The Nixon Presidency

            Richard Nixon has a reputation, a reputation of a liar a cheater and even a criminal. Are all these harsh allegations fair to Richard Nixon? Should a man be measured by his failures or by his accomplishment? As Americans are we to quick to judge people of power for their wrong doings? Do we remember that they are human to? I believe there is a lot to learn from the Nixon presidencies. Richard Nixon could be used as the poster child for what can be great in a presidency and what can be disastrous in a presidency. I believe Nixon’s presidency should be used as a learning experience instead of looked at as a dark corrupt stain on our countries past.

            Let’s start off with that dark corrupt stain. Obviously the stain on the presidency we are talking about is none other than the infamous Watergate scandal. This scandal was a huge part of our countries history. The Watergate scandal changed how America’s people will look at government. To most government is looked at as a corrupt system where scandals and under the table dirty deeds are done every day. Sure this is mostly true but, Watergate opened the eyes of the masses. This is good because we are now aware of this disease we call corruption that controls our government, but even after Watergate we did nothing to stop it. Corruption still happens today. I sometimes think maybe if we never heard of Watergate maybe the American people would still trust our system of government. Maybe the people would care and take pride in electing officials and strive to be part of government instead of just turning a blind eye to all of it. I think the worst thing Nixon did was losing the trust of the American people.

            Nixon I do believe was a good negotiator. He was a man with patients and nerves of steel. Nixon and his staff did what was thought to be impossible by easing tensions with the communists. I think Nixon was crucial in deescalating the tensions of the cold war. He made things fair with our adversaries. He could see how one situation could benefit or hurt another and that’s why I think he was such a valuable negotiator. He was a man out for the betterment of the planet not just our nation.   

            Nixon’s troop withdrawals from Vietnam were a logical choice. It wasn’t his war. He tried to finish it by trying to cripple VC supply lines in Cambodia, but that did little to stop the communist rebels. Nixon saw further troop deployment into Vietnam was futile and would only result in more loss of human life. I can understand why people were angry about the troop withdrawals. It was an American defeat. People felt as if their sons and husbands had died for nothing. I would feel the same way if I was a soldier or family member. But it wasn’t Nixon’s war. We had no reason to be there in the first place and Nixon got blamed for it.

            Richard Nixon was not the luckiest man alive. He got caught abusing his power and he paid for it by his name forever being linked to lies and corruption. I think he shouldn’t be looked down upon for his failures but I believe he should be equally praised for his accomplishments.

1. 13
2. 52,382
3. 122061, 495 , 48
4. I think it’s awful what happened to tammy. It also happened 40 years ago. I believe they would be better at keeping and infected patient contained. 
5. Religion/allergies
6. Yes
7.  Its ok to wait, foreigners are bringing them in, More people die from the vaccine than from measles, Existence of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program proves vaccines are harmful, People who have been vaccinated can spread measles, Vaccination is a political debate, Vaccines cause autism.
    
    
   So I believe that immunizations were created to help us not hurt us. Yes I believe people should be allowed to choose, but I believe they should be properly educated by a physician. Most doctors would say that it’s good for your child to be vaccinated. I think South Dakota’s guide lines are fair. If you allergic u shouldn’t be forced. I think the whole religion thing is kind of crap though. I believe you should have to have proof, because anybody can just say that their religion says they can’t get vaccinated. I also think they should just make vaccinations free.

Govment Trip

              I think yesterday was a good experience. I’ve toured the capitol before but couldn’t really remember it. I think now that I’m older I could really appreciate it. I thought the architecture was pretty sweet. I thought it was interesting when the lady in the governor’s office was talking about the mural they had to cover up. The committee meeting had to be my favorite part. Everybody should have to listen to one of those to vote. It really makes me second guess the way I voted this fall. It was very informative to see both sides of the argument. It was pretty cool how we could just talk to the guys from district one to.  It’s nice to get to know the guys who are representing our area at the capitol. I may not have agreed with their views on land, but they seem fit to represent our district. Pizza Ranch was good. The house was a little more boring but at least we got to see how the system works. But all in all it was a good day. Got some good pictures and had some fun. Thanks for taking us it was a good experience.

Pick Your Poison

1984 or Hasbro’s Monopoly  

Capitalism, this is how I see capitalism. So capitalism makes its money from the people, because the people are consumers. And the more people consume the bigger the capitalists gets and the poorer the consumer gets.  And the way our society works it works out perfect for the capitalist. Society tells us we need more and the consumer listens and the capitalist gets richer. I would be more ok with people getting filthy rich if they would just share their wealth. If they used that money to start charities and organizations to help the poor we wouldn’t need government controlled health care, food stamps or college, because it all be paid for by filthy rich corporations.  Republicans would be happy because the governments not using their tax money to help the poor and the democrats would be happy because the poor are getting the help they need.   So capitalism without greed would be great. It would still give people a chance to build a flourishing business without government involvement.  Another thing I don’t like is the government bailing out big business. If the business fails that has nothing to do with the government.

