Wisconsin to Cover Transgender Treatment, in a Decision Reversing the Prior Law

The insurance board that manages Wisconsin's health coverage for public works, Group Insurance Board, voted 5-4 to overturn its current policy to bar treatment "related to gender reassignment or sexual transformation." This comes as a huge win for transgender rights activists in the state and across the country. The Obama era policy to bar discrimination based on gender identity had been previously ignored by the Group Insurance Board amid pressures from state officials. This decision comes amid suspicions that the Trump administration will put out a new rule, overturning the Obama administration's rule, regarding gender identity based discrimination. 

1. Do you think that discrimination for gender identity and sexual orientation should be protected by federal law? Do you think it is already covered by Title IX?
2. Should public insurance cover gender reassignment surgery?

Original Article (NPR): In A Reversal, Wisconsin To Cover State Workers Seeking Transgender Treatment

John McCain's death sparks renewed speculation his wife could be appointed to fill his Senate seat

Cindy McCain, with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who could appoint her to serve the remainder

 of her late husband's Senate term. (Ross D. Franklin / AP)

Following the death of Senator John McCain on Saturday August 25th, 2018, their was speculation that the governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey would appoint McCain's wife: Cindy McCain, to the vacant Senate seat. This has been seen as controversial because Cindy McCain does not share some of John's views on important topics such as gay marriage and abortion. Current governor Ducey called out his far right opposition for governor, Ken Bennet, for tweeting "I promise I will not appoint Cindy McCain to US Senate as Gov of AZ" on May 31st, before McCain had passed. It was reported that Ducey will announce the appointment following John McCain's funeral on Sunday.

Per law, Ducey's Senate appointment will serve until 2020 when another Senator can be elected. This elected Senator will finish McCain's term which ends in 2024.  With lots of important legislation coming up in the senate, who ever Ducey appoints has potential to heavily influence the Senate since the current Republican to Democrat count is 50 - 49 right now. As of now, the Republicans do not have a majority.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think that Ducey should appoint Cindy McCain or a politician whose political views are closer in line with John McCain's?
2. What effects do you think the Republican's lack of a majority in the senate will have on the public policy in the week leading up to the new appointment?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-news-cindy-mccain-john-senate-seat-20180828-story.html#

Revised Plans for NAFTA Begin to Materialize

Trump in the Oval Office

On Monday, August 27th, President Trump announced the agreement between the US and Mexico’s trade negotiators of a finalized bilateral trade deal which would in effect replace NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement, between Canada, Mexico, and the United States created a free trade zone between the three nations, allowing for greater production between these countries. Revisions to the trade deal include updates to provisions around the digital economy, automobiles, agriculture, and labor unions. Negotiations with Canada began this week, and if they do not come to an agreement with the new trade deal by Friday, Canada will be left out.

From the research I have done, it is unclear as to whether NAFTA is responsible for the loss of jobs in America. There are mixed results. One finding by the Economic Policy Institute found that 700,000 jobs were lost when production moved to Mexico. Another report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics said that only 5 percent of dislocated US workers could be traced to imports from Mexico. Due to this uncertainty, I think that more research should be done before any drastic changes are made to NAFTA.

Questions:

1. Do you think NAFTA should be revised?
2. Why do you think Trump is so eager to implement the new trade deal?
3. What do you think will happen if the new trade deal is emplaced?

Sources: 

Trump Reaches Revised Trade Deal with Mexico, Threatening to Leave Out Canada

US Canada Talk Trade Under Pressure'

What is NAFTA and why does Trump want it renegotiated? 

US inmates prepare nationwide strikes over prison working conditions

(Lee Correctional Institute, where seven inmates died in the deadliest riot in 2 decades)

Article (The Guardian)

2.3 million prison inmates across the United States have organized strikes in response to the current prison conditions present in the U.S. Complaints over harsh sentences such as life without parole, lack of basic political rights, and a lack of rehabilitation services are in abundance. However, the main complaint of these inmates is that they are forced to work with extremely low pay, to the point where they are calling it "modern slavery."

I find the presence of such abusive conditions in the U.S. prison system disturbing. In comparison to other developed nation's prison systems, the U.S. appears to be significantly worse in both rehabilitating prisoners and providing a basic amount of human decency to the prisoners. Furthermore, the corporations that exploit these prisoners for their own financial gain seem to be treading quite the morally questionable path.

