Federal Reserve

I believe that the Federal Reserve is an asset to this country. They have helped America multiple times when we were in time of need. In that movie that we watched it listed many pros of the Federal Reserve. But also a lot of cons. One time the head guy of the Federal Reserve decided that he should raise the interest rates really high so then the economy would be really good after a couple of years. So when Reagan was president, that was when they had an economic boom. Everyone was like 'wow Reagan is so cool this is because of him' BUT IT WASN'T it had nothing to do with him it was the federal reserve. But in the early 2000's the housing market had crashed and you wanna know why? The Federal Reserve. The took too much money for too long and printed too much money and made the economy go down to almost the depression. I believe that its a good idea that it is run by private bankers instead of politicians because politicians wouldn't be looking a the whole goal of the federal reserve but just to get votes of people by lowering interest rates. 

Net Neutrality

Net neutality is when internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites. Meaning that internet providers like Comcast or Verizon should have access to the internet to give to people. But should not have the power to block other websites. For an example, people who had netflix and their internet provider was verizon were experiencing slow loading speeds. And netflix said on the bottom of the load screen, that it was the internet provider's fault. So Verizon took it upon themselves to slow down the internet to the people who had netflix using their provider's internet. So then netflix would get more complaints and no one would want to use netflix anymore. Internet provider's should not be able to have this power. And that is why the FCC should make this bill. To make rules so then bigger companies cannot shut down little companies.

Underground Economy

The underground economy is when people don't have a full time or regular job. It is very big in the United States and without it, the economy would crumble. It is said in the article that this shadow economy has made 2 trillion dollars. Even if it isn't on record it is still helping the economy because people are still spending that money. Like having an under the table job and you get money. You spend that money goods like food and other necessities and that money goes into the economy.  But even though this shadow economy is helping, things need to change. People who are paid under the table don't get social security or health benefits. And normally get paid less than minimum wage.

Merit vs. spoils

The spoils system and the merit system are two different things. A spoils system is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends and relatives as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party.The merit system is the process of promoting and hiring government employees based on their ability to perform a job, rather than on their political connections. It is the opposite of the spoils system. 
The spoils system was always used until after the Civil war system's abuses prompted civil service reforms designed to cut down the number of government posts filled by appointment and to award jobs on the basis of merit. The Pendleton Federal Civil Service Act of 1883 provided the initial basis for the adoption of the merit system in the recruitment of federal officials, and by the late 20th century merit systems had almost completely replaced the spoils system at the federal, state, and city levels of government.

There are more than 100 merit system school and college districts in California which employ almost 60 percent of the total classified (non-certificated) school employees in the state.  A merit system  may be voted into a district by local Board of Trustees action, by a majority vote of the district's classified employees, or by a majority vote of the voting electors of the school or college district.  The merit system was first adopted in Santa Monica College as part of the Santa Monica City Schools by the Board of Education on May 9, 1938.

Phones

 Question 1:
Police had pulled over David Riley because his car registration had expired. But when they did, they found two loaded guns in the car and they also searched his phone. That is when they found text messages and videos which associated with a local gang. That's when the police arrested him. But in court there was a problem. The police didn't have permission from David Riley to look at his phone or got a warrant from a judge. And since a persons' phone is part of their property they got the information wrongly. He was suppose to serve 15 years in jail but the Supreme Court had to overtune his conviction because of the phone. It definitely is a landmark case because the court doesn't really have a law about being able to search through peoples phone. When the Founding Fathers created the Constitution they made it very vague so then in the future we would still be able to use it. Such as the First Amendment that protected the right for free speech and also the Fourth Amendment that protected the right to privacy. I believe that we should make a law that police CAN look at a persons phone without a warrant or the persons permission ONLY if there is probable cause such as two loaded guns found in the persons car. 

Son Kills Father Over Allowance

So Thomas Gilbert Sr. is the founder of Walnscott Capitol Partners. I don't know what it is and you probably don't know either but it basically means this guy is loaded. He has been giving his 30 year old son, Thomas Gilbert Jr. $3000 dollars every month as allowance. $2400 was in rent for the 30 year old man and $600 for spending money. When the father was sick of giving all this money to his son ( so would I), he began cutting the allowance $200 each month so then the man, full grown man could learn how to be responsible and, I don't know get a job maybe. But the relationship with the father and son was already strained enough and that was he final straw for Gilbert Jr.Since he just wanted to continue doing yoga and surfing all day.
So ol' Gilbert Jr. decided to pay his father a visit. His mother, Shelley Gilbert was excited because she thought Gilbert Jr. was there to make amends with the father. When he saw his mother he asked her to leave and buy him a sandwich and a soda. You could probably tell how rude he is just by that sentence. But she obliged and left. While she left Thomas Gilbert Jr. shot his poor father, who was just trying to teach him a lesson, in the head. Shelley came back with the sandwich and the soda to find her husband dead, and her son no where to be found. She called the police and told the operator, "My husband's been shot by my son!" When police investigated the crime scene they believer that he tried staging the scene by putting the gun in the father's head, and then fled the scene. Police later found the gun's case in Gilbert Jr's apartment along with loose rounds and clips. Then saw an open suitcase filled with clothes. He was later arrested.

Electoral college or nah?

The electoral college was created because communication was really slow back then.It was also created because the government (aka Alexander Hamilton) was scared of the people. And back then not a lot of people had an education and were illiterate. So they didn't think the people were smart enough to do it either. So the elites would come together and vote for the people. But now we get texts and messages from people within seconds so what's the point of having it now? It usually is fair because the electoral college would or SUPPOSE TO vote on the popular vote. And when they don't they get fired because that's not cool. One time it did fail when Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams were running for president. John Quincy Adams won even though Andrew Jackson had the biggest amount of electoral votes. If that's not called cheating then I don't even know anymore. I do believe it's fair but there is no reason to have it anymore. There are no more illiterate adults that can vote, we are all educated and can make decisions for ourselves. There is no need to have the 'elite' to choose for us. But the candidates are suppose to have some certain things to be able to get nominated for the electoral college.  The winner must have the biggest popular vote. And that the popular vote has to be sufficiently distributed across the country to enable he/she to govern.