My question to you would be who you think won the rap battles of the '90s and which is your favorite side?
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
West Vs. East Coast Rap Battles
The entire rap war between the West and East started out with members from NWA, Compton's Most Wanted, and DJ Quik went to New York where they didn't receive any recognition, unlike the New York artists who received recognition when they went out to LA. Another reason that this issue sprung out was that record labels from the East Coast wanted East Coast rappers to dress and rap like NWA since the NWA was more popular from a sales perspective. This would result in Tim Dog being frustrated to make a diss track called "F*ck Compton" where he took shots at the Compton's rap scene, which respectively started the East vs West Coast rap battles. But on the side, before Biggie blew up one of the most influential songs was Wutangs "Cream" which was their answer to the West Coast Dre's Chronic. After this, in 1995 the East Coast made it back to the top where Notorious BIG made headlines. During this time Tupac accused Biggie of trying to get a hit out on him. After this shooting Biggie denied the allegations of the shooting. But Tupac and the West Coast believed it was Biggie that did the shooting. After this event, Tupac signed with Death Row Records in which they made a single called "New York New York" which was accompanied with a music video in which Snoop Dog is kicking down New York buildings. In response to the song, Queens New York Duel and other New York Artists made a single called "LA LA" which called out the LA rappers. In response to this Tupac made a song called "Hit em Up" which is one of the greatest diss tracks of all time which roasted Biggie and his wife. Additionally, Junior Mafia and Mob D were called out on the track. There was also a lot of controversy behind Biggie and his wife since she was reported to be with Tupac during this time. Mob D responded with the single "Drop a Gem" on them which called shots on Tupac. But unfortunately, shortly afterward Tupac got killed in a driveby which caused Mob D to take the song of the radio as in respect for Tupac and his family. Then six months later the Notorious BIG was killed in a drive-by shooting. Throughout the Golden Age of Rap, songs gained a reputation with street elements rather than getting mainstream buzz which would forever change the rap game. The West vs East Coast rap battles are settled but it depends on who you ask but in summary, this revolutionized the rap game from the way that rappers talked about the street to the high life. In my personal opinion, I would say I like East Coast Rap by a short margin just because they got more gritty songs with artists such as Wutang, Nas, Biggie, and Mobb Deep.
Apollo 11
Space has been just scrapped as probes have been thrown into orbit by both the US and the USSR, in a competition of the worlds greatest superpower. During the height of the cold war, and attributing the de-escalation of the war, the moon landing was an important accomplishment that both nations wanted to have completed before the other. Probes sent into space like the Sputnik were just transmitting signals that could be picked up on radios, just to toy with the Americans.
This "game" of trying to be the first to do something was becoming a large part of the Cold war. Events like the "kitchen debate" showed that these nations were doing everything to try and spite each other. As Nixon was showing off the new invention of the color TV and seemed to Khrushchev that he was calling him out for having beet him in the race to get into orbit.
As similar events have been transpiring up to moon landing, it was important to know that the funds that were given to moon landing were just for research, but instead to prove that America had more muscle than the USSR. Before Apollo 11 there were many dry runs to check out if this was possible to get a man on the moon and back.
Apollo 7 the first manned mission was just to orbit the earth and collect the correct information that was needed for the moon journey and the moon landing. Apollo 8 was a manned trip that brought men to the back of the moon, and Apollo 9 was verifying the use of the lunar module while in Earth orbit. And the final dry run was Apollo 10 where they were going to go around the moon for the final run before the scheduled July landing mission.
Overall Apollo 11 was "one small step for man one giant leap for mankind" and proved that America was technologically the global superpower. This also soon marked the downfall of the USSR as it became apparent that capitalism was the better model to govern a nation.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html
Making of the Parental Advisory Sticker
The simple black and white logo sit on the bottom right-hand corner of the album. The logo has forever changed the music industry from Rock and Roll to the Hip Hop Industry. Even though it was introduced originally to the United States it's been adopted by different countries such as the United Kingdom in 2011. The label came from the melting pot year of 1985 where it originally came from Marry Gore bought the album Purple Rain by Prince for her daughter not knowing the explicit lyrics in the song. She was shocked by different kinds of media depicted on MTV which led her to co-found the Parents Music Resource Center. They then proceeded to make a filthy fifteen list of dirty songs which was made of pop and rock songs. This later turned into a debate on the 1st amendment and how this label infringed upon. Later on, the Parental Advisory Sticker was to be put on all albums with explicit lyrics. The PMRC made their own rating system which wasn't passed by the RIAA. This eventually went to the Senate where people from doctors to musicians showed to talk about the allegations presented in the court. Additionally, after this majority of the record labels put these labels on their records so they wouldn't be pressed with harsher laws. The label would create issues with record stores deciding if they wanted to have explicit albums in their store. This would limit the access of explicit album since big retailers wouldn't want to sell them which would make a more underground scene for explicit content. With this new label, a lot of artists would have to make clean versions of their songs just to sell them. But with this, the label made it more appealing for younger teens as they would want to get albums with the sticker on them which would make it cooler. Additionally, this turned into a marketing tool since musicians started to point out the label in their songs or intentionally put it on the cover. Eventually, the label would only serve a purpose of telling listeners their explicit content in the song which these days is every song. So at the end of the day, the label which was a sign of censorship failed in its attempts to stop explicit content reaching younger kids.
Common Things Invented for Military Use
After writing my post about the ARPANET and realizing that the inspiration of the Internet was originally created by the Department of Defense, I became interested in researching what other commonly used objects were invented for military use as well. What I found was that a wide variety of things were actually made for this purpose, some of which I expected but many of which surprised me. Here are a few of the most interesting ones.
1. GPS
As many people probably know, the GPS, or Global Positioning System, was a project originally launched by the Department of Defense in the 1960s, during the Cold War. After the launching of Sputnik, the idea of using a satellite-based navigation system was born, and experiments began. While it was not fully operational until 1995, it was launched for civilian use in 1996, and has now become so common that cars and phones come preprogrammed with GPS's of their own.
2. Microwaves
This is a fairly well-known one as well. During WWII, the US Army began using radar technology that was capable of releasing small waves of electromagnetic radiation that generates heat. In 1945, American engineer Percy Spencer discovered that the heat released by the waves was enough to raise the temperature of food, and subsequently developed the microwave oven. While they remained too large and expensive for the general consumer to use for the first few decades, by the 1970's they had become the common household appliance that we know and love today.
3. Silly Putty
After Japan had invaded Malaysia during WWII and had taken over all the major rubber-producing countries in the Pacific Rim, forcing the US to ration its rubber supply and to find a similar, more abundant product they could use instead. Through this, silly putty was born. Although it's widely disputed whether Earl Warrick or James Wright came up with the idea first, both men made a similar discovery: by creating a chemical reaction between boric acid and silicone oil, they could create a substance with properties very similar to those of rubber. However, it did not have all the necessary properties for it to replace rubber completely; instead, a toy store owner decided to market the putty as a toy, and thus was born the great invention of Silly Putty.
4. Aviator Sunglasses
While most commonly known as a modern fashion trend or what Tom Cruise wore in Top Gun, aviator sunglasses actually did originate as a military invention. In the 1930s, they were developed as an alternative to traditional flight goggles. Being lighter and thinner, they held many benefits over the classic goggles, plus they made the pilots look a lot cooler. Eventually, aviator sunglasses were trademarked as Ray Bans, and with that new name rose to the level of popularity that they enjoy today.
5. A lot of other stuff!
Duct tape, Jeeps, walkie-talkies, EpiPens, cargo pants, digital cameras... the list goes on! Many of today's most commonly used inventions were once used for the purpose of national defense. While few of these inventions still retain that purpose today, I personally find it very cool how much was actually first invented for use by the military.
PATCO Strike
Air traffic controllers have had a job that was necessary for keeping the nation running, they will direct flights to land intake off in airports all across the country. That is why in modern cases of government shutdowns, these people are still getting paid because of the necessity of their jobs. Some also say that the most recent government shutdown because of the Congress not wanting to pass the building of the wall, was stopped because Trump was not able to leave New York because of the traffic controllers were on strike.
This event was happening to Reagan in 1981 where the air traffic controllers noticed that they were necessary for millions of people to continue their daily lives and valued their work for more than they were getting paid. Because of this, they went on strike and nearly 1100 air traffic control workers were striking and a total of 7000 flights across the country were canceled during the height of the summer travel season.