The presence of such a poor penal system may in fact damage America's reputation as a bastion of liberty in the eyes of other nations due its inability to treat its own prisoners humanely. Furthermore, the continuation of our current prison system simply gives our "rivals" more things to attack us with, and fighting for human rights in other countries seems a bit hypocritical when we ourselves cannot ensure that we protect human rights in our own country.

Questions:

1. Does the U.S. prison system need a complete revamp?

2. Do certain prisoners deserve sentences such as life without parole?

Protestors tear down Confederate statue at UNC

 

Silent Sam after being torn down

Source  (the Daily Wire)

 

 

On Monday night a group of protestors at University of North Carolina (UNC) Chappell Hill torn down the confederate statue "Silent Sam". The statue was placed on campus in 1913 to commemorate the 300 alumni of UNC who fought for the Confederate army in the Civil War. University officials say that at 9:20 a group of about 250 protestors brought down the statue. I think that Confederate statues should be displayed on public property like state universities or courthouse, however I do not think that we should be tearing down these monuments. It is important that our history is remember no matter how dark because once you start to erase history, you could be on the path to repeating it. In my opinion it is important for people to know what happened so that they can have a better sense of their history.

 

Discussion Questions

 

1. Do you think that the protestors should have torn down "Silent Sam"

 

2. should other confederate monuments be taken down

 

Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and Donald Trump

Article on Manafort's Court Case. Check out the 2 minute video on this article for a quick summary.

Article on the Affect on Trump by the Convictions of Manafort and Cohen

There have been two major convictions recently of two major players in the Trump election. One was Paul Manafort was Trump's former campaign chairman who had a history of international scandals (see Manafort article) and had run into legal issues previously. This time, he has been convicted of multiple accounts of bank fraud: he lied to banks about his financial state and avoided being taxed on millions of dollars in foreign accounts.

Michael Cohen, previously Trump's lawyer, was convicted for working with Trump in paying off two women who had been in sexual relationships with Trump. 

Trump has called Mueller's (attorney investigating Trump's campaign) "rigged witch hunts." With his diminishing approval ratings and secrecy, this presidency reminds me of Nixon's presidency with the Watergate scandal. Which leads me to wonder what you expect to see in the future for the President? What are your reactions to Trump's secrecy? How do you feel knowing that there may be more violations to uncover?

I am shocked that people are willing to make such serious infringements. If I were an individual with power, knowing that so many people are impacted by my actions would give me reason to act more cautiously. Of course, people are motivated with self-interest, but isn't the general purpose of becoming involved in politics to serve the people? 

With these exposures, I don't see a very promising future for this presidency.

What are your thoughts on these two convictions?

Bitconnect (BCC) will Finally be Delisted from it's Last Cryptocurrency Exchange

Bitconnect (BCC) to be Delisted from Last Cryptocurrency Exchange

The ponzi scheme was invented almost one and a half centuries ago in the 1880s. Since then, with the advent of the internet, the trading of securities has accelerated from multi-day transactions to nearly instant trades.So too has the "Oldest trick in the book" been re-envisioned to fool new investors.

Almost exactly one year ago, the iconic image of Carlos Matos (hey hey hey!) spread like wildfire across the internet. His exuberant, roaring optimism at the first (and last) Bitconnect Annual Ceremony (I highly recommend watching this) starkly contrasted with professional analyst opinions, all of whom unanimously opined that it was a total scam. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First of all, what the heck is Bitconnect?

BCC PRICE CHART

Bitconnect, shortened BCC, is a cryptocurrency. Built from the same technology as Bitcoin, BCC is theoretically the perfect currency: Easy to exchange, a good storage unit of value (well, once more people start using it), and implausible to steal. So far, nothing fishy.

Launched in February of 2016, the creators of Bitconnect had more in mind for their coin than just as currency. They created a complementary investing program: Lend your bitcoin to us (which was sold and converted to BCC, this becomes important later), and you will receive 1% interest per day, also paid out in BCC.

People flocked from all over to Bitconnect, after all, just a $1000 investment, left to collect interest for 1 year, would transform into $38,000, a 38-fold annual return. With endorsements from celebrities like Mike Tyson and Ashton Kutcher, it's no wonder the price of BCC exploded from a few dollars to a peak price of $400 in the span of a year.

