Normalizing Relations with Cuba

The White House made the decision to normalize relations with Cuba.  The embargo that kept the U.S. from having any relations with Cuba for over 50 years is finally dwindling as public polls show favor for it.  More than a decade ago a poll was taken and two-thirds of Americans favored moderate relations with Cuba.  Secretary of State John Kerry will be the first in his position to visit the country in over 60 years.  Soon, Talks with Cuban president, Raul Castro, will begin about opening a U.S. embassy.  Republican representatives like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are against Obama's move on Cuba.  Rubio said that the consequences of the this act will be the growth of power for the Castro family.  

ISIS: U.S. vs. Iran and an Iraq that does not care

Iranians have abandoned their secretive military operations and bombed Iraq openly.  they used 1970s jet-planes.  They are not openly saying that they are allies with the U.S. but rather they are expanding their shiite influence into the sunni dominated iraq. Different areas of the middle east show their support for Iran's military operations.  The U.S. worries that Iran's  Shiite military involvment will deepen sectarian divisions, and make themselves unappealing to Sunnie Iraqi's in the region.  Iraqi leaders have often been faster to help with the fighting than the U.S. operations.  In the same way they view Iranian forces that did not step into the fight against ISIS or ISIL when they attacked Baghdad.  Iranians see Obama's letter as weak and if they would have written a letter of the same fashion to them to tell them of their caution to intervene with the ISIS conflict, they would have deemed themselves weak too. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/middleeast/iran-airstrikes-hit-islamic-state-in-iraq.html?_r=0

Too Much Law Enforcement and Too Little Crimes

Citizens of New York are in uproar after the police officer who killed Eric Garner was not indicted.  Protests like those of Ferguson formed in the streets of New York.  The police officer was accused of having murdered the 43 year old Garner through a tactic learned in the police academy but which many people claimed it was a choke hold.   In the video of the incident the officer who brought the man down to the ground with the help of other officers deliberately jumped on him and used his weight to bring him down. The grand jury decision has caused the country to go into major unrest because it is the latest in a series of incidents in which Caucasian police kill unarmed black men and have not been convicted of murder.  It has been an ongoing trend that has diminished the public's trust in peace officers.  President Obama addressed the issue in a general manner by stating that the events of Ferguson and New York are extremely unfortunate.  He wishes for the relations of the public and law enforcement to mend because there is a stigma that has been created towards police officers.  They are the enforcers of law and without them there could be chaos.  Reading articles from about a year ago, I remember how the Stop and Frisk policy worked superbly at bringing down crime, but after a while police officers were frisking the same individual on multiple occasions.  The problem may be with the allocation of officers and the fact that they have nothing better to do.  The article shows clips of the video in which it can be seen a dozen officers at the seen.  Is America headed in the direction of being a police state?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2014/12/03/8dc55084-7b2b-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html

Billionaires Unite to Avert Averages for Better Health Policy

 While the suburban citizens of countries from this region of the Americas hit the gym to burn fat, indigenous citizens struggle to properly nourish themselves and their young ones.  The article implies that legislators use averages to form health policies that displace a large part of the population that lives in poverty. Billionaires Bill Gates and Carlos Slim united with local governments of central american countries to help develop better health policies to target its less fortunate constituents. In 2010 Health surveys were taken to record the disparities of the poorest of the poor in Central America.  The collaboration created a programme called Salud Mesoamerica that gives  incentives to countries like Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica and Panama to write and implement health policies geared toward improving the health of the poorer parts of their population.  

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21633944-alliance-billionaires-and-bureaucrats-makes-difference-misleading-means

No Progress Without Congress

President Obama is dominating immigration headlines with his executive action, which is intended to relieve nearly half of the undocumented immigrant population.  With nearly 6 million individuals left out of Mr. Obama's plan, it is clear that the president's executive powers fall short without the help of congress;the legislative body of the government.  The order is predicted to boost the economy by 6.8 billion dollars and create 160,000 jobs.  Critics of the order do not think it goes far enough to change the H1B visas from its 65,000 visas a year for foreign high tech-skilled workers.  Others like the Center for Immigration Studies thinks that adding 5 million immigrants to the work force think that it is unfair for citizens who have not found jobs since the Great Recession.  Small businesses are all for an immigration overhaul because they will benefit from the low-skilled foreigners.  Over all there will be more obvious change with a reform of the entire immigration system.  Passed like Senate Bill 774 failed to pass through the House of Representatives, so the struggle continues for a large scale immigration reform.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/obama-immigration-plan-good-not-great-for-economy/2014/11/22/5a4bbb96-7250-11e4-a2c2-478179fd0489_story.html

republican reaction to exec order

Executive order is under way and Republicans are not to far from December  when a another government shutdown may occur due to spending on the president's order.  Republicans, though have not stepped down, but rather stepped up to Obama's threat because they are not willing to be blamed for another shutdown.  They have declared that Congress will use all of the power it holds to defer any funding to the president's order.  In this manner, They will attempt to keep some of their pride and dignity, which they have revamped since their triumph of 31 seats in the senate.  Political attitudes for an immigration reform are mixed within the republican party. Some are voicing against certain measure that are going to be proposed by the president in his executive actions on Thursday November 20th.  others have omitted any comments, like governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, because he will take a stance once he decides whether to join the 2016 race for president.  others like the Governor of Ohio, John R. Kasich, have openly stated that they are not against the idea.  All in all, Republicans have joined in their attitudes despite their celebrations of their victory on election day just 16 days ago.  The agree that there needs to be an immigration reform and that they will deal with undocumented immigrants in a fair way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/us/politics/-2014-11-20-us-republican-governors-seethe-over-obamas-immigration-move.html

executive order for about four to five million undocumented immigratns

Last week, President Obama announced of an executive order that would bring relief of deportation and work permits to millions of undocumented.  This has brought backlash from the Republican party and they have promised to do everything in their power to counter Mr. Obama's order.   Aside from the drama and politics among both parties, the executive order is definitely going to be signed.  Some of the shortcomings of the executive order will be expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to parents of D.R.E.A.M.ers, who will only possibly deferred from deportation, but not given work permits.  What will happen with D.A.C.A. is that the age limit will possibly be lifted and/or the education requirement will be lifted.  Healthcare will not be available to immigrants as it was also stated in S.B. 774 of 2013, but it will be available to the American born children of immigrants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/us/politics/obamacare-unlikely-for-undocumented-immigrants.html?_r=0