Robert Poli, president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), wanted for the wage increase of the workers to increase by 10,000 dollars a year. This was a huge jump for the government to have to pay, as these workers before were getting paid anywhere from $20,462 to $49,229 a year. Thinking that Reagan could do nothing if the Air Traffic Controllers strike, he also asked for their five-day, 40-hour workweek to a four-day, 32-hour workweeks. Overall putting in less working and increasing the pay.
Robert Poli overestimated the power and resources of the US government. They were able to rally together 3,000 supervisors joined 2,000 nonstriking controllers and 900 military controllers. And with this low amount of staff flights were still able to take off and 80% of the flights were operating normally. Reagan wanted to show that government workers should not be asking for crazy wage increases and said to have "imposed a lifetime ban on rehiring the strikers". Through this entire affair, PATCO was decertified and it showed a huge change for how the government was going to treat labor unions.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-000-striking-air-traffic-controllers-aug-5-1981-241252
This event was happening to Reagan in 1981 where the air traffic controllers noticed that they were necessary for millions of people to continue their daily lives and valued their work for more than they were getting paid. Because of this, they went on strike and nearly 1100 air traffic control workers were striking and a total of 7000 flights across the country were canceled during the height of the summer travel season.
Robert Poli, president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), wanted for the wage increase of the workers to increase by 10,000 dollars a year. This was a huge jump for the government to have to pay, as these workers before were getting paid anywhere from $20,462 to $49,229 a year. Thinking that Reagan could do nothing if the Air Traffic Controllers strike, he also asked for their five-day, 40-hour workweek to a four-day, 32-hour workweeks. Overall putting in less working and increasing the pay.
Robert Poli overestimated the power and resources of the US government. They were able to rally together 3,000 supervisors joined 2,000 nonstriking controllers and 900 military controllers. And with this low amount of staff flights were still able to take off and 80% of the flights were operating normally. Reagan wanted to show that government workers should not be asking for crazy wage increases and said to have "imposed a lifetime ban on rehiring the strikers". Through this entire affair, PATCO was decertified and it showed a huge change for how the government was going to treat labor unions.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-000-striking-air-traffic-controllers-aug-5-1981-241252
Ok but was the moon landing fake?
On July 16th, 1969, nearly 50 years ago, America allegedly landed Apollo 11, carrying astronauts, on the moon. We've all see the videotapes of Neil Armstrong putting the American flag on the satellite, but the question remains- did it actually happen?
On Fox t.v., back in 2001, a documentary was produced, titled: Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?. The movie claimed that the moon landing was faked to win the space race back in '69. The documentary argued that there was no way that the Apollo missions could've made it past the Van Allen radiation belts, and that discrepancies in the photos and videos "taken on the moon" proved that the landing never actually happened.
In photos, no stars appear in the lunar sky, and wind appears to be rippling in the flag. Furthermore, there appears to be a reflection of a stagehand in an astronaut's visor, which supports that the moon landing was faked and the videos and photos were created in a studio. In response to theorists, NASA released images that show the landing sites of Apollo missions 11, 15, 16, and 17.
Theorists believe that a desperate JFK ordered NASA to create photos and videos proving that America landed on to moon in a desperate bid to evoke American pride, nationalism, and win the space race.
It's up to you to decide what is true and what is false, but it is a little suspicious that we no longer have the technology to send men to the moon- technology that was supposedly invented nearly 50 years ago.
On Fox t.v., back in 2001, a documentary was produced, titled: Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?. The movie claimed that the moon landing was faked to win the space race back in '69. The documentary argued that there was no way that the Apollo missions could've made it past the Van Allen radiation belts, and that discrepancies in the photos and videos "taken on the moon" proved that the landing never actually happened. In photos, no stars appear in the lunar sky, and wind appears to be rippling in the flag. Furthermore, there appears to be a reflection of a stagehand in an astronaut's visor, which supports that the moon landing was faked and the videos and photos were created in a studio. In response to theorists, NASA released images that show the landing sites of Apollo missions 11, 15, 16, and 17.Theorists believe that a desperate JFK ordered NASA to create photos and videos proving that America landed on to moon in a desperate bid to evoke American pride, nationalism, and win the space race.
It's up to you to decide what is true and what is false, but it is a little suspicious that we no longer have the technology to send men to the moon- technology that was supposedly invented nearly 50 years ago.
Remembering Marilyn Monroe
In a world increasingly fascinated with sexuality, Norma Jeane Mortenson must be rightfully credited as one of the first women to break such barriers. More famously known as Marilyn Monroe, many historians and biographers look at her life with pity; she suffered a lot of exploitation at the hands of directors, husbands, and affairs. But who was she? I want to celebrate her life today.
Monroe grew up with many shortcomings: she lived for the majority of her youth in the foster care system and first wed at 16 years old. Prior to her movie career, Monroe actually responded to the Rosie the Riveter posters, working in a radio plane factory towards the war effort. She met someone there who would start her modeling career, as her beauty was enough to get many jobs. Shortly after, she took on some minor film roles before resigning with Twentieth-Century Fox and becoming a more prominent figure in the industry. Her roles were relatively similar: she played the "dumb blonde" or the sexy star. Her sex appeal would bring her images to the front covers of Playboy editions, further solidifying her public perception.
As many Hollywood actors disappointedly face today, Monroe had become a typecast, upsetting her. Perhaps also a result of a difficult childhood, and her image and gender leading to men throwing her around (not that it was her fault in any way that some men are scum), Monroe suffered from depression, anxiety, and subsequent substance abuse. To cry for her feels wrong, however. Monroe was repeatedly noted to find herself angry or disappointed because people treated her like some thing, on whose life they were entitled to an opinion, that they knew who she was because all dumb blondes and sex icons were the same. She did not want to be analyzed as some manifestation of sexuality's controversy in that era... but perhaps that is me analyzing her desires, so bad on me. Marilyn Monroe would die of barbiturate overdose. It's true, her death represents the tragic result of the problematic gender roles perpetuated by the patriarchal society of the late twentieth century. But I think that more importantly, when we remember Norma Jeane Mortenson, we need to recall all that she was able to do, embracing her sexuality because she loved it, even if her audience thought to define her by it.
She was a sex icon, and that's pretty epic. Yet, above it all, and perhaps because of it, especially in that era, she was a role model.
Monroe grew up with many shortcomings: she lived for the majority of her youth in the foster care system and first wed at 16 years old. Prior to her movie career, Monroe actually responded to the Rosie the Riveter posters, working in a radio plane factory towards the war effort. She met someone there who would start her modeling career, as her beauty was enough to get many jobs. Shortly after, she took on some minor film roles before resigning with Twentieth-Century Fox and becoming a more prominent figure in the industry. Her roles were relatively similar: she played the "dumb blonde" or the sexy star. Her sex appeal would bring her images to the front covers of Playboy editions, further solidifying her public perception.
As many Hollywood actors disappointedly face today, Monroe had become a typecast, upsetting her. Perhaps also a result of a difficult childhood, and her image and gender leading to men throwing her around (not that it was her fault in any way that some men are scum), Monroe suffered from depression, anxiety, and subsequent substance abuse. To cry for her feels wrong, however. Monroe was repeatedly noted to find herself angry or disappointed because people treated her like some thing, on whose life they were entitled to an opinion, that they knew who she was because all dumb blondes and sex icons were the same. She did not want to be analyzed as some manifestation of sexuality's controversy in that era... but perhaps that is me analyzing her desires, so bad on me. Marilyn Monroe would die of barbiturate overdose. It's true, her death represents the tragic result of the problematic gender roles perpetuated by the patriarchal society of the late twentieth century. But I think that more importantly, when we remember Norma Jeane Mortenson, we need to recall all that she was able to do, embracing her sexuality because she loved it, even if her audience thought to define her by it.
She was a sex icon, and that's pretty epic. Yet, above it all, and perhaps because of it, especially in that era, she was a role model.
Treaty of Portsmouth
The Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905, which ended the Russo-Japanese War, gave President Theodore Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations. Its background is in the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905.
The dispute dates back until 1894, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, where the industrialized Japan went to war with the less less technologically advanced China over control of Korea. Germany, France, and Russia forced Japan to withdraw from the Liaodong Peninsula . Russia subsequently built the Port Arthur fortress and based its navy in the Peninsula, which was intended to be against the British, but Japan perceived it as an attack on them. Russia soon was able to consolidate their position in Port Arthur. After the Boxer Rebellion, Russian troops further fortified their position in Manchuria.
