The Young Zuckerberg Vs. The Old Congress

A couple of weeks ago Mark Zuckerberg went on trial to talk about the Facebook hack of 2016. (Super quick background, a third party that offered a political quiz if you linked your Facebook sold the information they gathered to Russia.) With so much public outrage on the matter it only made sense that Zuckerberg voluntarily went to talk to the House and Senate and try to clear things up. Little did he know how little they knew.

After over 10 hours of being on trial between the House and Senate it was very clear that they had very little idea what Zuckerberg actually does. Many questions were such surface level easy google search questions I began to wonder if the people who put this trial on even tried to  prepare for it. One Senate member, might I also add the oldest, asked Zuckerberg how he generates revenue which anyone that actually has a Facebook could tell you it’s from Ad’s. The best part was he was still perplexed by the idea after given a pretty simple answer. This is important because it really shows how out of touch these people are. They are suppose to be the ones that make big decisions that affect so many different walks of life. The fact that they couldn't even prepare for one of the most powerful tech moguls in the world gives me little hope that they would even give a second thought to honestly anything that has to do with the general public.

Though this was very embarrassing for a lot of Congress it was the string of pompous questions that none other than our very own Ted Cruz asked Zuckerberg. To sum it up Cruz asked him if he asks his employees what their political orientation is and if he has ever terminated someone because of their answer. This question bothered me the most because he has the audacity to ask a very intelligent successful tech titan who has mass amounts of lawyers if he actively does something illegal. Obviously Zuckerberg said no, but just the fact he tried to entrap him is not smart and just such a waste of time.

The big problem for me with this trial is that it honestly was a waste of time because either no one knew what they were talking about or they were trying to puff out their chest and seem smarter than the very smart man. The whole thing just seemed like a way to get political figures to try and get Zuckerberg to agree that they are smarter than he. Most of all this should've been a very important case that should've brought up the real issue which is the need for some regulation on the internet. Instead it was who is better than who.

Police Need To Be Held Accountable

Dear Illyanna,

First and foremost thank you so much for writing about such an important topic that unfortunately our country is failing to acknowledge properly. In the last few years so many reports about police abusing their power, especially when dealing with the African American community, and getting little to no punishment have come up. It’s big news for a few weeks but then dies back down when, like you mentioned, the federal court system deems it as a local issue that needs to be dealt with by their local justice system. What I wish you could have talked about a bit more is how when it becomes a local matter the police in question are usually at the mercy of their colleagues that they see on a daily basis. This is important because this could be linked to why these police that have committed murder and horrible acts of brutality are let off with either suspensions or firings but almost never convicted of the felony level crimes they have technically committed.

I don’t think that it is right or just that the police are being tried by their colleagues. This is favoritism at its finest. This does need to be a federal matter because these people have gone over the line of duty and committed heinous acts that they are not getting criminally charged for. Being able to walk away when you've committed murder of an innocent is beyond unacceptable. I also agree with you that this is an occurrence that happens predominantly to Black men but we cannot discount other races. Hispanics also have a large victim pool of police shootings and brutality. As much as I agree this is a race issue we need to present it wholly as a police abusing their power issue if we have any chance of getting any action taken from the federal justice system. Again thank you so much for talking about this. It’s so important.

#MarchForOurLives, Did You Read That Correctly?

On Saturday, in many cities across the United States, mass crowds of children, young adults and those empathetic to the cause marched for stricter gun control laws. They called it the March For Our Lives. Yes, you read that right. This march was put together in response to the high number of school shootings the United States in hopes that Congress will reconsider the United States current laws on owning guns and military grade assault weapons. The question on most people’s mind is should Congress give in and place stricter laws or complete bans on guns? My answer is...kind of?