                Socialism is kind of in between capitalism and communism. The government has a hand in almost every aspect of business. Production of goods is based solely on the needs of the people.  It’s a moderate form of communism. Socialism benefits the lower and middle classes, because of things like free health care and free school. But trying to be an entrupuneur  really sucks. The government makes it really hard for you to get rich, because your business is technically the peoples. Socialism gets in the way of the capitalistic freedom of building up your own business. With socialism there would be no Bill Gates, Carnegie, Rockefeller, or Sanford. It crushes the dream of every making it big in business. One plus is that socialism does not allow private monopoly, because the government is the monopoly. So that way one corporation cannot hold all the money and power.

                Just like were told we are democratic we are told we are capitalists but I don’t believe that either. Business are taxed, bailed out, and regulated by the government so it is not true capitalism.  If anything it’s more socialist. So I don’t agree with either form. I’d agree to a hybrid, But not Americas form. And a socialist economy would not work in America unless there was total democratic control and the taxed the rich. But if one party was in control then it wouldn’t be fair. So yeah, confusing stuff, really messes with your head.

I have never heard this quote before but I think it has too much truth to it. I also find it kind of funny that one of our founding fathers said such a dark thing about or new countries form of government. But he’s not wrong. It’d be stupid and close minded not to agree with him. Democracy is kind of a fairy tale anyway. Maybe back when we were first founded it could have worked. But with today’s high population and large corporations it’s nearly impossible to uphold democracy. Sure we elect officials to vote “for the people”, but if that was the case we wouldn’t have as much poverty and corporations wouldn’t be making billions and billions of dollars all while hurting the people.

Calling America today a democracy is the biggest joke I ever heard. John Adams was right when he said democracy does not last. Throughout our whole lives we are told that America is this great almighty democracy where the people run the country. Most believe it. But all you have to do is dig a little deeper. Number one, we don’t vote anyone into the higher levels of government. I know you’re not going to like this but voting is just an illusion. We get the idea that we think were in control of who gets elected but were not.  Popular vote just shows what the people want it’s not like they care. They already know who’s going to be president before they get “elected”. They want the one who’s going to carry out their agenda not the peoples.  The Electoral College is proof of this.  It’s where a hand full of elites has more power than the entire civilian population. It’s a joke. The definition of democracy is where the people elect those who lead.

John Adams was right democracy doesn’t last. It’s been gone for decades. Greed took away our true democracy.  I don’t even know how to describe our form of government. It’s some sort of republic totalitarian democratic hybrid built on lies I guess. It is sad that democracy in its purest form cannot survive this world.  But it’s hard with big government and greed. It’s not hard it’s impossible.  America’s not what it was when John Adams Wrote this. I wonder what he’d say now. He’d probably call for

bicameral government

 I think one of the main reasons the constitution adopted the form of bicameral government so quickly was that it was a compromise between two of the proposed plans, The New Jersey Plan and The Virginia Plan. In the bicameral system everyone has equal say in the senate and states with more people have bigger influence in the house. It just makes sense. Also two houses allow the one to keep the other in check. Another reason for adopting it was that Great Britain had been using it since the 1300’s and they saw that this section  of their government was good.

CIA interogation and torture

Torture to extract information from important individuals has been part of war for centuries. Some may argue this information needs to be extracted by means of torture to save American lives. This rings true to a certain extent. The people administrating this torture, be it the CIA or whoever, need to realize that as humans we all have certain unalienable rights. I myself believe torture is an effective way of extracting information, but the horrors described in the articles I have read are something no human should have to endure.

                Things like anal feeding and making inmates wear a diaper have nothing to do with extracting important information, they are just cruel techniques to prolong suffering.  I‘d think things like mock burial, mock execution, sleep deprivation  and water boarding would be much more effective ways of extracting information without disfiguring the human body. 

                I also think the CIA should not allow two doctors who have limited experience in torture to develop types of torture for their organization.  Eighty million dollars is far too much to pay someone for coming up with ways to scare people. A kid in junior high could have come up with their techniques. For all we now these two doctors could have just searched google for ways to torture and be cruel to a human being and walked away with eighty million in tax payer dollars.

From an article I read on www.vicenews.com they claim that no unique or important information was extracted from prisoners detained in these so called black prisons. The article also talks about threats made by CIA to prisoners threatening to kill their families.  One CIA agent even said to a prisoner that he would never be put on trial because no one can know what I’ve done to you here. This only makes it more obvious that our tactics in interrogation need to be refined to make them both more effective and less brutal.

https://news.vice.com/article/senate-torture-report-finds-the-cia-was-less-effective-and-more-brutal-than-anyone-knew