Epinefriends for forever

     EpiPen is the one thing in the world that doesn't change. While politics rages on, bathrooms are debated, and kardashians make bad life choices, EpiPen is the one thing that won't change. Or will it? EpiPen increased their price 600% so now a pack of two pens cost $600 (instead of $100). So why this extortionist change? Mylan bought EpiPen and decided that a profit needed to generate from this life-saving drug. Stopping to think about it for a moment, it's an interesting concept. This extra 500% will go to helping other drug advancements and drug studies. 

Or will it? Over the past few years, Mylan has had executives give themselves some serious raises. The FDA is looking into this, but will continue their work once all the executives get back from the Bahamas. 

However, whatever the case, it's still far too much for most families, considering an EpiPen expires faster than milk. (Well, 6 months). Mylan, embarrassed, released a generic version for $300 instead. It's kind of like when the bully asks to either give you a wedgie or you give them your lunch money. You're going to give them your lunch money, because it just sucks less. Opponents are still arguing that the price is still outrageous. 

Maybe we're not all Epinefriends, after all. 

 

http://theskimm.com/2016/08/29/skimm-for-august-30th-3?jumpto=quote-of-the-day&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=emailshare via @theSkimm

Rhetoric and High-minded speech for the first time this election!

Mark your calendars, everyone, for the first time in the 2016 presidential election, a candidate has decided to use their inside voice and talk to their audience about how their opponent is lesser than themselves! This is bizarre! Hillary Clinton has finally delivered on the, in my opinion, most hard hitting speech concerning Trump. "From the start, Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia." Clinton said. "He is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party." She said (practically with a finger snap). This sort of calm calculated debunking of the opponents rhetoric is exactly what I (and I would hope others) have been waiting for in this election. Is rational thought and intellectual debate our October surprise? illary also compared Trumps campaign to an alt-right movement. Wait. What's an alt-right movement? It's essentially an online chat board for young white guys who think they're super better than everyone and probably drive nice cars. Imagine your highschool jocks and add racism, anti-semitism, sexism and a hint of bluntness. Trump claims this is not his campaign while the democrats think: well... If the shoe fits. Meanwhile, on the TrumpyRight side, Trump says that his campaign is for Americans who were "left behind". Those inner city African Americans who were forgotten by the democrats, are Trump's supporters (apparently). Whatever the case may be, Clinton seriously made some headway and set the tone for the rest of the election! 

 

Clinton aims to reframe 2016 debate

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/26/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-alt-right/index.html

Gaziantep bombing and a dark time for Turkey

    At a wedding at Gazianep in southern turkey, a child bomber between the ages of 12 and 14 attacked a wedding in which there were 50 casualties and half were children. Mothers sobbed as their children were lowered into graves including Mirgin Gurbuz. Mirdin was forced into a temporarily unmarked grave because of the sheer amount of casualties. Turkey officials are confident that this was an ISIS attack due to the amount of horror and attention it brought. In addition, the victimized Kurd's family had a long withstanding hatred for ISIS. Syrian refugees flee to Turkey due to the wars and this makes them excellent targets for ISIS attacks.


 http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/22/europe/turkey-wedding-blast-gaziantep/index.html

Sorry, Green&Libertarians, 3 is a crowd

      We're all fed up with Hillary and Trump! So are there really any other options? Well we have the Green Party's Jill Stein and the Libertarian party's Gary Johnson. These two are the well settled and decently attractive candidates that all the Republican Partisans have their mid-life crisis for. When has any third party ever been truly successful though in recent history? Because of record low favorability among our two main candidates, Stein and Johnson could make some impact on the election as long as a few things happen.

1. Trump will remain Trump. Trump has informed everyone that he doesn't want to change and that is scarier than seeing a spider in your room and then immediately losing track of it. This sort of mentality turns the Republican Partisans away because they know they will have less influence. 
2. People believing that Clinton will win the election will allow Republicans to diffuse the whole trump mistake much easier and will lessen fears of Trump winning.
3. Republicans and others must begin campaigning against Trump so that the Trump supporters will fragment. 
4. The 3rd parties need to step up their game by holding events and rising in the polls like madmen. 

     With the clock ticking, slow and steady won't win this race. Even then, it is extremely unlikely for any of these third parties to rise to such prominence. The best outcome to expect is a fragmentation of the Trump campaign so that somebody with a more level head and better hair can secure the victory.

 http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/17/opinions/third-party-chances-brown/index.html

Extreme Vetting-- Like the ACT but with Liberty and a mean teacher

     No, extreme vetting is not a competition to see who can shave a poodle quickest. Donald Trump's recent terror plan has been hopeful at best. Trump, in an interview, proposes that we should have a vetting process where we test our immigrants on an ideological level to see if their beliefs match up with ours. This was first practiced in the Cold War where there was ideological test screening, so why can it not work with radicals?
      While this seems dumb, because of how easy it may be to circumvent this test by cheating off your neighbor, a social media scan for terrorist activity is encouraged by Trump. Trump claims that groups like Isis have an intense presence on social media and tracking that digital footprint to immigrant applicants can protect Americans from radicalized terrorists. Even with current U.S. residents, Trump said that he would "throw out" someone with radical ideology.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/08/18/trump-extreme-vetting-orlando-shooters-dad-should-be-thrown-out

Complicated Potty Breaks!