In 1904, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur, which was victorious. The British and Japanese intelligence had cooperated with the Japanese against the Russians. After a series of Japanese victories, with casualties and military costs high on both sides. In 1905, both sides wanted to end the war due to the high costs.
The Japanese asked President Roosevelt to negotiate a peace treaty, which was to be accomplished at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Roosevelt was concerned about the long-term impacts of Japan becoming too powerful as a military empire, so he wanted to maintain the balance of power in Asia. Consequently, he proposed that Russia “buy back” northern Sakhalin from Japan; however, Japan ended up not being paid. To Japan’s benefit, Japan attained control of Korea and some of Manchuria, significantly reducing Russian influence. Since both were in a difficult financial situation, Japan and Russia had to both compromise, leading to dissatisfaction on both sides. In Japan itself, many protests were held against the treaty and even sometimes America’s role in the terms.
Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating peace between the two countries; however, the extent of his influence is ambiguous, and it may have even been negative. Although American public opinion was in favor of the Japanese at the time, Japanese dissatisfaction with the treaty’s terms led to later hunger to further expand into Asia. Roosevelt’s terms temporarily stopped Japanese pursuits for a brief period; however, it may have been these very restrictions which led to further Japanese aggression and ultimately its role in World War II. On the other hand, the negotiation did establish the United States as a strong power in foreign relations, giving it the leverage to make significant decisions in the future.
The dispute dates back until 1894, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, where the industrialized Japan went to war with the less less technologically advanced China over control of Korea. Germany, France, and Russia forced Japan to withdraw from the Liaodong Peninsula . Russia subsequently built the Port Arthur fortress and based its navy in the Peninsula, which was intended to be against the British, but Japan perceived it as an attack on them. Russia soon was able to consolidate their position in Port Arthur. After the Boxer Rebellion, Russian troops further fortified their position in Manchuria.
In 1904, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur, which was victorious. The British and Japanese intelligence had cooperated with the Japanese against the Russians. After a series of Japanese victories, with casualties and military costs high on both sides. In 1905, both sides wanted to end the war due to the high costs.
The Japanese asked President Roosevelt to negotiate a peace treaty, which was to be accomplished at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Roosevelt was concerned about the long-term impacts of Japan becoming too powerful as a military empire, so he wanted to maintain the balance of power in Asia. Consequently, he proposed that Russia “buy back” northern Sakhalin from Japan; however, Japan ended up not being paid. To Japan’s benefit, Japan attained control of Korea and some of Manchuria, significantly reducing Russian influence. Since both were in a difficult financial situation, Japan and Russia had to both compromise, leading to dissatisfaction on both sides. In Japan itself, many protests were held against the treaty and even sometimes America’s role in the terms.
Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating peace between the two countries; however, the extent of his influence is ambiguous, and it may have even been negative. Although American public opinion was in favor of the Japanese at the time, Japanese dissatisfaction with the treaty’s terms led to later hunger to further expand into Asia. Roosevelt’s terms temporarily stopped Japanese pursuits for a brief period; however, it may have been these very restrictions which led to further Japanese aggression and ultimately its role in World War II. On the other hand, the negotiation did establish the United States as a strong power in foreign relations, giving it the leverage to make significant decisions in the future.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/portsmouth-treaty
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06bradley.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Portsmouth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War
The Rise of Hatred-Misunderstanding The Philosophy of Conservatism
The Rise of Hatred-Misunderstanding The Philosophies of the American Conservatism and Liberalism
In the Commonage, we live in a time when hyper communication along with access to all of the collective knowledge and information of every human being in history. This Revolution in technology education in many ways should have been a way to facilitate understanding of the two opposing philosophies as their doctrines and beliefs could be read and open to everyone. As we all know this did not occur and we live in a world disenfranchised with the establishment of the government and the establishment of the two parties which facilitate the organization of said government. Interestingly there are not calls for a true change of the party system or an actual shift of the status quo; instead entrenchment of the ideological nature of the two parties occured creating a roadblock for action. In this age, arguably the best age of all time to live, never before have so many had access to so much; We find ourselves divided and hating one another. Recent polls have seen feelings of division comparable to the division of the American civil war. This is also occurring at the same time as growing suicide and depression rates and a growing trend of a lack of purpose. (Since I am completely behind with blogger and my only is creating a post with substance so the ever benevolent god of a man Mr. Stewart may bestow on me some semblance of mercy) I believe this is occurring because of a true misunderstanding of the philosophies of left and right, so please join me as we go deep into what it means to be a liberal/conservative in America. (The Actual philosophy of Liberalism and conservatism will be as unbiased as possible but at the end, there will be opinion peace surrounding certain tenants) This will be divided into two posts one focusing on Conservatism and the other liberalism to make things simpler. (this one is part 1)
In begging it is important to recognize the complexities of this subject, and it is important to think of Conservatism and Liberalism NOT as generalized groups of people or policies. To truly understand them you must treat them as Philosophies with vibrant diverse subgroups and values, they are alive and cannot be understood without effort to learn about each respectively. (I will talk more about this later) For the purposes of a high school history blog I will be using several historical events to aid with the understanding of this. On a final introductory note, it helps to see conservatism and liberalism as an ideology tree. With roots, a core value, a central problem and different branches with different perspectives and solutions to said problem. (Picture example below)
Conservatism as stereotyped as being backward and counter to the idea of "progression" and at times viewed as "Anti Compassionate" this leads to many being called heartless, bigots or people who just are stuck in the past who need to evolve. This does not do the philosophy of conservatism justice and serves as a barrier to understanding and compromise. It is important to know what is Conservatism in America. To do that we must start at the roots. The Roots of American conservatism can be divided into three parts (Fight me in comments if you disagree but I can't cover everything) These three parts are assumptions and values that to conservatives are usually considered facts and have almost sacred power. (Conservatism differs from liberalism bc of this value system as well but not enough time to explain maybe cover later) These Sacred values are the Human Nature is naturally bad, A rejection of the Utopian vision (utopian vision in the case would be the possibility of a perfect society.) and an acknowledgment of the terrible Fragility of Civilization especially in the case of democracies. These Roots are an assumption which are necessary to understand core belief of conservatism. The core belief and goal of conservatism is ORDERED LIBERTY. This makes sense when looking at the principle because ordered liberty is an ideal which is focused on Ensuring Freedom with decency and Liberty without license. This philosophy is a complex game of balancing government power and authority with protecting the rights of the people making it a middle path of two extremes of the right in general. Navigating this path through the middle has been a hard one in American history, we've seen the extremes of both the total domination of the individual power in the Gilded Age and in Jeffersons America and the Authoritative government power of Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan (Opinion, of course, you can argue over these examples but you get the point) Ordered liberty is the attempt to maintain the delicate balance between these two respectively. The problem facing ordered liberty is the Nature of America itself, an empire of diverse groups of people with individual rights and goals and ideas. The problem is how to keep the necessary bond of Bastion of Freedom together without resorting to force or violation of rights? This question has developed modern conservatism and I believe that this came around during the debate around Federalism of Confederalism and the failures if Unity Collapses which can be seen in the Civil War. How do we define American and identity if we are all different? These questions are answered differently by the 4 main subgroups of the conservative philosophy. These are the Economic, Social, Cultural and National respectively. All are very complex and unique but a basic understanding would be this:
National- The Best way to answer to solve the core problem is through patriotism. For what binds people together more than the love of one's country? We are a nation of distinct peoples races and cultures but we are all American, all protected by the nature of the great experiment of our republic. Only with blood and Military might can we keep these different states united. "Duty Honor and Country" (West point motto) This group historically could be the Imperialists during the 19th century and War hawks in the 18th and 17th centuries respectively, Militant in nature to ensure lasting Peace.
Economic-The best way to answer the problem is through economic means for nothing binds us together more than the idea of the free markets guided by the invisible and with a strong work ethic and a competition to bring forward the excellent within us and inspire the less great to strive for greatness. Every American can be great if they will themselves to do so. This is greatly influenced of course by Adam Smith and combining portions of Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian beliefs. they dominated the gilded age until the great depression and the economic solution continues to be a powerful force in modern political discussion, interference of the government into the market is a threat to the freedom of all Americans
Social Conservatism- (This is different from cultural conservativism) The best way to solve the problem is too awaken to the fact that we are the Children of God, whether that God be Allah, Yahweh, the holy trinity or Jesus;It matters not what you call God it only matters that we are his people chosen to take on a great destiny never before taken. Religion binds us together and is the fabric which brings us together, can we truly have human rights without them being divinely protected by the Lord? The Social Conservatives are distinct from cultural conservatism because due to the support of religion and the belief that it alone can solve the problem. While it mostly focuses on the Judeo-Christian principles which formed the west it embraces all religions as all have a common belief which can bind America together. This is an interesting facet of conservatism because it is like a wave, it weighs and then crashes down and then weighs again. This can be seen in the Several "Great Awakenings" throughout American history. To their credit you could argue that they did bring times of "Unity" but due to its religious nature, Social Conservatism is difficult to work within a secular nature.