The United States has faced a strong sigma over a few decades of being number one in mass shootings in the world. A fact that University of Alabama’s Adam Lankford proved by gathering information on the number of school shootings in 171 countries. This isn’t a fact that sits well with the general public. At least, it shouldn't. The way that I see it is, for every 1 school or public mass shooting there are hundreds that are traumatized from it. The U.S. has hundreds of these events unfold which leaves hundreds of thousands traumatized. Not to forget about the mass amount of those who are not so lucky to escape from these tragedies. It all starts with an individual who has their hands on some sort of gun, usually a high powered assault weapon, and ends with them taking the lives of many. After the dust settles, a trend has come about. As the authorities search for the answers of why this person did what they did, they usually always settle with the fact that the person was mentally ill and at the time of the attack was not well.

Here is where congress needs to step in. We don’t need our guns taken away. Though these are the culprits that end lives, they also save them. Many people have guns for protection purposes. It's hard to try and tell people they need to give up something that they might have never used in their lives and only have for peace of mind because someone else decided to abuse the right. Another downfall if we decided to get rid of guns entirely is the fact that it is our second amendment right. If we were to start to repeal amendments in a time where our country is extremely divided who’s to stop them at just the second amendment. Those amendments carry serious freedoms like the fact we have a voice in society and we aren't still participating in slavery. I know this sounds ridiculous but honestly, if we fail to protect one amendment what is stopping people from going after all the others?

What is not helping in this situation is how quiet Congress is being. Let's call it like we see it, most of them are in cahoots with the NRA and to be quite honest, going against the NRA’s agenda is as scary as it sounds. You risk losing pretty much everything, your money, your place in Congress and honestly probably ever holding down a job again. So what is Congress to do? In my humble opinion, suck it up. Mass amount of kids are dying because of the lack of regulations on assault weapons. All Congress really has to do is put a few steps in place before you're able to purchase a weapon like a psych evaluation and maybe a provide a legitimate reason of purchase. And oh yeah, bring the age restriction up. Seriously? At 18 years old you can buy these weapons? You can’t even go to the bathroom without raising your hand at this age.

Let's discuss one more thing Congress needs to do. Mass tragedies are not always executed with highly powered assault weapons. Stabbings and other forms of mass murder occur frequently too. At the end they always discuss the persons mental illness. This should be on Congress’s radar. It’s sad but very real that many people suffer this severely from mental illness. So is there something that can be done? Yes, and this does not include shaming kids for not being more friendly to everyone at school. There is no written rule that you ever have to engage with people when you're merely a student. As a member of the staff however this is a requirement that needs to be a top priority. School staff members need to be trained in how to spot this, because trust me these kids are not hiding it 100 percent. Most importantly Congress needs to put real plans in place to offer proper counseling. Not the counselors that double as coaches or advisors. Real trained professionals need to be on campus available for whoever needs them and also actively trying to look out for people that may be under large amounts of mental stress. We have identified that mental illness is a real and large problem in the United States but have done little to nothing to try and help. Helping could be the difference between life and a lot of death in these not so rare cases.

Trump, The Russian Spy.

Americans are no strangers to the allegations that Trump is in bed with the Russians. But do most Americans know why they even think that? Richard North Patterson, a columnist for the Huffington Post, gives the timeline and events that have had people raise their eyebrows at the Trump administration and the Russians in his editorial Is America’s President A Russian Asset?
Patterson starts the conversation with the infamous Clinton emails and talks about how the Russians were the ones to hack and uncover said emails and released a whole slew of fake news in the process, which is huge information that I hope most everyone knows. However, he goes on to talk about how Trump and his administration held off on the sanctions to punish the Russians for hacking a presidential candidate. He goes on to question if this is an action of a Russian asset which personally I do not think so. I think Trump is trying to be strategic and not punish one of the other superpowers of the world, at least in terms of military.
He begins his timeline with March 2016, which is when Russia told Trump’s campaign advisor they had dirt on Hillary, and goes on through the summer. The summer was filled with Russian attempts to get this harmful information about Clinton into the hands of Trump by them giving it to multiple people in his administration including his son. Now this wouldn't be a problem if the information that was trying to reach Trump never did. But the issue that most Americans are facing is the fact that in August Trump was warned by the FBI that the Russians are attempting to be a part of his campaign. As soon as Trump was aware of this their should have been precautions taken against this, but instead Trump tried to pretend he was clueless and should have lost the trust of the American public right there.
Patterson also highlights the multiple people in Trump’s campaign, people very close to Trump, that have been directly linked to having contact with Russian officials and the attempts to lift the sanctions off of Russia. A lot of people in his administration were asked to step down or fired because they got caught and became a cancer cell in his master plan. Or are they? The theory that these people are actually just taking the hit so Trump doesn’t is a popular one considering the amount of people that have been let go from his administration.
        This editorial is a great chronological account of the relations between Russia and the Trump administration. Like I said before, I don’t agree that Trump is an asset or some type of spy for the Russian government. I do think that he is trying to find new allies, not in the right places obviously, and doing what he thinks is necessary to gain their trust. 

