Monday, January 4, 2021

Our Republic In The News

Over the last two weeks we may have caught wind of a number of developments in our nation's current events. Take a moment to share a link of a news story that you wish others to know about. The only criteria I ask for is that it be something that appears credible. : )

Please reply to two others' links with comments.



66 comments:

  1. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

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    1. I'm not even surprised anymore. The childish antics that Trump is using as he scrambles to keep his power truly represents who he was as a leader and why we needed to remove him from office.

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    2. I wish this was shocking, because something like this is considered a federal offense, and if it were any other president, the majority of the country would be outraged (and rightfully so). Trump managed to change the way our country sees the president in only four years, and I don't know if we're ever going to go back to the way the presidency used to be.

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    4. (I removed that cause i realized i had forgotten something) I agree with both Max and Isaiah. Like Isaiah said, very little of the ridiculous grabs trump is making can surprise me anymore. And I agree that Trump will change the way we view the president, and I do think trumps activities has gone unchecked due to Trump’s parties inability to hold him responsible for his actions.

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    5. i was not surprised, which is alarming. He is not a leader. HE changed the way we see a President. I agree that he needs to be removed from the office.

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    6. As many said, I'm not surprised. Trump is doing anything to figure out how to retain his position in office, which seems far from possible at this point.

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    7. Trump’s struggle to maintain a whole country is now clear to the whole world. It is now clear to see that being the President is a HUGE responsibility and you need to do what you need to do in order to keep the economy rolling, the people happy, the military in check, etc. It is a very difficult job that needs to be both taken seriously. Trump’s struggle and even foolishness changed America forever.

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    8. I mean, what did we expect anyway?

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    9. He seems to be grasping to retain credibility, but in the process diminishing his face value and position he's in with every attempt.

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    10. Honestly, when I saw this i let out a chuckle. Trump is honestly so misguided and he has the wrong idea of what a president should be. He should be someone we look up to and not act out like this.

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  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/us/georgia-runoff-young-voters.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage (I find the causes behind massive shifts in voter demographics quite intriguing and would like to share it with others)

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    1. I was surprised at just how many young people registered to vote because of these efforts -- I knew voter turnout is pretty much at an all time high, but it was still a pretty shocking number (around 75,000 people).

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    2. I was surprised to hear about things such as tinder being used in a political way, I think its really cool that we’ve found very new and different ways to reach out to people.

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    3. I was surprised to hear that many young people are voting, since they usually rank last in the age for voting the most. The current political climate is truly tumultuos and it seems that young voters want to be involved.

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    4. Its great that there are many ways to encourage younger voters and seeing the rates up shows that there may be change happening.

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    5. I was surprised that young people are voting so much. Young people have a track record of not showing up to vote as much (in percentages) as other age groups, in America and abroad (ex. the Brexit referendum). Younger people can shift the balance of an election and it can also make sure that the majority of people vote so we can get what is truly best for the country.

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    6. Its weird to think of tinder as a way to encourage voting, but its a symbol of the widespread voting movement, spreading even to apps like tinder

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    7. I was also surprised to hear that there were lots of younger voters.

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    8. I am glad that people are figuring out more diverse and unorthodox ways of organisesing and registering young people to vote because they are our future and making sure they are politically active is a must

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    9. I was surprised that they were using a dating app to spread the word for the Senate runoffs, because this use of technology wasn't even used in the general election. (That I know of)

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  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/health/coronavirus-black-hispanic-vaccination.html

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    1. After reading the article, I believe that the black and Hispanic community not trusting the vaccine is a completely reasonable and understandable occurrence. The government’s history with the blacks and Hispanics wasn’t the best, so obviously there would be mistrust. A particular quote that stuck with me is that vaccines had “come about too quickly to be safe.” There is so much panic and desperation for a vaccine that the vaccine can almost feel as if it was rushed. That is a completely understandable thought.

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    2. This is such an important topic to address because black and brown communities do not feel comfortable listening to people they cannot relate to nor trust on such serious issues like the covid vaccine. They cannot believe a government that has taken advantage of the label minority to do as they please without consequences.

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  5. I believe that the black and brown communities have every right to mistrust the government and how they handle the vaccine. Time and time again the government has exploited minorities and used them for medical trails and experiments without consent. The government needs to learn from their mistakes and gain back trust. They must learn how to handle their power correctly and until that happens few will adhere to their standards of listen to what they have to say.

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  6. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/nyregion/addiction-treatment-coronavirus-new-york-new-jersey.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

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    1. I think that COVID-19 and the lockdown was very taxing on everyone's mental health, and for people already susceptible to substance usage, it could be very destructive and possibly fatal. America already has an opioid crisis, and many other drugs are becoming a serious problem. The lockdown has accentuated that and I think it's a problem that needs immediate attention.