Cultural Conservatism- The Solution is in what we already know, Tradition. tradition binds all Americans as traditions in this nation are largely national and must be protected to keep us united. Our National motto, after all, is "E Pluribus Unum" which means: From Many, One. Cultural conservatism is focused much more on values and traditions which they believe keep the united states united. This is clear in movements such as "Family Values" and the counterforce against the changing of gender and social norms. It is easy to confuse social with cultural but one is inherently religiously orientated while the other is focused on "American values and traditions" which not tied to religion exclusively.
(Opinion)
American Conservatism is Unique from other forms of conservatism and has grown and evolved with the US while at the same time not really changing. It has always been trying to go down the middle to ensure ordered liberty and when the times favor one side it shifts to support the other to ensure stability. It is, of course, flawed with the very nature of conservatism going against attempting new things which is a downside but it attempts to make up with this by guaranteeing the stability of the nation and commitment to the republic. It is in many ways the scale and the sword of the nation, in times of jeopardy the sword is raised and in times of peace the scale is used to balance itself. Not everyone agrees with conservatism but I believe most people at the minimum can understand it. Now I am biased because I do lean right but I do believe conservatism is fair because of its protection of the individual and the philosophy which allows for self-improvement and the creation of a collective of radically different individuals united under the concept of fellowship. many times it is difficult because being in such a left area it is very easy to write off the conservative viewpoint as few farmers but as we saw with the last elections; Never make the mistake of ignoring or writing off conservatives and the right because the philosophy itself preaches unity which makes the base very easily united against "enemies". That being said I do not expect California to ever be truly open in discussion with conservatives but I do believe that California was the greatest state in the union do to the doctrines of conservatism. The Gold Rush, the Sun Belt migration, the incentive for business and the economic stimulus following factories build for the second world war in my opinion established California into what it is today. It would be a mistake to forget that.
Thank you to the five of you who actually read to the end!
and Mr. Stewart if you read this...I need those blogger points...
Part two will also hopefully be completed today or tomorrow focused on liberalism.
Also, this was heavily inspired by an excellent book called "A Citizens Guide to American ideology" Highly recommend.
Marvel
Marvel Comics
After watching Endgame this past weekend, I couldn’t resist the urge to do a blog post about the history of the comic books that started it all.
Marvel was started in 1939 and was known as Timely Comics. By the 1950s, it was known as Atlas Comics. The fame started in 1961 when The Fantastic Four was released along with other titles. The key people involved in Marvel at this time were Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.
Stan Lee revolutionized the world of superhero comics by appealing more to the older generation rather than the younger ones which all the other creators were doing. From the Fantastic Four, Marvel’s reputation started to focus on more adult issues that went more in-depth than other comics did. The superheroes in Marvel comics experienced everyday struggles that readers could relate to.
Lee and Kirby started out in the Cold War era and this prompted them to reflect the “psychological spirit” of the age. They introduced characters that weren’t perfect -- ones with flaws and troubled lives. They were more human than those of other comics which made their stories even more popular with more diverse groups of people.
In the 1970s, Marvel became involved with the radio industry and started a series in addition to releasing a record. Stan Lee was the narrator of the radio series (entitled the Fantastic Four) and the record was a Spider-Man concept album. From there, Marvel held its own comic book convention in 1975 called Marvelcon.
Over the years, Marvel has changed hands a lot, but the original workings of the comics never left. Even with the bankruptcies and the close calls, Marvel has overcome many obstacles and is now one of the biggest franchises ever.
A new face of Marvel emerged with the release of Iron Man in 2008. This prompted Disney to buy the company in 2009. Since then, the franchise has only grown and Disney has only made it a larger universe. The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has grown since the first Iron Man and this phase of the original Avengers ends with Endgame.
Stan Lee has been famous for appearing in all the MCU films to date. However, he died earlier this year. They still have footage for some upcoming movies, but he was a key player in the formation of the Marvel Studios. It is amazing to see how a couple of comic books and their creators can lead to an enterprise that appeals to people of all ages and is becoming more and more inclusive. The impact that Marvel has had on the world will not be forgotten.
Hypocrisy of STEM and Arts
As long as I can remember, the focus of my education has always been STEM. It's been seen, rightfully so, as the field of the future. However, this inevitably forces other fields that students may be interested in to take a back seat. Especially in the arts, which was a relatively untrustworthy field to begin with, funded was taken away or redirected to STEM programs. It has also put immense pressure on students, especially in the Silicon Valley, to be good at or have professional goals in tech. I personally am terrible at math and science, and thus have felt like I'm not going to be successful if I follow my passions of arts as a career.
And although I understand how risky Hollywood is, I feel like I have significantly less resources to explore that as my career path than someone who is interested in STEM. I believe that this is due partially to the Silicon Valley being the center of modern tech, and thus there are more experiences possible that are related to STEM, particularly in things such as internships or campus visits. But even at Los Altos High, funding is critically low in performing arts and sends a clear message that those subjects are not worth supporting. For example, we can only afford to do a full-scale musical once every two years, while Mountain View high puts on one musical per year and several plays. Broken Box has a really low budget, and we usually can't even afford to buy a backdrop or rights to a well-known play.
All I'm saying is that it's important to realize the hypocrisy between students interested in STEM and students interested in the arts. STEM will always take priority, and this can send messages of how worthwhile someone's hobbies are.
And although I understand how risky Hollywood is, I feel like I have significantly less resources to explore that as my career path than someone who is interested in STEM. I believe that this is due partially to the Silicon Valley being the center of modern tech, and thus there are more experiences possible that are related to STEM, particularly in things such as internships or campus visits. But even at Los Altos High, funding is critically low in performing arts and sends a clear message that those subjects are not worth supporting. For example, we can only afford to do a full-scale musical once every two years, while Mountain View high puts on one musical per year and several plays. Broken Box has a really low budget, and we usually can't even afford to buy a backdrop or rights to a well-known play.
All I'm saying is that it's important to realize the hypocrisy between students interested in STEM and students interested in the arts. STEM will always take priority, and this can send messages of how worthwhile someone's hobbies are.
Monday, April 29, 2019
A History of Gay Marriage in the United States
We learned about how gay marriage was a factor in the 2004 election as a wedge issue, but I was curious to the history of gay marriage, both before the legalization in Massachusetts that sparked the 2004 controversy and where it is today.
In 1970, the first couple ever to appeal for a marriage license was rejected, even after an appeal to the supreme court. However, this couple didn’t give up, and with some tricky maneuvers was able to legally get a marriage license in 1971. This couple was Jack Baker and Michael McConnell, and they were the first gay couple to ever be legally married in the United States. Even after further legalization of gay marriage with more authentic certificates and licenses, they never got another one after 1971.
The timeline after this historic event isn’t perfect, but there are some events that everyone can agree on. Maryland was the first state to outright ban same-sex marriage in 1973. They held this up even in 2007, saying they can regulate marriage however they like. Though there were some events revolving around spousal and family rights during the 80s and 90s, the 2000s saw many states have action against and for same-sex marriage.
In 2004, San Francisco challenged California’s laws by marrying many gay couples. California ordered them to take back the licenses, siding with the opposition to gay marriage, but it was still an important moment in the fight for equality. The year after, Californians tried to get same-sex marriage approved, but the governor vetoed it. That same year, 2005, Connecticut officially became the second state to legalize gay marriage.
In the years that followed, many supreme courts across the country made decisions, with voters turning things over and approving other things. In California, an important part of this time was prop 8, a ballot proposition that threatened to ban same-sex marriage. This was ultimately ruled unconstitutional. Other states dealing with supreme court cases about this were Iowa, New Jersey, and New York.
In 2011, the ball really started rolling. Obama spoke out against the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. DOMA was an act in 1966 that made federal recognition of same-sex marriage unconstitutional. After this, New York legalized same-sex marriage. In 2012, Washington, Maine, and Maryland followed, legalizing by popular vote. After that, numerous states followed in 2013 and 2014.
