Newshacker

SCOTUS Votes To Overturn Roe, Leaked Opinion Says

The Supreme Court has voted internally to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that protected a woman’s right to an abortion, according to a leaked draft opinion obtained by Politico. The vote followed the debate in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a contentious case regarding a Mississippi law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. A final decision in the case has not yet been released.

Why Going Test-Optional Won’t Make College Admissions More Equitable or Fair

The SAT, along with its counterpart, the ACT, has long played an integral role in college admissions. In recent years, however, there has been a slow push to eliminate these tests from admissions, with claims that they disadvantage low-income students and are racist. The push only sped up with COVID-19: many schools went test-optional to facilitate students who were unable to take the test. But the tests aren’t nearly as inequitable as activists say, and dropping the tests won’t do much to make college admissions fairer.

How Penn Station Access Will Transform NYC Regional Rail

New York City’s East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Rail Road services into Grand Central Terminal and will be finished in December 2022, will receive a follow-up project. That project is Penn Station Access, which will bring Metro-North Railroad services into Penn Station. Together, the two rail projects will help connect both of New York’s long-disconnected rail terminals.

How the Ukraine War Is Affecting American Politics

The notion that foreign policy was unimportant to most Americans is a long-held belief by many. One explanation is that foreign policy issues felt distant. Another explanation is that Americans lacked sufficient knowledge of it. But while that may be true in times of peace, Americans definitely do care about foreign policy when a major crisis occurs. This is clearly shown in the overwhelming response Americans have displayed with regards to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

2022 Gubernatorial Election Ratings (Mar 2022)

Thirty-six states are holding gubernatorial elections this November. And while most states vote the same way for their governor as they do federally, gubernatorial elections are typically far less partisan. This makes rating these elections more difficult, as incumbent popularity and campaign platforms play a bigger role here than they do nationally. Despite their status as being less partisan, they are still overwhelmingly important. Control of governorships usually dictates a state’s policy. Wisconsin, for instance, would be far more conservative if the governor was Republican.

Major House Redistricting Victories for Democrats

Since the last update on congressional redistricting, there have been substantive changes in the playing field in the decennial process. Despite what seemed to be hopelessly bad turf for the Democratic Party, they have managed to turn the tables and gain a narrow edge over the Republicans. In total, of the 44 states that have finished redistricting so far, the Democrats have a net gain of 12 seats. Republicans lost five seats. This is mainly due to a string of court, legislative, and commission victories in the Democrats’ favor.

All Currently Proposed Interstate Highway Projects and Extensions

The Interstate Highway System is one of the, if not the, most important infrastructure projects in the United States, and it forms the backbone of the country’s transportation network. It consists of 70 primary and 323 auxiliary routes spanning over 48,000 miles of asphalt road and accounts for one-fourth of all vehicle miles driven. It is estimated that, since the network’s inception in 1956, it has fueled U.S. gross domestic product growth by 340%. Despite the network being declared complete in 1992, there are still plans to expand the network. This post discusses some of these expansion plans.

Justice Stephen Breyer is Retiring. A Confirmation Battle Looms

Longtime Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, the most senior member of the court’s three-justice liberal wing, is set to announce his retirement Thursday. The decision to retire comes just ten months away from the midterm elections, where the Democrats are widely expected to lose control of Congress.

How Might the 2022 Midterms Play Out?

The 2022 midterms are just under 10 months away. As they get closer, we are starting to get a better picture of how these elections might play out, especially as congressional redistricting is starting to be finalized by most states. We are starting to see clues of how some of the most consequential elections of this midterm election cycle might play out for both the Democrats and the Republicans.

NYC’s Interborough Express Line One Step Closer to Reality

In a State of the State address on Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced a plan that would bring the Triboro transit line one step closer to reality by starting an environmental review. The plan, titled the “Interborough Express,” would stretch 14 miles and link Brooklyn and Queens, connecting with the Long Island Rail Road and up to 17 subway lines.

Schumer Sets Up Vote For Senate Rule Change To Pass Voting Rights Legislation

On Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced in a letter to colleagues that the Senate will vote on changing the rules to pass voting rights legislation if Republicans block a vote to open debate by Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 17. The threat to nuke the filibuster comes at the beginning of a critical midterm election year for the Democratic Party, where control of both houses of Congress is at stake.

Redistricting: Which Party Is Ahead? (Dec 2021)

Forty-four states have already begun the decennial congressional redistricting process, with 20 states already enacting finalized House maps that will run through the next 10 years. That is 14 more than in the previous update (not including states with only one district). In this post, we’re going to take a look at how redistricting is going in each state and discuss which party is doing better.

Let’s Get California High-Speed Rail Built

Welcome to Infrastructure Spotlight, a new series on Newshacker Blog examining major U.S. infrastructure projects in-depth. Today, we’re jumping back over to the West Coast to talk about California High-Speed Rail, a project that has long been in the works.

