New Blog C12-4: US Nuclear Arsenal is Expected to Expand

The Huffington Post just recently wrote an article covering President Trump's thoughts of the United States nuclear arsenal. President Trump says that the United States has fallen behind in it capacity of its nuclear arsenal. An anti-nuclear interest group has reported that Russia has 7,000 war heads and the US has 6,800. President Trump doesn't want to have nuclear weapons at all but he has said that if someone has some then we must be leading. All of this stems from the concern of our allies that are neighbors of North Korea and its stockpile. Trump has said the China could very easily defeat the national security challenge that North Korea poses by putting pressure on Beijing to influence Pyongyang's aggressive actions that could potentially lead to war. Trump has said that one possible solution to this is by quickly adding to both Japan's and South Korea's defense. The Obama administration made a new deal with Russia called start which states that come February 5, 2018 both the United States and Russia will not be able to exceed another's capacity for any type of nuclear weapon. There is a big question whether Trump will follow this deal or strike a new one that would allow both Russia and the US to continue to stock pile nuclear missiles. Typically all of these previous actions that were mentioned would fall under the jurisdiction of congress but in situations like today where technology has changed war forever, the president must be ready to declare war and be prepared. Nuclear weapons can do a lot of damage fast and if the decision to go to war was left to congress to debate, the war might be over or the United States would be over powered before they came to a conclusion.

New Blog C12-3: EPA Iron Triangle

The New York Times wrote an article on Wednesday, February 22 about the new EPA director and his connections to major industries. Scott Pruitt, the new EPA director, has been closely connected and involved with major oil and energy industries. Senate democrats wanted to delay his confirmation of becoming the new director until emails between him and major industries were made public by court order. These emails were written in a way that they were congratulating the bosses and interest groups that were battling to roll back Obama-era regulations. Despite the democrat's efforts the Republican were able to gain enough votes to have Pruitt confirmed. Later this week President Trump is expected to release two new executive orders one of them will give the approval for Director Pruitt to go ahead and start rolling back EPA regulations that the Obama administration has made. The iron triangle now within the interests of energy have been made so much stronger now that Pruitt, who is so closely connected with major companies, is the director of the EPA.

News Blog C12-2: Federal Protections of Transgender Bathrooms in Schools Are Withdrawn

Moments ago, CNN caught a breaking news story that the Trump Administration has withdrawn the federal protections of transgender bathrooms in public schools. The administration claims that the protections that Obama tried to enforce fell under Title IX which prohibits sex discrimination. The administration says that the existing guidance did not provide in depth legal analysis of why it falls within Title IX, nor was it put in affect properly. Recently confirmed Betsy DeVos says that this is in the best interest of the schools where it should provide a safe and secure place for students. She says that this is not a mandate, but a moral obligation. Rumor has it though that the word of Betsy DeVos are actually an order from both Trump and Sessions.

New Blog C12-1:Trump's New Order Could Ban All Syrian Refugees

FoxNews has been following the action of President Trump and what his new executive order may contain for "'extreme vetting'". They wrote an article about it on Wednesday, February 22 claiming that the new order will have language that exempts current permanent residents and green-card holders from leaving and entering the country. This is believed to help benefit businesses and also to help international students who may have gone home. The order though is not allowing all visa holders to enter the United States. People who have visas and are coming from one of the seven counties mentioned in the first order would be put on a temporary ban until proper screening measures can take place. The same rule applies for all refugees as well. In addition to the new order the White House has said that the US will only take 50% of the refugees allowed last year. This means that only 50,000 will be admitted into the US and 35,000 have successfully made it so far. This leaves 15,000 for the rest of the year.

News Blog C11-4: Repealing Obamacare

On Wednesday February 8 The Huffington Post

wrote an article following Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and his comments on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Rayna say that he believes and hopes that the legislating for the replacement of the Affordable Care Act will be completed by the end of this year. However the legislating may be completed by the end of the year but implementing is when change starts to happen. Ryan told FoxNews in an interview that it may be until next year that the implementation  of the replacement law will take effect. Part of the replacement law is to lower drug prices by having the government to negotiate with drug companies directly on prices to be paid by the medicare program. While republicans didn't wait long after Trump was inaugurated to start legislating the repeal of Obamacare they did miss the deadline of January 27 which was the date set originally. Nevertheless Republicans want to complete this as fast as possible.

New Blog C11-3: Gorsuch Disagrees with Trump's Tweets

On Wednesday evening CNN wrote an article following Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and his thoughts on Trump's tweets. Gorsuch says that he is "disheartened" and the comment "demoralized" the courts. Gorsuch had a meeting with Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal to talk about the tweets. Gorsuch claims that any attack on a federal judge is an attack on the court system. Senators are looking at ways that Gorsuch can be independent from the president and he may just have shown one way. Coming out and speaking for his colleagues and showing his thoughts of the president was a great way to prove to senators that Gorsuch may not be as bad as some Democrats believe. Gorsuch has been keeping fairly quiet since he was nominated but his communications director confirmed his comments and remarks to Blumenthal. Gorsuch has been meeting with senators on both sides of the aisle since he was nominated and even more so with Democratic senators from states that voted for Trump. Blumenthal was later asked if he would vote for Gorsuch and said that he would wait until the Senate Judiciary committee finishes its hearings and then he will decide. Blumenthal and Gorsuch had about a 40 minute meeting and though they talked about the things that they both love they also talked about reproductive rights, workers rights, and consumer protection issues. Blumenthal said that he did not receive specific answers and was disappointed. that is why he is deciding to wait till all of the hearings on Gorsuch are finished before he decides.

News Blog C11-2: Rogue Twitter Accounts

NPR has looked into why rogue Twitter accounts have been popping up all over the place. All of the accounts have a similar mission which is "'unofficial resistance'". There have been rogue accounts for specific parks and even organizations like NASA. Many accounts were initially claimed to be run by members of the organization but lately they have been altered to remain anonymous. "Fake" accounts have always existed for celebrities, movie characters, and even some that have impersonated a North Korean News Service. The point of these accounts is to prevent a media black out. They are preventing Trump from putting out fake facts but tweeting about real ones.