But it was in 2015 that the famous Obergefell v. Hodges caused the United States Supreme Court to officially rule over all 50 states that same sex marriage was legal. Gay marriage was legally protected in the United States.
It’s crazy to think about how that wasn’t even 4 years ago- the anniversary is in June. And around the world, there are still countries where being gay is illegal, and people are jailed or killed. Recognizing this historic moment is important, especially considering how recent it was. June is Pride Month, a month dedicated to the history and celebration of the LGBT community. This June, let’s remember all the people and struggles that got us to where we are today.
Sources:
http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4182201
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_California_Proposition_8
http://www.marriageequalityny.org/the-complete-history-of-same-sex-marriage-in-usa/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14500669
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us/the-same-sex-couple-who-got-a-marriage-license-in-1971.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-gaymarriage-states-idUSBRE95P07A20130626
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/us/24marriage.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obergefell_v._Hodges
In 1970, the first couple ever to appeal for a marriage license was rejected, even after an appeal to the supreme court. However, this couple didn’t give up, and with some tricky maneuvers was able to legally get a marriage license in 1971. This couple was Jack Baker and Michael McConnell, and they were the first gay couple to ever be legally married in the United States. Even after further legalization of gay marriage with more authentic certificates and licenses, they never got another one after 1971.
The timeline after this historic event isn’t perfect, but there are some events that everyone can agree on. Maryland was the first state to outright ban same-sex marriage in 1973. They held this up even in 2007, saying they can regulate marriage however they like. Though there were some events revolving around spousal and family rights during the 80s and 90s, the 2000s saw many states have action against and for same-sex marriage.
In 2004, San Francisco challenged California’s laws by marrying many gay couples. California ordered them to take back the licenses, siding with the opposition to gay marriage, but it was still an important moment in the fight for equality. The year after, Californians tried to get same-sex marriage approved, but the governor vetoed it. That same year, 2005, Connecticut officially became the second state to legalize gay marriage.
In the years that followed, many supreme courts across the country made decisions, with voters turning things over and approving other things. In California, an important part of this time was prop 8, a ballot proposition that threatened to ban same-sex marriage. This was ultimately ruled unconstitutional. Other states dealing with supreme court cases about this were Iowa, New Jersey, and New York.
In 2011, the ball really started rolling. Obama spoke out against the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. DOMA was an act in 1966 that made federal recognition of same-sex marriage unconstitutional. After this, New York legalized same-sex marriage. In 2012, Washington, Maine, and Maryland followed, legalizing by popular vote. After that, numerous states followed in 2013 and 2014.
But it was in 2015 that the famous Obergefell v. Hodges caused the United States Supreme Court to officially rule over all 50 states that same sex marriage was legal. Gay marriage was legally protected in the United States.
It’s crazy to think about how that wasn’t even 4 years ago- the anniversary is in June. And around the world, there are still countries where being gay is illegal, and people are jailed or killed. Recognizing this historic moment is important, especially considering how recent it was. June is Pride Month, a month dedicated to the history and celebration of the LGBT community. This June, let’s remember all the people and struggles that got us to where we are today.
Sources:
http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4182201
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_California_Proposition_8
http://www.marriageequalityny.org/the-complete-history-of-same-sex-marriage-in-usa/
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14500669
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/us/the-same-sex-couple-who-got-a-marriage-license-in-1971.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-gaymarriage-states-idUSBRE95P07A20130626
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/24/us/24marriage.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obergefell_v._Hodges
Foot Soldier of Birmingham
A few nights ago, I was listening to a Malcolm Gladwell podcast that uncovers something unexpected about an iconic image from the Civil Rights Era. I remember seeing the image in one of the documentaries we watched. It depicts a young African American man looking calmly at a policeman while a police dog is viciously pouncing on him. The image told the narrative of a passive, nonviolent victim and the snarling jaws of oppression and subjugation. Over time, this man has been memorialized as some kind of hero. However, this story is not the truth.
Gladwell finds old interviews of the boy depicted in the image, Walter Gadsden. Gadsden’s interviewer asks him a set of questions attempting to confirm the story that most of us today associate with the image. However, Gadsden does not cooperate. He reveals that he was not even a protester. In fact, he was not particularly interested in the civil rights movement. He says that he was merely skipping school to go and watch the activity downtown. Gadsden notes that when his picture appeared in the paper, his parents were just angry at him for skipping school. He does not see himself as an agent of good, as a courageous man fighting for rights. Gadsden even recalls that the policeman was attempting to restrain the dog when it pounced.
After a statue was created to commemorate this false story, Gadsden is once again interviewed says that he doesn’t like it. He says that he doesn’t even look like the boy shown, that the artist made him look more stereotypically black. Gladwell summarizes by saying that they were expecting a “heroic civil rights veteran” and what they got was “a grumpy old man still wedded to the oldest most awkward of black prejudices.”
Gladwell tells a story that allows the listener to see how history can be altered in order to be simplified or to match the narrative to one that the public wants to hear. Gladwell reminds us that it is important to question and reexamine what we are taught.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Contract With America
The Contract with America, lead by Newt Gingrich in the 1994 midterm election, was rooted in three core principles: accountability, responsibility, and opportunity. Accountability basically said the government was too big and spent too much. Responsibility said bigger government and federal programs usurped individual responsibility. Opportunity said that it was too hard for most Americans to achieve the American Dream and that needed to be addressed.
In the Contract with America, they proposed 10 pieces of legislation that had at least 60% of American's support and didn't touch controversial issues
1. The Fiscal Responsibility Act: balanced budget/ tax limitation amendment
2. The Taking Back Our Streets Act: an anti-crime package with additional law enforcement
3. The Personal Responsibility Act: prohibited welfare to minor mothers to discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy
4. The Family Reinforcement Act: Child Support Enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening the role of the family overall
5. The American Dream Restoration Act: a tax credit for each child of $500, the repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and American Dream Savings Account for middle class tax relief
6. National Security Restoration Act: No US troops under UN command and more national security funding
7. Senior Citizens Fairness Act: Raise social security earning limit, tax incentives for private long term care insurance, and repeal of tax hike on Social Security
8. The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act: gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages
9. The Common Sense Legal Reform Act: "Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation
10. The Citizen Legislature Act: Make the House Budget Committee report to the floor and enact more budget savings
This was very revolutionary because it lead to the first Republican majority in Congress since 1953 and it was the first time specific legislation was being brought up for debate for a midterm election.
In the Contract with America, they proposed 10 pieces of legislation that had at least 60% of American's support and didn't touch controversial issues
1. The Fiscal Responsibility Act: balanced budget/ tax limitation amendment
2. The Taking Back Our Streets Act: an anti-crime package with additional law enforcement
3. The Personal Responsibility Act: prohibited welfare to minor mothers to discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy
4. The Family Reinforcement Act: Child Support Enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening the role of the family overall
5. The American Dream Restoration Act: a tax credit for each child of $500, the repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and American Dream Savings Account for middle class tax relief
6. National Security Restoration Act: No US troops under UN command and more national security funding
7. Senior Citizens Fairness Act: Raise social security earning limit, tax incentives for private long term care insurance, and repeal of tax hike on Social Security
8. The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act: gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages
9. The Common Sense Legal Reform Act: "Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation
10. The Citizen Legislature Act: Make the House Budget Committee report to the floor and enact more budget savings
This was very revolutionary because it lead to the first Republican majority in Congress since 1953 and it was the first time specific legislation was being brought up for debate for a midterm election.
The College Board
The College Board is a not-for-profit organization that almost every high schooler across the United States is familiar with. While it is not an association of colleges, it runs a membership association of institutions, which currently includes over 6,000 schools, colleges, universities, and other education organizations.
The organization was founded as the College Entrance Examination Board in 1900 to bring order to the process of college admissions. During the 19th century, the college admissions process was chaotic and inefficient, mostly due to the wide differences in curriculum at public schools across the United States and the lack of universal admissions standards and practices for colleges and universities. At the time of its founding, the College Board had 12 institutional and charter members, which were all located in northeastern United States; this included Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Cornell University.
The College Board aimed to provide a forum for the discussion of issues related to college admissions and access to college and to design and administer a common entrance exam. From 1900 to 1915, it administered tests of knowledge in nine content areas: English, math, history, Latin, Greek, French, German, physics, and chemistry. However, this was changed in 1916 to place a greater emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking while still testing students on subject-area knowledge. The exams were read and scored by college and high-school teachers.