     The John, the throne, the Oval Office, whatever you call it, it's sort of an issue. In a recent altercation, Federal judge from Texas barred the Obama administration from making a decision about transgendered bathrooms. More specifically, for students. The Obama administration stated that Title IX, which protects students going to federal schools from sexual discrimination, includes gender identity. Keeping with the theme of Obama's presidency, the guidance on transgender bathrooms is to have a gender neutral bathroom in addition.
   To tackle the discrimination, it went to court and was ruled that essentially Title IX was irrelevant and that there was no discrimination. However, Attorney General Loretta Lynch is not the one standing next to the man by the urinal. LGBT activists were saddened by the results of the courts ruling.

 http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/22/politics/transgender-school-bathroom-policy/index.html

The Lochte Ness Monster: A story of exaggeration

      Another way for the rest of the world to not like the United States, Ryan Lochte, Olympic gold medalist, recently speaks on his time in Rio and states that he was robbed at a local gas station. This, of course, makes Rio look even worse and this is coming from a place where there was feces in the water. So, the bar was low. But what really happened? Early on August 14th, Lochte was drunk and was reported to have been vandalizing the gas station and harassing the security guard. But he says that he was held at gun point and robbed. Trust the witnesses and security guards on duty who confronted the hooligans or the intoxicated jock? Hm, toughie!

     However, with a big gulp, Lochte swallowed his pride and apologized multiple times and even was reported saying that he regretted "not being more careful and candid" in a post on instagram. Unfortunately, apologizing and having your tail between your legs is more for new parents and this is Brazil. No punishment has been found yet but Lochte is suffering already because Speedo, Polo Ralph Lauren and Airweave have run away faster than a certain Jamaican Olympian we know. Whatever the outcome may be, it won't be all medals and swimming pools for Ryan Lochte.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/20/sport/us-olympics-swimmers-reported-robbery-future/

In Some-Unspecific-Celestial-Higher-Being We Trust

Ranking Religious Devotion: Mississippi Wins Something For the First Time

Well we tied with them. 

      Hello from Alabama, I am writing from the buckle of the bible belt. Ah, yes. Homophobia, Chick-fil-A closed on Sunday and cookouts 4 Jesus Wednesday nights, that's home. Another phenomenal interactive tool from the Pew Research Center shows how religious your state is! However, I could have told you that Alabama was religious after my grandma found her favorite snack in the pantry (Veggie straws) and said "Praise the Lord". 

      And Yes, we weren't the only most religious, we tied for first with Mississippi. I should mention that we have the saying "thank god for Mississippi" whenever a national statistic comes out and research says that Alabama is not the most obese (i.e. thank god for Mississippi for making us look good). 

      New England proved itself to be less religiously devout than the South. If you've ever ridden the subway in NYC than you would think there's no God there as well. Alabama statistics show that 51% of people attend church weekly and 82% of people believe in God without doubt. I don't know what happened to that 31% but that's none of my business. But how do we go about actually measuring devotion? Do particularly devote people carry water bottles full of wine? Americans were considered highly religious if they participated or subscribed to 2 out of these 4 ideals below!

• Is religion important to you?
• Do you pray daily?
• Do you attend church at least weekly?
• Do you believe in God with absolute certainty?

     After asking myself these questions, I deduced that I am as religious as a toad. But what does this have to do with politics? Well, what doesn't it have to do with politics. While most of the founding fathers were Deist, much of our government is based on religious qualities. Marriage was first a religious endeavor. This is why gay rights was such an issue with the south because it flabbergasted the south's idea of a christian marriage. While there is Civil Union, it is still extremely difficult to get a marriage license in the south for two men or two women. Political Scientists must watch religion because these religious politicians will often clump together and form a coalition to appeal to religious voters. The morality of a government is highly driven by religious platforms. 

Read more about religious states and find your religious standing!

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/29/how-religious-is-your-state/?state=alabama

Family Values and The Interview

What are our politicians saying again? Where do I truly stand? 

     How about some background? I am a senior in high school and am delving into my AP class in which we are encouraged to blog and share our thoughts and curriculum and general teenage angst. I began this class to understand a bit more about our government and feel frustrated about the upcoming 2016 election. While I do not need a grade in a class to feel the frustration, I would like to be knowledgeably befuddled by our great leaders and can intelligently say that we're all doomed. I will link a site on how to make a DIY bomb-shelter in a few posts. Hermit life isn't that bad?


     

So far in my class, we've had two different quizzes about typology and general opinion to find out footing. (I'll link them below). I was classified as the young outsider. I'm a social liberal and feel generally let down by our government. We are sort of the white crayon of the political coloring book because of our disinterest in overseas affairs. I feel the war to be not our problem. I'm okay with passive isolationism. However, I won't lie, i'm still forming my own opinions. Take the quiz for yourself and figure out where you fit!
      The recent news quiz was fairly easy. Do you know who this is? It's Martin Luther King, Jr. and no its not the Islamic Malcolm X. And thanks to the controversial movie, The Interview starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, i'm even more aware of the fact that Kim Jong-un being the leader of North Korea. Link is below!
      Yesterday we had these pictures laid out all over these two tables and we had to decide whether or not a picture was political and we basically deduced that all of the pictures could be considered political (down to a picture of a racially ambiguous family). Even a backyard was deemed political, because it painted a picture of family values which has been a phrase that can gussy up a politicians image. No gay marriage because family values. *Wild Applause* 

  http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/the-news-iq-quiz/ (General news quiz)

http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-typology/group/bd324384 (Typology quiz)