In November 2008, voters approved Proposition 1A. Thus was the birth of high-speed rail in California: the bill approved $9.95 billion in funding to the California High-Speed Rail Authority to link the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles via the Central Valley, with future extensions to San Diego and Sacramento.

Why Boston Must Build the North-South Rail Link

Welcome to Infrastructure Spotlight, a new series on Newshacker Blog examining major U.S. infrastructure projects in-depth. Today, we’ll be talking about a proposed project in the Boston area: the North-South Rail Link.

Like many cities in the Northeast, Boston’s commuter rail system is fractured into two halves due to a legacy of the system: the commuter rail system was built by multiple companies that were directly competing with each other. As a result, all of Boston’s commuter trains terminate at either one of the city’s downtown terminals: North Station or South Station, with no direct rail connection between the two train stations.

Virginia Gubernatorial Election Points to 2022 Red Wave

On Tuesday, off-year elections were held in various states, with the most notable races being the Virginia gubernatorial election and the New Jersey gubernatorial election. A number of other special elections were also held to fill congressional vacancies, and multiple cities also held mayoral elections. Notably, Republicans swept into power in Virginia, and New Jersey’s incumbent Democratic governor was just a hair’s smidge away from losing to a Republican. Yet, in what seemed like a great year for Republicans, a number of progressive Democrats won races in local elections.

An Early Preview of Congressional Redistricting

With the midterm elections being just over a year away, states are starting to begin the redistricting process by proposing new congressional maps after the results of the 2020 Census were released a few months ago. Though just four of the 44 states that go through redistricting (those that have more than just an at-large district) have finalized their maps, we are starting to get a good idea of what each party is going for with their new maps.

Mail Voting for Virginia Gubernatorial Election Starts

The Virginia gubernatorial election, along with elections for other statewide positions and its legislature, is taking place this November. It, along with New Jersey, are the only two states that hold regular elections for governors in off-years. Virginia has been trending Democratic, with Republicans failing to win any statewide races in recent years, but the results of this race could still foreshadow what might go down in the midterms next year.

Gavin Newsom Survives Recall Election

Almost five months after an effort led by the California Republican Party to recall Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and a month of mail voting, in-person voting for the recall election finally closed on Tuesday. Less than an hour later, The Associated Press called the race against the recall for Newsom, and with 74 percent of the vote in, 64 percent of voters voted against recalling Newsom. Just 36 percent of voters voted in support of the recall.

Why Kathy Hochul Should Reconsider AirTrain LaGuardia

Welcome to Infrastructure Spotlight, a new series on Newshacker Blog examining major U.S. infrastructure projects in-depth. We’re back in New York today discussing the AirTrain LaGuardia.

Now that Andrew Cuomo is no longer governor of New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is now in charge of all the problems plaguing the U.S.’s largest city and fourth-largest state. That includes all the problems the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is facing and all the other infrastructure projects currently under construction, such as East Side Access. One major thorn Hochul will have to fix is AirTrain LaGuardia.

Could Afghanistan’s Collapse Reshape American Politics?

Almost 20 years after it began, America’s “Forever War” in Afghanistan is finally coming to an end. It comes after former President Donald Trump began peace talks late into his term and President Joe Biden affirmed that decision to pull U.S. troops out by Sept. 11. Yet, that decision to pull out left Afghanistan in. a state of uncertainty. In just two weeks, the Taliban swept into power across much of the country and took over the capital, Kabul, rendering America’s 20-year-long war effort an utter waste with the surrender of the Afghan National Security Forces, resulting in the “Afghanistan collapse.”

Andrew Cuomo Resigns Over Sexual Harassment Scandal

Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation on Tuesday, August 10, effective in two weeks’ time. Cuomo announced his resignation amid a slew of sexual harassment allegations and the New York attorney general releasing a report that found he sexually harassed 11 women. Had he not resigned, Cuomo would have faced near-certain impeachment from the Democratic state legislature.

Senate Passes Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and Preps For Partisan Bill

The Senate has finally passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill negotiated months ago and was at once on the brink of failure on Tuesday. The package includes $1.2 trillion of new spending on physical infrastructure, $550 billion of which is new spending. In a related move, Senate Democrats on early Wednesday morning passed a budget resolution allowing them to proceed on a $3.5 trillion partisan economic, infrastructure, and investment package.

Regional Connector: A Light Rail Tunnel Through Downtown Los Angeles

Welcome to Infrastructure Spotlight, a new series on Newshacker Blog examining major U.S. infrastructure projects in-depth. After visiting New York in the first post of this series, today we’ll be heading over to the West Coast to discuss the Regional Connector project in Los Angeles.