After World War I, inspired by psychological and intelligence tests given to soldiers and sailors, university admissions officials began to explore how they could be used in the admissions process. Carl Brigham, a psychologist at Princeton who had been involved in developing the military tests, was invited to join the College Board in 1924, leading to the creation of the organization’s first psychological examination, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), in 1926. The test had two sections: the first measured verbal or linguistic aptitude, and the second measured mathematical and scientific aptitude. Essays were part of the examinations until 1941 (they were reinstated in 2005). “Achievement” examinations, which were later renamed SAT Subject Tests, were designed to test applicants’ content knowledge and were often administered in test locations after the SAT examination. During World War II, the College Board also designed and supervised examinations for the United States military to test high school seniors’ aptitude and potential to serve as officers, engineers, and other skilled technical positions.
While only 15% of American colleges used the SAT as an admissions tool in 1944, it saw a huge rise in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1955, the College Board established the Advanced Placement (AP) program to enable students to receive advanced placement in colleges. In 1959, the it introduced the Practice SAT exam (PSAT). In 1970, it introduced the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Criticism of the College Board began to appear in the 1960s and 1970s. Many have accused the organization of being a monopoly, and several have questioned whether it has violated its non-profit status (the CEO earned $1.3 million in 2009). The expensive exam fees are also a point of criticism.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-College-Board
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Board
https://about.collegeboard.org/
The organization was founded as the College Entrance Examination Board in 1900 to bring order to the process of college admissions. During the 19th century, the college admissions process was chaotic and inefficient, mostly due to the wide differences in curriculum at public schools across the United States and the lack of universal admissions standards and practices for colleges and universities. At the time of its founding, the College Board had 12 institutional and charter members, which were all located in northeastern United States; this included Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Cornell University.
The College Board aimed to provide a forum for the discussion of issues related to college admissions and access to college and to design and administer a common entrance exam. From 1900 to 1915, it administered tests of knowledge in nine content areas: English, math, history, Latin, Greek, French, German, physics, and chemistry. However, this was changed in 1916 to place a greater emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking while still testing students on subject-area knowledge. The exams were read and scored by college and high-school teachers.
After World War I, inspired by psychological and intelligence tests given to soldiers and sailors, university admissions officials began to explore how they could be used in the admissions process. Carl Brigham, a psychologist at Princeton who had been involved in developing the military tests, was invited to join the College Board in 1924, leading to the creation of the organization’s first psychological examination, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), in 1926. The test had two sections: the first measured verbal or linguistic aptitude, and the second measured mathematical and scientific aptitude. Essays were part of the examinations until 1941 (they were reinstated in 2005). “Achievement” examinations, which were later renamed SAT Subject Tests, were designed to test applicants’ content knowledge and were often administered in test locations after the SAT examination. During World War II, the College Board also designed and supervised examinations for the United States military to test high school seniors’ aptitude and potential to serve as officers, engineers, and other skilled technical positions.
While only 15% of American colleges used the SAT as an admissions tool in 1944, it saw a huge rise in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1955, the College Board established the Advanced Placement (AP) program to enable students to receive advanced placement in colleges. In 1959, the it introduced the Practice SAT exam (PSAT). In 1970, it introduced the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
Criticism of the College Board began to appear in the 1960s and 1970s. Many have accused the organization of being a monopoly, and several have questioned whether it has violated its non-profit status (the CEO earned $1.3 million in 2009). The expensive exam fees are also a point of criticism.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-College-Board
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Board
https://about.collegeboard.org/
Affirmative Action
In 1978, Allan Bakke filed suit against the University of California, Davis because he had twice, unsuccessfully applied for admission into their medical school, though his grades and test scores surpassed those of minority people who had been admitted because of Affirmative Actions. He claimed it was reverse discrimination which violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The case, called University of California v. Bakke, went to the Supreme Court and at the end of it, 6 opinions were issued, and the medical school was ordered to admit Bakke. However, Affirmative Action was upheld in the ruling, and while the Supreme Court ruled it Constitutional for race to be used as an admissions criterion, they ruled that the strict 16% reserved for minorities that UC Davis had was Unconstitutional.
While later cases did limit the scope of this, it will be interesting to see if the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard makes it to the Supreme Court and how they rule on the matter.
While later cases did limit the scope of this, it will be interesting to see if the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard makes it to the Supreme Court and how they rule on the matter.
Enron
In 1985, Enron was formed by a merger between Houston Natural Gas Company and InterNorth Incorporated. Enron was a company focused on energy, they were energy suppliers and traders. Enron was a fairly successful company that benefited by the growing market thanks to the dot com boom, as well as the stock market doing well in general. However, this company eventually became famous for the corporate fraud that happened after Enron started to lose momentum.
Enron had been using a form of accounting called mark-to-market accounting. This form of accounting let the company predict what their assets and liabilities would be in the future. This would allow them to publish assets that the believed they would obtain. If they created a new power plant that was going to generate thousands of dollars in profits, they could report that they would gain those profits, despite not being certain or having this money on hand. Already, this was a problematic practice as Enron could guess and lie about the strength of their company to investors to better their stock.
With this practice, Enron was able to masquerade as a perfect company. They shared their credit and reputation with potential investors and business partners to make them believe they were working with pros. This led them to be coined the Most Innovative Company by Fortune for 6 years in a row. Now, Enron surely must have had some failures, so had did they look like such a profitable company.
Whenever Enron had a building or operation that was making less than projected profits, the numbers on their books they were showing to the world, they transferred it to an off the books corporation where the losses went unreported. This way they could write off losses and still be a perfect and profitable company. Enron did this frequently, and by 2000, the company wasn’t doing so well. Companies would assume poor assets, and would be compensated in stocks which would rise in the future, so everybody was making money. This didn’t continue, as in 2001, the company’s management changed and the stock fell to a 52 week low, prompting the SEC to investigate.
The SEC investigated Enron, and found that the company had hid from the public the fact that they had losses of $591 million, as well as $628 million in debt. This shocked stockholders and crippled the stock. Enron soon fell apart and had to file for bankruptcy. Enron tried their best to cover this up, and was slammed by the SEC with many charges.
In June 2002, the firm was found guilty of obstructing justice for shredding Enron's financial documents to conceal them from the SEC. The founder and CEO were convicted on many counts of fraud and conspiracy. Many people who were in on the operation were convicted for insider trading as well. Overall, this once powerful company was found to be a fraud, and was punished severely because of it.
There was much that came out of the Enron scandal than just punishments. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed, which worsened the consequences for destroying, altering, or fabricating financial statements, and for trying to defraud shareholders. The Act was paired with more regulation on financial institutions to prevent fraud from happening again.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/updates/enron-scandal-summary/
Enron had been using a form of accounting called mark-to-market accounting. This form of accounting let the company predict what their assets and liabilities would be in the future. This would allow them to publish assets that the believed they would obtain. If they created a new power plant that was going to generate thousands of dollars in profits, they could report that they would gain those profits, despite not being certain or having this money on hand. Already, this was a problematic practice as Enron could guess and lie about the strength of their company to investors to better their stock.
With this practice, Enron was able to masquerade as a perfect company. They shared their credit and reputation with potential investors and business partners to make them believe they were working with pros. This led them to be coined the Most Innovative Company by Fortune for 6 years in a row. Now, Enron surely must have had some failures, so had did they look like such a profitable company.
Whenever Enron had a building or operation that was making less than projected profits, the numbers on their books they were showing to the world, they transferred it to an off the books corporation where the losses went unreported. This way they could write off losses and still be a perfect and profitable company. Enron did this frequently, and by 2000, the company wasn’t doing so well. Companies would assume poor assets, and would be compensated in stocks which would rise in the future, so everybody was making money. This didn’t continue, as in 2001, the company’s management changed and the stock fell to a 52 week low, prompting the SEC to investigate.
The SEC investigated Enron, and found that the company had hid from the public the fact that they had losses of $591 million, as well as $628 million in debt. This shocked stockholders and crippled the stock. Enron soon fell apart and had to file for bankruptcy. Enron tried their best to cover this up, and was slammed by the SEC with many charges.
In June 2002, the firm was found guilty of obstructing justice for shredding Enron's financial documents to conceal them from the SEC. The founder and CEO were convicted on many counts of fraud and conspiracy. Many people who were in on the operation were convicted for insider trading as well. Overall, this once powerful company was found to be a fraud, and was punished severely because of it.