However, the incredibly successful launch story of BCC was about to take a darker turn. Authorities had gotten wind of the outrageous 1% per day interest and served them Cease and Desist letters in Texas and North Carolina. The letters primarily asserted their failure to register and obtain the proper licenses to sell securities in their respective states, but also pointed out a lack of transparency on their business model, including assets, liabilities, and risks. In all but name, they were accused of fraud.

Just a few days later, on January 16th, the Bitconnect investing platform closed down. Even as investors frantically withdrew and sold their BCC balances, the price plummeted from $400 to $200, to $100, to $30, to $16, and finally leveled out at ~$0.05. Many investors ended up with far less than their initial investments, and the organizers vanished into thin air

On Reddit, posts about the news read like horror stories:

Soon after, the subreddit went private, hiding the last of the posts from the world.


Today, BCC has been scheduled (Sept 10, 2018) to be delisted from the final exchange still trading it: TradeSatoshi . Without the interest generated by the scam, it's trading volume has shrunk to just $10,000 daily. After all, it is little more than new name on bitcoin software. After the delisting, trading BCC will become nearly impossible, and the saga of Bitconnect will finally be over.

Here's some questions for you:

What do you recommend to prevent this from happening again?
What do you invest in/what is your general strategy? hopefully not bitconnect

The "Gag" Rule

Washington Post

 (Planned Parenthood supporters in Capitol Hill)

Title X is the only federal grant program that is dedicated to helping individuals with family planning and
other preventative health services. Under the new rules of the “gag rule,” organizations that receive
Title X funding which previously gave counseling and referrals to abortion services, are not allowed
refer people to where they can properly get an abortion. The only exception to this rule is when a
woman states before that they already have made the decision to have an abortion.The new proposed
rule would not cut the funds to title X, but it would ensure that taxpayer money would not go directly to
abortions. This rule would not allow doctors with organizations be referred to suggested to go to abortion
clinics like Planned Parenthood (41% of Planned Parenthood patients are recommended by Title X
organizations). The topic of abortions have been a debate throughout the country as one of the defining
factors between republicans and democrats and weather abortions are for the rights of the mother or for
the baby.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the pros and cons of having this new rule to Title X?

2. Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinic provide services other than abortions, how would this
new rule affect the participation in the other services these clinics provide?

3. Do you think that this new rule should be passes and update Title X?

4. Do you think it should be considered as a "gag rule?"

Kavanaugh confirmation hearings scheduled for first week in September

                                           Source: Scott Applewhite, AP

Article link (Politico)

Brett Kavanaugh, who is President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee to replace retired justice Anthony Kennedy, is scheduled for hearings during the first week of September. Justice Kennedy has been the swing vote on the court for decades and Kavanaugh's judicial philosophy would make the Supreme Court lean solidly conservative. Democrats are trying to prevent Kavanaugh's confirmation and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer has said the Republicans are being more secretive about Kavanaugh's history than any previous Supreme Court candidate. The public will hear more from Kavanaugh during his hearings in September, which Republicans are confident will lead to his confirmation as a Supreme Court justice in time for the new term that begins in October. This NY Times article illuminates the partisan divide over this nomination and some potential problems with Kavanaugh's history.

Discussion Questions
1. Does close attention need to be paid to records from Kavanaugh's five years in the Bush administration as staff secretary?
2. Is Kavanaugh a good pick to become a Supreme Court justice based on what you know about him so far or do we need to reserve judgment until his hearings next month?
3. If Kavanaugh is confirmed as expected, will it give Republicans a boost in the November midterm elections?

Trump disliked at a similar rate to Nixon prior to his resignation

Source: CNN

Article link (CNN)

                                         
President Trump is disliked at approximately the same rate as President Nixon was before he resigned from office 44 years ago according to a new Marist College poll. There is a major difference between Republicans, half of whom rate Trump's job performance as excellent and Democrats, 80% of whom rate Trump's job performance as poor. Trump has kept his job approval rating steadily around 40% for much of his presidency, but his approval rating is lower than any president since Nixon. The big question this fall will be whether voter discontent with Trump will translate into losses in the midterm Congressional elections as was the case with Reagan, Clinton, and Obama.

Discussion Questions
1. How would you rate President Trump's job performance so far? Excellent, pretty good, fair, or poor and explain why.
2. Does the partisan divide in the presidential approval rating data surprise you or is it what you would expect in this era of political polarization?
3. Will the Democrats make big gains in the November election as the article suggests or will Republicans keep control of the House of Representatives and/or the Senate?