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    2. I think that this is disturbing because america was already a nation plauged by drug abuse that sometimes destroyed enitre comunites and if it gets worse thats a serous threat.

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  7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/health/covid-race-mortality-rate/

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    1. If I had not read this article, I would not have realized that this was a problem. It makes sense that minority communities have higher covid-19 death rates than those of white communities due to the lack of resources in their area. The data proves that minorities have been hit extra hard by this pandemic and we have reason to believe that this is not just a coincidence. The government has pushed us aside in more than one instance, so this massive difference in these covid-19 rates is not something that should be taken lightly.

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    2. this is true because since i live in midtown even during the peak of the pandemic it seemed that none of the neighboring buildings or my building had any cases of covid while in my friends town in Pennsylvania had multiple cases.

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    3. The trend seems to be that closely packed areas catch it more heavily, areas most minorities are sadly based in.

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  9. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/nyregion/shsat-new-york-city-schools.html?searchResultPosition=3

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    1. The idea of turning the SHSAT into a cumulation of grades received in middle school seems reasonably interesting to me. THere however definitely needs to be something to create more diversity throughout the specialized schools.

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    2. The idea of using grades from middle school seems like a fairly reasonable idea. However, there are problems with it, like the fact that it would be easier to succeed in one school in one district than another. Regardless, some action must be taken to increase diversity.

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    3. Taking middle school grades may be a good idea. Although students who haven't done well during the year may see the SHSAT as a last chance and removing that would remove their chances.

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    4. i don't think they should use grades because for people like me the shsat was my last chances to get into a good school. I did bad at math and I think other people need that chance to still get in a good school

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    5. I think that using grades would be a good idea but I also think that there's only a few schools that look at the SHSAT and there's lots of schools that don't look at it.

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    6. While the test plays a big factor, middle school grades represent more of a student's skill, since some question on the tests were known by some and random to others

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    7. I like how this discussion was being talked about because it is debatable on if the exams really measure up to the reality of getting into elite schools

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  10. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/donald-trump-georgia-election-joe-biden-congress/index.html

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    1. I think that it is kind of ridiculous for Trump to refer to the US covid death toll as "fake news," without sufficient evidence therefor creating propaganda himself.

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  11. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/georgia-senate-trump.html

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    1. I think that Georgia changing to a Democratic voting state after being a reliably red state for two decades is very cool; but I wonder what really pushed this change because they were red in the 2016 election.

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  12. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/briefing/trump-election-raffensperger-julian-assange-costume.html

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  13. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/world/middleeast/iraq-economy-debt-oil.html

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    1. I think that this is very important and something we should both be concerned about and make sure does not happen again.

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  14. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/climate/trump-national-climate-assessment.html

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    1. Wow, this is very interesting. It is very weird what happened during Trump’s presidency with the National Climate Assessment

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    2. I was not aware that Trump tried to impede the National Climate Assessment. It is very important that we realize what he tried to do because trying to get rid of the science in our nation will destroy it.

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  15. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/uss-nimitz-aircraft-carrier-middle-east-iran/index.html

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    1. this is a really important thing to share, and I really don't know what would be the right decision in this situation

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    2. Iraq and US seem to be on the brink of fighting is what I'm getting from this article, but this isn't shown nearly as much as last year when the whole WW3 idea popped up when Trump was going off on Iraq. It still seems to be a problem, but it isn't as known now as it was then, which is kind of odd.

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  16. https://nypost.com/2021/01/02/nyc-doe-school-issues-fake-report-cards-for-abuse-probe/

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  17. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/learning/do-you-think-people-have-gotten-too-relaxed-about-covid.html

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  18. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

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  19. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/us/student-voting-surge.html

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    1. I didn't know that there were much more college students participating in the elections this year. I also didn't realize that a lot of the voting efforts were spread online and that this may be the way such efforts will go in the future, even after the pandemic is over.

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  20. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01423-4

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  21. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-call-georgia.amp.html

    This actually made a lot of sense to me. They are now saying that the claims President Trump said about the Election Ballots in Georgia could possibly be illegal.

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  22. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210103&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=156177111&segment_id=48259&user_id=1a89fee69e900f4f6a0abbd18a7ceb67

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  23. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/11/945095394/stream-taylor-swifts-new-album-evermore

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  24. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/us/pharmacist-accused-of-tampering-with-vaccine-was-conspiracy-theorist-police-say.html?searchResultPosition=9

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