There was much that came out of the Enron scandal than just punishments. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed, which worsened the consequences for destroying, altering, or fabricating financial statements, and for trying to defraud shareholders. The Act was paired with more regulation on financial institutions to prevent fraud from happening again.
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/updates/enron-scandal-summary/
Netscape
Netscape was the internet company behind the popular Netscape web browser whose headquarters were in Mountain View, California.
The company was founded by James Clark and Marc Andreessen on April 4, 1994. It was initially called Mosaic Communications Corporation. Clark had previously founded and been the chairman of Silicon Graphics, which manufactured computer workstations. Andreessen was a recent graduate of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; while in college, he was also employed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where he led the development of internet browsing software.
Mosaic created a graphical interface to replace the UNIX command line standard that was in use at the time. With the ability to display colorful graphics and a simple point-and-click interface for finding, viewing, and downloading data over the Web, the free software made the Internet widely accessible for the first time beyond the scientific branches of academia and the government where it started. The two founders wanted to further this popularization process and capitalize on it by marketing a commercial-quality Web browser, Web-server software, development tools, and related services.
The company released the web browser, Mosaic Netscape 0.9, on October 13, 1994. It quickly gained in popularity, taking over three-quarters of the browser market within four months of its release. The browser’s superiority over its competition allowed it to become the main browsers for internet users in such a short time period. On November 14, 1994, the company was renamed Netscape, coined by employee Greg Sands, and the browser was renamed Netscape Navigator. This was primarily to avoid trademark ownership issues with NCSA, which had previously created the NCSA Mosaic web browser. The internal codename for the Navigator browser was Mozilla, which stood for “Mosaic killer”.
Netscape had an extremely successful initial public offering (IPO) on August 9, 1995. The plan was to offer the stock at $14 a share, but it was doubled to $28 a share due to a last-minute decision. During the first day of trading, the stock’s value soared to $75 and closed at $58.25, giving the company a valuation of $2.9 billion. Netscape had a very good track record: its revenues had doubled every quarter in 1995. The IPO helped kickstart the widespread investment in internet companies that created the dot-com bubble.
However, Netscape slowly was overtaken by its competitors, including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Its market share fell from over 90% in the mid-1990s to less than 1% in 2006.
Netscape was acquired by America Online (AOL) in 1999 for $10 billion. Shorty before its acquisition, Netscape released the source code for its browser and created the Mozilla Organization to coordinate the future development of its browser, ultimately leading the creation of Firefox. AOL was acquired by Verizon on June 23, 2015 for $4.4 billion.
Mosaic created a graphical interface to replace the UNIX command line standard that was in use at the time. With the ability to display colorful graphics and a simple point-and-click interface for finding, viewing, and downloading data over the Web, the free software made the Internet widely accessible for the first time beyond the scientific branches of academia and the government where it started. The two founders wanted to further this popularization process and capitalize on it by marketing a commercial-quality Web browser, Web-server software, development tools, and related services.
The company released the web browser, Mosaic Netscape 0.9, on October 13, 1994. It quickly gained in popularity, taking over three-quarters of the browser market within four months of its release. The browser’s superiority over its competition allowed it to become the main browsers for internet users in such a short time period. On November 14, 1994, the company was renamed Netscape, coined by employee Greg Sands, and the browser was renamed Netscape Navigator. This was primarily to avoid trademark ownership issues with NCSA, which had previously created the NCSA Mosaic web browser. The internal codename for the Navigator browser was Mozilla, which stood for “Mosaic killer”.
Netscape had an extremely successful initial public offering (IPO) on August 9, 1995. The plan was to offer the stock at $14 a share, but it was doubled to $28 a share due to a last-minute decision. During the first day of trading, the stock’s value soared to $75 and closed at $58.25, giving the company a valuation of $2.9 billion. Netscape had a very good track record: its revenues had doubled every quarter in 1995. The IPO helped kickstart the widespread investment in internet companies that created the dot-com bubble.
However, Netscape slowly was overtaken by its competitors, including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Its market share fell from over 90% in the mid-1990s to less than 1% in 2006.
Netscape was acquired by America Online (AOL) in 1999 for $10 billion. Shorty before its acquisition, Netscape released the source code for its browser and created the Mozilla Organization to coordinate the future development of its browser, ultimately leading the creation of Firefox. AOL was acquired by Verizon on June 23, 2015 for $4.4 billion.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Netscape-Communications-Corp
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Netscape-Navigator
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-netscape-lessons-20160808-story.html
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mozilla-Corporation
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Firefox-Web-browser
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Netscape-Communications-Corp
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Netscape-Navigator
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-netscape-lessons-20160808-story.html
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mozilla-Corporation
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Firefox-Web-browser
Review of The Mexican-American War
When Texas gained its independence from Mexico in 1836, they were not admitted into the United States. Northerners didn’t want to add another slave state, so they managed to avoid letting Texas into the Union. Mexico was very upset with Texas trying to leave and join the United States. They were enraged by the fact they had revolted, but were furious that it was done by American citizens. They saw this revolution as a ploy for America to take their land, and didn’t recognize Texas as independent from Mexico.
Around 1845, President James Polk annexed Texas, and set his sight on obtaining California. When Polk asked to buy California from Mexico, he was immediately rejected, as Mexico was upset that they had stolen Texas from them earlier. Polk was upset by this, so he tried to provoke the Mexican government so he could take California. Polk sent U.S. troops to disputed territory, where they would occupy the land.
On April 26, 1846, Mexican soldiers attacked the American troops believing that this was an invasion. Around a dozen U.S. soldiers died, which gave Polk the opportunity to blame the Mexican government for starting a war. Polk went to Congress and said that “American blood had been spilled on American soil”. While American blood was spilled, it is hard to know if the soldiers were fighting on Mexican territory or on American territory. In May of 1846, America declared war on Mexico.
Once the battle began, the U.S. was dominating the Mexican army. One general, General López de Santa Anna, tried to negotiate a peace treaty with the U.S., saying he would end it on favorable terms for America. When he arrived to sign a treaty, he double crossed the Americans as his army tried to ambush them. This battle was unsuccessful despite being an ambush.
In 1848, the war was practically over and the U.S. was waiting to sign a treaty with the Mexican government. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was drafted, saying that the Rio Grande would now serve as the official border between Mexico and America. The treaty also said that Texas was a part of America, and that Mexico would sell California, New Mexico, and many other states to the government for 15 million dollars.
This war was fought effectively, but many politicians who were worried about the inclusion of more slave states were against the war. Abraham Lincoln was one of them, as he didn’t like having to renegotiate which states would be free or not. The inclusion of so many new states led to the creation of the compromise of 1850, allowing California to be a free state. This war created more tension between free and slave states, building up to the Civil War.
Source:https://www.history.com/topics/mexican-american-war/mexican-american-war
Around 1845, President James Polk annexed Texas, and set his sight on obtaining California. When Polk asked to buy California from Mexico, he was immediately rejected, as Mexico was upset that they had stolen Texas from them earlier. Polk was upset by this, so he tried to provoke the Mexican government so he could take California. Polk sent U.S. troops to disputed territory, where they would occupy the land.
On April 26, 1846, Mexican soldiers attacked the American troops believing that this was an invasion. Around a dozen U.S. soldiers died, which gave Polk the opportunity to blame the Mexican government for starting a war. Polk went to Congress and said that “American blood had been spilled on American soil”. While American blood was spilled, it is hard to know if the soldiers were fighting on Mexican territory or on American territory. In May of 1846, America declared war on Mexico.
Once the battle began, the U.S. was dominating the Mexican army. One general, General López de Santa Anna, tried to negotiate a peace treaty with the U.S., saying he would end it on favorable terms for America. When he arrived to sign a treaty, he double crossed the Americans as his army tried to ambush them. This battle was unsuccessful despite being an ambush.
In 1848, the war was practically over and the U.S. was waiting to sign a treaty with the Mexican government. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was drafted, saying that the Rio Grande would now serve as the official border between Mexico and America. The treaty also said that Texas was a part of America, and that Mexico would sell California, New Mexico, and many other states to the government for 15 million dollars.
This war was fought effectively, but many politicians who were worried about the inclusion of more slave states were against the war. Abraham Lincoln was one of them, as he didn’t like having to renegotiate which states would be free or not. The inclusion of so many new states led to the creation of the compromise of 1850, allowing California to be a free state. This war created more tension between free and slave states, building up to the Civil War.