Mass transit in Los Angeles is fairly lackluster. A car is required to get around the city efficiently, and there are still many areas not served by the city’s subway and light rail network. However, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or LA Metro, is looking to change that. The Regional Connector, a light rail tunnel project under construction in Downtown Los Angeles, is the first step of that plan.

New York’s East Side Access Project Explained

Welcome to Infrastructure Spotlight, a new series on Newshacker Blog examining major U.S. infrastructure projects in-depth. The inaugural post is about East Side Access, a major passenger railroad project in New York City.

New York City is the American city with the highest mass transit ridership, with almost 57 percent of commuters making use of transit. This represents about one-third of all U.S. transit riders and two-thirds of all rail riders make trips to or from New York City. Therefore, it is important that the city’s railroad infrastructure is kept in good shape.

The Most Competitive Races of the 2022 Senate Elections

Though they are still more than a year away, the 2022 Senate elections are already shaping up to be one of the most competitive cycles, with many states expected to be battlegrounds. The result of the 2022 Senate elections will be a key indicator of the popularity of the Biden administration and will determine the balance of power between the parties in Washington.

Senate Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill In Peril

It has been a long time since President Joe Biden first announced an infrastructure and jobs bill and over a month since a group of senators agreed on a bipartisan infrastructure package totaling $1.2 trillion, with $600 billion in new spending. Anything this large on a bipartisan scale is clearly fragile, and with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer trying to force a procedural vote on the bill on Wednesday, many Republican senators, including some of those who helped negotiate the bill, are having second thoughts.

Vaccination Rates Highlight Red and Blue State Divide

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has started to gain a foothold in the U.S. recently. On Monday, 32,105 cases were reported across the U.S., representing a 94 percent increase over the past 14 days. The uptick in cases is mainly fueled by rising case levels in states with low COVID-19 vaccination rates, with Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana seeing particularly alarming outbreaks.

A Brief History of Independence Day

July 4 is universally recognized to be the day in which the United States gained independence from Great Britain in 1776 and is celebrated as Independence Day. It is one of eleven federal holidays and one of the most widely observed holidays in the country. It has been celebrated since at least 1777, making it one of the longest continually celebrated holidays in the country.

Trump Organization Indicted By Manhattan DA

Former President Donald Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been charged by New York authorities over a 15-year-long “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme which saw Weisselberg collect more than $1.7 million in “off-the-books” income and benefits. It is the first criminal case against Trump’s company.

Juneteenth Now Officially a Federal Holiday

The United States now officially has one new federal holiday: Juneteenth. This holiday, which has been unofficially observed since it was established in 1866, is celebrated annually on June 19 and commemorates the end of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865, after the end of the Civil War and almost two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

SCOTUS: Obamacare Lives Again (California v. Texas)

The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, has survived its third Supreme Court challenge. On Thursday, America’s highest court ruled in California v. Texas that allowed the entirety of the law as it currently exists to stay. It capped a decade-long attempt from the Republican Party to kill the largest overhaul to the U.S. health care system since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

Decoding the Moves of Sen. Joe Manchin

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from the very Republican state of West Virginia, may seem to be one of the last, if only, conservative-esque, centrist Democrats left in Congress. He seems to oppose many Democratic priorities, such as on abortion, increasing the minimum wage, and gun control, and always tries to act in a bipartisan way. Lately, he voiced his opposition to passing the For the People Act, a large, sweeping Democrat-backed voting rights reformed package also known as H.R. 1 or S. 1. However, despite this, he isn’t nearly as conservative or as Republican-friendly as he may first seem.

Texas Dems Defeat GOP Voter Suppression Bill For Now

In a stunning turn of events, members of the Democratic caucus of the Texas House of Representatives staged a dramatic walkout in a last-ditch effort to stop the Republican Party from passing one of the most severe voter suppression bills in the U.S. The walkout by all 67 Democrats in the state House meant that the Republican Party wouldn’t be able to form a 100-member quorum in the 150-member body, meaning that the bill was not able to be passed before the end of this legislative session, which ended on May 30.

Senate GOP Blocks Jan. 6 Commission

Despite compromises by the Democratic Party, Senate Republicans have blocked an effort lead by the Democrats to establish a bipartisan commission investigating the riots and insurrection at the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. With a bipartisan commission now officially off the books, the only other solution left for the Democrats may be to establish a congressional select committee into investigating the attack, which is sure to be more partisan.

Why DC Statehood Is So Difficult to Achieve

For years, activists had been working hard to admit Washington, D.C., as a state. The federal district, which lacks representation in Congress, contains more people than Wyoming and Vermont, and activists had insisted for years that leaving D.C. in a democratic limbo-land meant that over 700,000 Americans were not appropriately getting their voices heard in Congress.