The Middle Class and Health Care

Not being able to afford health care in America is a growing problem that Obama, during his time in office, made his mission to solve. But Trump and his administration has very different plans for how we should go about health care and has made it his mission to dismantle what Obama has created. Recently, in The New York Times the Editorial Board wrote Trump Tries to Kill Obamacare by a Thousand Cuts and talks about what Trump is doing instead of improving Obamacare. The Editorial Board talks about how each class will be affected by Trump’s new way of ruining-I mean running health care. [Just a quick side note for those of you who don't know who The Editorial Board is, they are a group of 16 editors, researchers, experts, and professors that work on all the editorials for The New York Times.] They are warning every American (mostly the lower and middle class) about what lies ahead if Congress gets the opportunity to go forward with this plan. The Department of Health and Human Services is planning on increasing the number of days that a temporary health plan is effective, which the whole point of having temporary health care is because you're in a temporary situation that does not allow you to have stable a health plan. However, with doing so they also cannot provide a number of basic (and very important) policies like "mental health services, substance abuse treatment, cancer drugs and maternity care," says the Editorial Board. This is a tactic that could attract a younger, healthier audience because they would be paying a lot less for something they don't really need but are forced to have. Unfortunately, this would leave the older and more sickly to be forced to pay a lot more for the services that they need because they would be the only substantial revenue stream coming in for the health care providers. And of course the middle class would be forced to pick up any remaining slack, meaning they would have to pay a lot more in premiums and out of pocket, because most don't qualify for any government assistance. The Editorial Board does talk about two solutions they think are possible. One is that the government could created a program for the insurance providers that would encourage them to expand to more parts of the country, mostly parts in poverty, and in return they have loss protection from very ill people that decide to use their plans. I don’t agree with this one because having another layer of insurance on top of the insurance provider themselves would be a very expensive endeavor for the country. The other is that they could offer subsidies to middle-class families who make too much money to qualify for government assistance but who can’t really afford to get sick because of the high premiums they already face. I think the middle-class is disappearing and honestly that is bad for the economy. I’m very skeptical when it comes to government assistance but health care is a different story. We saw recently with this super flu how rapidly and unexpectedly a virus can take over the whole country, but more importantly how it is not merciful to those who can't get proper health care. I understand everyone needs to make money, but should it really be at the cost of people’s lives who can’t afford much, children, and people who have recently found themselves jobless?

The Government is Up and Running Again. Yay?

The Boston Globe has a lot to say in their article about Trump signing the new budget deal that will  reopen the government after its brief, almost unnoticeable, shut down. The Globe talks about why the shut down came about in the first place and how Sent. Rand Paul really needs people to know he's not in a club and that he "didn't come up here to be liked". Don't worry Rand, we know. The budget deal allocates around $300 billion, with a B, to be used for military spending. Because we have to be ready for the war the tweets will probably start. It also puts $89 billion aside for disaster relief that should have been allocated a while ago. Like when the disasters actually happened. And of course $16 billion because of expired tax breaks that Congress forgot about? Don't care about? You be the judge and read this article about the ridiculous budget deal that helps who? (Besides the people that were affected by the disasters in Florida and Houston. Not Puerto Rico though.)

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