Source:https://www.history.com/topics/mexican-american-war/mexican-american-war
Saturday, April 27, 2019
The Department of Homeland Security
The department of homeland security (DHS) was created on November 25, 2002 on response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and wage war on all terrorist threats. The office's duty is to create detailed strategies in order to protect america against terrorism and any future attacks. Plans for the department had stemmed from Pennsylvania governor, Tom Ridge after he was appointed as the director of security in the White House. His proposal to create the new department had marked the most significant transformation of the US government in over 50 years because of the large realigning that the department would cause. Unlike what many perceive, the Department of Defense is different from the DHS in that they deal with military actions abroad, while the DHS deals with mostly the civilian population to protect the US within its borders. In 2003 the DHA had also absorbed the department of Immigration and the US customs service, and had taken their duties as well.
A list of the varying responsibilities and accomplishments that the DHS is as follows:
Combating Terrorism and Indoor Threats
The DHS is extremely focused on pursuing terrorist threats to their source, stopping these actions from reaching America. The department has enhanced various security protocols to prevent the vetting of certain people who pose as threats. This department had increased security across every route that terrorists might use to get into the United States which would include tourism spots, refugee spots, and recently the border of America. The DHS has also countered numerous aviation threats to prevent any air attack like 9/11. They have increased the baseline of security in which airports would need to prevent any terrorists onto planes who mean harm.
If in case that these threats come into fruition, disaster response is key to prevent any serious problems that occur after the event. The Federal Emergency Management Agency partners with the DHA to respond to these disasters that affect over 25 million americans. The hurricane season had produced several hurricanes including Harvey, Irma, and Maria that had a large amount of destruction in the more tropical areas. These agencies provide more than 7.6 billion in disaster assistance for over 5 million household in case of disaster.
The DHS protects various network in the US, from the electric grid to transportation systems, all which terrorists seek to disrupt and destroy. The DHA also works to increase cyber security by establishing a deeper connection with private companies where cyber attacks could have devastating impacts. Public health,safety, the economy, and even national security as well can all be harm through means of cyber attacks. A specific hotspot in where the DHS provides protection is too secure american voting in local, state, and national elections. In partnerships with various election officials, the department consistently creates new procedure that share information on potential cyber threats to these elections. In doing so, the DHS is extremely committed to build and enhance cyber capacity to secure all of US elections.
Overall the Department of Homeland Security, created from the threat of the 9/11 attacks, have provided an extremely large base of protection for the American people, and they continue to do so even today.
Zarqawi
One may remember the name Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as one of the terrorists around Bush’s invasion of Iraq, who was able to disrupt the democratic elections.
Zarqawi is believed to have been born as Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh in Zarqa, Jordan in 1966. Born to a respected middle class civil servant, Zarqawi dropped out of high school and became a petty criminal during his youth. During his childhood, he was known to be violent as the leader of a gang, and his consumption of alcohol only exacerbated these radical tendencies. Although his mother tried to use church to provide him moral instruction, he was put in one of the most radical mosques in Jordan, where he learned jihad, providing the basis for his religious beliefs. In the 1980s, the Soviet-Afghan War was taking place, and Zarqawi arrived in Afghanistan during the end of the war in 1989 for the sake of joining jihad. As the Soviets were already leading, he became a reporter and was then recruited to fight.
Upon returning to Jordan in 1989, Zarqawi started the militant group Jund al-Sham, but was arrested and imprisoned in 1992 for possessing guns and explosives and trying to mount terrorist attacks. In prison, Zarqawi attempted to assert his dominance over other prisoners, trying to draft them in a ploy to overthrow Jordan. After leaving prison, he returned to Afghanistan to join al-Qaeda.
However, upon meeting Osama bin Laden, his criminal past and extreme views created distrust with bin Laden during their first meeting. Having been in prison for five years, the highest ranking al-Qaeda leaders saw him as possibly part of Jordan intelligence and thus potentially untrustworthy. Consequently Zarqawi’s training camp was distinct from the other al-Qaeda training camps so that he could prove that he was capable of becoming a leader.
Zarqawi’s new camp attracted militants from Jordan. When the 9/11 attacks hit, Zarqawi was in Iran, so he returned to Afghanistan to join fellow al-Qaeda fighters. After receiving a chest injury, Zarqawi fled back to Iran, and his whereabouts became uncertain to US intelligence. His alleged presence was used by Bush as justification for the US 2003 invasion of Iraq. Through 2003-2006, Zarqawi was claimed to be responsible for many deadly attacks across Iraq following the 2003 invasion, where he targeted mosques, civilians, UN representatives, and government institutions alike. Through these attacks, Zarqawi became the most wanted man in Jordan and Iraq, with a $25 million bounty for his capture.
One of Zarqawi’s most alarming actions was a video posted on an al-Qaeda website, where five men, one of which was confirmed by the CIA to be Zarqawi himself, abducted American civilian Nicholas Berg and beheading him, claimed to be in retaliation for the US brutalities in the Abu Ghraib prison. Overall, Zarqawi was held responsible for thousands of killings in Iraq, mostly from bombings. Believing that American democracy was an utter lie, Zarqawi dedicated himself to impeding the elections in Iraq.
Zarqawi was finally killed in an American airstrike in 2006. However, due to the structure of the terrorist groups in this area, although the most wanted terrorist in Iraq had been killed, this did little to stop terrorism, let alone the public unrest and instability outside of terrorism as well. Zarqawi’s role in the invasion of Iraq demonstrates the difficulties of establishing democracy in a foreign nation, no matter how easy the ousting of a dictator itself may appear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/world/middleeast/08cnd-iraq.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5461842
Zarqawi is believed to have been born as Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh in Zarqa, Jordan in 1966. Born to a respected middle class civil servant, Zarqawi dropped out of high school and became a petty criminal during his youth. During his childhood, he was known to be violent as the leader of a gang, and his consumption of alcohol only exacerbated these radical tendencies. Although his mother tried to use church to provide him moral instruction, he was put in one of the most radical mosques in Jordan, where he learned jihad, providing the basis for his religious beliefs. In the 1980s, the Soviet-Afghan War was taking place, and Zarqawi arrived in Afghanistan during the end of the war in 1989 for the sake of joining jihad. As the Soviets were already leading, he became a reporter and was then recruited to fight.
Upon returning to Jordan in 1989, Zarqawi started the militant group Jund al-Sham, but was arrested and imprisoned in 1992 for possessing guns and explosives and trying to mount terrorist attacks. In prison, Zarqawi attempted to assert his dominance over other prisoners, trying to draft them in a ploy to overthrow Jordan. After leaving prison, he returned to Afghanistan to join al-Qaeda.
However, upon meeting Osama bin Laden, his criminal past and extreme views created distrust with bin Laden during their first meeting. Having been in prison for five years, the highest ranking al-Qaeda leaders saw him as possibly part of Jordan intelligence and thus potentially untrustworthy. Consequently Zarqawi’s training camp was distinct from the other al-Qaeda training camps so that he could prove that he was capable of becoming a leader.
Zarqawi’s new camp attracted militants from Jordan. When the 9/11 attacks hit, Zarqawi was in Iran, so he returned to Afghanistan to join fellow al-Qaeda fighters. After receiving a chest injury, Zarqawi fled back to Iran, and his whereabouts became uncertain to US intelligence. His alleged presence was used by Bush as justification for the US 2003 invasion of Iraq. Through 2003-2006, Zarqawi was claimed to be responsible for many deadly attacks across Iraq following the 2003 invasion, where he targeted mosques, civilians, UN representatives, and government institutions alike. Through these attacks, Zarqawi became the most wanted man in Jordan and Iraq, with a $25 million bounty for his capture.
One of Zarqawi’s most alarming actions was a video posted on an al-Qaeda website, where five men, one of which was confirmed by the CIA to be Zarqawi himself, abducted American civilian Nicholas Berg and beheading him, claimed to be in retaliation for the US brutalities in the Abu Ghraib prison. Overall, Zarqawi was held responsible for thousands of killings in Iraq, mostly from bombings. Believing that American democracy was an utter lie, Zarqawi dedicated himself to impeding the elections in Iraq.
Zarqawi was finally killed in an American airstrike in 2006. However, due to the structure of the terrorist groups in this area, although the most wanted terrorist in Iraq had been killed, this did little to stop terrorism, let alone the public unrest and instability outside of terrorism as well. Zarqawi’s role in the invasion of Iraq demonstrates the difficulties of establishing democracy in a foreign nation, no matter how easy the ousting of a dictator itself may appear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/world/middleeast/08cnd-iraq.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5461842
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)