periods 5 and 6 read The New Jim Crow this summer.  Here are two must-read and watch pieces that underscore and illustrate even more acutely the use and impact of asset seizure and forfeiture as explained by author Michelle Alexander in Chapter 2, "The Lockdown." 

The Washington Post, with a blockbuster multi-part investigation into police asset forfeiture practices:
Stop and Seize

CNN on police and prosecutors taking family homes:
Parents' House Seized After Son's Drug Bust

I want all of you to check these out because we will use in class in conjunction with our study the Bill of Rights and Civil Liberties.   You may start leaving comments here, if you wish.  

Ferguson Readings

                                 Photo: Scott Olson, Getty

Here is a very incomplete list of thought-provoking articles on the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the protests as a result and the militarization of local policy forces.


Mariame Kaba with a commentary in the Washington Post:
For Blacks, America is Dangerous by Default 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes, THAT Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) writing in Time:
The Coming Race War Won't be About Race


Alex Kane writing for BillMoyers.com:
Not Just Ferguson: 11 Eye-Opening Facts About America's Militarized Police Forces

Local Writer Mark Paul on the California Fix blog:
Assault Rifles and Ice Buckets


Davis, CA:
Davis City Council Calls for Alternatives to Military Armored Vehicle

Fascinating background here on the federal program ("1033") that makes surplus military equipment available to local police departments:  Staff report to the Davis City Council on the Police Dept Acquisition of a Surplus Military Armored Vehicle via the 1033 Program

More to come...

Ferguson, Missouri

The New Yorker's cover for the week we return to school,  Eric Drooker's "Ferguson, Missouri."

 “An artist friend of mine was killed by a cop in lower Manhattan, back in 1991. He happened to be black, and the police officer was never indicted.” Drooker continues, “As a resident of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I witnessed the blurring distinctions between the police and military during the Tompkins Square riots of the eighties. I’ll never forget the day the N.Y.P.D. showed up in a military tank to evict nonviolent squatter friends from buildings on Avenue B and Thirteenth Street, where I grew up.."

More on Drooker's cover art here.

Ferguson will indeed inform much of what we study throughout the year.  I will be posting links to a variety of articles and commentaries.  This blog will be one platform we use to think, share, challenge, learn...and...well, who knows what else?

See you in one week.

AP U.S. Government Summer Reading (Periods 5 and 6)

Summer reading assignment for all AP US Govt students (non-HISP) who will be in my classes next year is available here.

 

Afghanistan: A Photographer's Legacy

Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was killed in Afghanistan 
on Friday, apparently gunned down by an Afghan policeman.  She and Kathy Gannon, a Canadian journalist, were shot while traveling in a government convey as they covered preparations for the Afghanistan presidential election on Saturday.  Gannon was wounded and is in stable condition.   Niedringhaus was a Pulitzer Prize winner for her work covering the Iraq war and was a veteran in the region.   One of my favorite of her photos is this, a shot of a father with his five kids paying to enter a Kabul park.  It was taken in 2013.   Remarkable.   See more of her work here.

United Arab Emirates: there's an app for that

The United Arab Emirates has launched the first-ever smart government app store. In conjunction with Google and Apple, local and federal governments have created over 100 apps to serve around 700 people at a time in one location.

The plan is for the UAE to transition to smart government by the middle of 2015, only a little over a year from now. The apps are "characterised by reliability, security, maintenance of government transactions’ data for individuals and businesses, as well as reliability." It offers apps from organizations providing electricity and water, roads and transport, public transportation etc.

The UAE is transitioning into the future, taking advantage of the ways people interact with their world on a daily basis. Is this the end of government bureaucracy? Will citizens of the future interact with their government not through snail mail, endless phone menus and "phone tag", but through intuitive, efficient, speedy apps? Or will this turn out to be massive failure and risk to thousands of people's privacy and information? 

We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, governments worldwide continue to stagger under their own weight, with minimal efficiency and little benefit to the their citizens. The technology we have available today, like apps and app stores, wifi and powerful operating systems, would allow us to streamline services to get them out to people that need them, making those on Medicaid, Medical, food stamps, and veterans not have to wait for months and months to get the services they need. 

If so many technological innovations can be utilized to help the people that need helping, why aren't we taking advantage of them?

It's A Sad World, Sadly

      Writer T.M. Luhrmann recently visited India to find that Depression is slowly taking over the country, and possibly the world. The majority of people in India used to view the topic of depression and suicide as taboo, but many are bringing it up more and more as it is becoming more relevant. A lot of young people are finding when something goes majorly wrong in their life, suicide seems to be a logical way out. Many Indians are debating whether there are higher suicide and depression rates or if people are just talking about the subjects more. One thing that is known for sure is that help for people with mental illnesses has gone up over the past ten years in India, and around the world. On a larger scale, studies have found that the suicide rate has risen 60% over the past 50 years, and that depression will be the second highest medical condition by the year 2020. Many attribute the rising rates to the fact that 50% of the world's population live in cities and media, such as Facebook and TV are showing people what they can't or don't have. People see how other people are living and what they're saying, and automatically compare themselves, leading them to appreciate their lives less and not value being in the moment.
After reading this article, I was struck by how much the suicide rate has risen over the recent years. It wasn't that surprising, however, to learn that depression has gone up. It may sound silly to say I never  thought of depression going completely hand-in-hand with suicide, I always thought of course that depression leads to suicide, but I guess I thought there were a lot of other paths people took to cope with their extreme sadness. It seems that if people aren't taking anti-depressants, their other main course of action in suicide nowadays. It makes sense that people would compare their lives with the lives of others through Facebook and TV, and such, but to think that this would lead all the way to depression and suicide is truly concerning. What I also found very interesting about the article was how people in India, and around the world, are talking about depression and suicide more, yet the rate of both is going steadily up. I would think that if people felt more comfortable about discussing the topics they wouldn't be occurring as much, but I guess people feel less guilty and afraid about the effects of suicide now that it is a huge topic for discussion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/opinion/a-great-depression.html?_r=0