Obama's Climate Change Campaign

      According to this NY Times article, President Obama is traveling across Asia to share his climate change campaign with Asian countries. His main goal is China, he wants to progress with them climate wise, despite their rocky relationship. Obama's first stop is Lake Tahoe, where he spoke at a convention organized by Senator Harry Reid. At this convention, Obama said "The challenges of conservation and combating climate change are connected, they are linked."..."When we protect our lands it helps us protect our climate for the future." He focused the debate of climate change that involves conservation and environmental protection, because it's easier than talking about carbon emissions, and it's less polarizing. He then went on to Hawaii, where some of the residents' homes have been flooded by the rising sea level. Obama also wants to make a case for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a 12 nation trading pact, excluding China. All this is a touchy subject for politics in America, because both Hillary and Trump have said they're against this agreement.

Obama in Lake Tahoe 

Sentences Cut Short

       According to this CNN article, President Obama has been releasing prisoners that had been sentenced for non violent crimes (Mostly drug related crimes).  Obama says that he was to reform the "mandatory minimum sentence for non-violent crimes". Of the total number of prisoners that Obama had shortened sentences for,  about 1/3 of them were serving life sentences. Obama's lawyer says that we need to remember that these are actual people who have families and lives. Who have also taken the step towards rehabilitation, proving that they are ready for a second chance. Some of the prisoners have been serving their life sentences since the 90's, and are to be released in December. As of today (August 30, 2016), Obama has shortened the sentences of 673 American Prisoners, making that 375 this month alone, which is "the largest number ever granted in a single month".

President Obama 

North Korea

According to CNN North Korea and America Millitaries have scheduled an exercise, and if the US shows any sign of threat, North Korea will attack the US much like they did with South Korea recently.

  

Transgender bathrooms

According to this CNN article, Judge Reed O'Connor stops transgender bathrooms for a while in Texas because it's not "ambiguous", and because the law says that schools are required to provide bathrooms/showers/lockerooms for both genders. Schools say that 'Department of Education and the Department of Justice "treat a student's gender identity as the student's sex for purposes of the law."'

Transgender bathrooms

Obama Responds to New Orleans flooding too late??

Based on this NY Times article, Obama will be visiting New Orleans later this week. However people are a little upset because he's coming 4 days after Trump's visit. Locals have been upset because earlier in the motnh Obama was on vacation on Martha's Vineyards, which he left early for a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, and he couldn't take time off to visit New Orleans. Even though one his main focus during his first presidential campaign was to aide those effected by Hurricane Katrina. 

Flooding in Louisiana 

First Muslim to speak at DNC: Khizr Khan

     Khizr Khan, a Pakistani Muslim American Lawyer, spoke at the Democratic National Convention this past summer. According to the NY Times, he was originally asked to stand on stage while they made a tribute to his son, whom had died as a Captain in Iraq in 2004. However later he was asked if he wanted to say a few words, and if he wanted any help coming up with a speech, Mr. Khan said he didn't need any help because he had been holding all of his thoughts in his mind for so many years. During his speech at the DNC, he called out Donald Trump on many things, one quote that really stands out is when Mr. Khan says "You [Trump] have sacrificed nothing and no one", and "want(s) to build walls and ban us [Muslims] from this country." He later said "Let me ask you [Trump]: Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy". He then proceeded to pull out a pocket sized version of the constitution. Mr. Khan also mentioned his son, and how while he was in Iraq he only focused on protecting his men, and that's all he would talk about. After his son had died, Mr. Khan and wife moved to North Carolina where their other sons lived. And every year, Mr. Khan hosts an ROTC dinner, where he hands soldiers their own pocketbook version of the Constitution.

Khizr Khan and his pocket sized constitution 

The Lochte Scandal

US Olympian, Ryan Lochte was involved in a very interesting situation down in Rio, Brazil. He claimed that he was robbed at a gas station at 4 am, but there is no evidence, and surveillance cameras show him and his friends vandalizing the bathroom.  This obviously has lead to some serious issues, first he lied about what happened, and secondly he vandalized foreign property. Both very immoral things, and vandalizing is not legal. According to this CNN article that Marco Rubio's, Sentate Office have reached out to Lochte to help him, because his office often deals with constituents that have run into trouble overseas. But there is still speculation as to whether or not Rubio himself contacted Lochte or if it was just an aide.

A meme based on the events that occurred in Rio

The article "How Religious is Your State?" states that our state, Alabama is the leading religious state. Which means that adults in Alabama attend a religious service at least once a week, pray daily, believe in God, and "say that religion is very important to them". The article says that if an adult follows two out of the four "behaviors" then they are "highly religious". 

I'm not entirely sure why political scientists might be interested in this, but I think it might be because they want to track what religion leans towards which political side, and whether or not religion ties into politics. 

Class Summary

So far in my AP Gov class, we have taken a few quizzes to find out our "News IQ", and our "Political Typology". On the first day of full classes, we were given a set of pictures and we were to determine whether or not the picture was political or not. Lastly for homework the other day, we were given a powerpoint with different graphs mostly about people 18-29 and 65+, and the amount that they are involved in politics from 1972- 2012.