Glenn Youngkin Wins Virginia GOP Primary for Governor

After a grueling weekend of vote tabulation of ranked-choice voting, the results of the Virginia Republican Party gubernatorial primary held on May 8 were released, indicating that Glenn Youngkin, a former CEO and businessman, had won the party’s nomination to run in the Virginia gubernatorial election this November. The results indicated that once again, the Republican Party had chosen to embrace the pro-Trump strategy.

Liz Cheney Likely to Be Removed After Impeaching Trump

Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican from Wyoming, is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The daughter of one of the country’s most prominent (and polarizing) politicians and former Vice President Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, the third most powerful House Republican, is now in hot water from her own party. After having voted to convict former President Donald Trump back in January, she is now expected to be given the boot and ousted from her leadership position.

Why Missouri Could See a Competitive Senate Race in 2022

Missouri, once a major political bellwether, has slowly drifted into being solid for the Republicans. Therefore, it may come as a surprise to many that Missouri had a Democratic senator as recently as 2018, and the 2016 U.S. Senate election here was very competitive as well. Though the 2022 Missouri U.S. Senate election is expected to be safe for the Republicans, there is one scenario in which this race could become competitive.

Why Puerto Rico Should Be Granted Statehood

The push to make Washington, D.C. a state has never been greater. Not only has the House passed a bill that would admit the federal district as a state this Congress, making it the second consecutive Congress that passed such an act, it has also been introduced in the Senate and there has been a great push for it to become a real state. However, the push to make Puerto Rico, an American territory in the Caribbean which has a population of 3 million, a state has not garnered such attention and support. Granting Puerto Rico statehood would give more than 3 million Americans representation in government.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Recall Effort Qualifies

A recall effort organized by Republicans against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has reached the number of valid signatures required for the state to hold a recall election, the California secretary of state reported Monday. The state is now all but certain to be holding a gubernatorial recall election later this year, for only the second time ever in the state’s history.

Census Bureau Announces New Population Estimates

The U.S. Census Bureau finally released its long-awaited population estimates from the 2020 Census on Monday. According to the Census Bureau, as of 2020, the U.S. population was estimated to be 331,449,281, an increase of about 22.7 million or 7.4 percent from 2010, when the previous census was taken. The bureau has also announced which states will gain or lose seats in the House (and thus the Electoral College), so let’s take a deeper dive.

Derek Chauvin Found Guilty In George Floyd Murder

A month after the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin into the murder of George Floyd last May began, a unanimous jury delivered a verdict on Tuesday, finding Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The verdict offered a sign of optimism that America was progressing toward a future in which people of all races would be treated fairly and equally and where police officers would be held accountable for their actions.

SCOTUS: The Only 2nd Amendment Case (DC v. Heller)

The Second Amendment, which states, in its entirety, “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed,” is why America remains one of the only developed countries with such loose gun control laws. Despite its controversy and looming role in shaping partisan identity and its influence over American society, from 1939 through to 2008, the Supreme Court somehow managed to avoid hearing any cases pertaining to it, until it heard D.C. v. Heller in 2008.

An Early Look Into the 2022 Senate Elections

After talking about why increasing political polarization and hyperpartisanship are horrible for the Senate, today, we are going to discuss the 2022 Senate elections as a whole. The 2022 midterms will be the first major federal elections to be held in President Joe Biden’s first term, and we could see a Republican sweep if Biden is disapproved of in a year and a half’s time, or we could see Democrats maintain control if Biden and his party remain popular.

Partisanship is Destroying How the Senate Functions

The Senate is the most important legislative body in the United States. It is the upper chamber of Congress, and is also the body that confirms all of a president’s nominees. By design, the Senate was meant to exist to give smaller states equal representation in Congress and encourage bipartisanship, but America’s increasing partisanship is slowly eating away at the principles of how the Senate once worked.

NYC Mayoral Race Heats Up With 10 Weeks to Go

New York City, the nation’s largest city, is holding its mayoral race this November, with a primary election beginning on June 22, 2021. With incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio ineligible for a third term, the race between the Democratic two frontrunners — businessman Andrew Yang and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams — is heating up.

SCOTUS: The Time When It Declared Texas’s Secession Illegal (Texas v. White)

Texas v. White was a landmark Supreme Court case decided in 1869 in which the court established that, shockingly, the secession of a state from the United States is unconstitutional and despite Texas’s declaration of secession from the Union during the Civil War, Texas had never actually left the Union and all acts by the state legislature declaring otherwise were “absolutely null.”

Matt Gaetz In Hot Water After DOJ Probe Revealed

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a three-term Republican congressman from Florida and a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, is currently embroiled in a major scandal. On March 30, The New York Times first reported that an inquiry into Gaetz had been opened by the Department of Justice in the final months of the Trump administration, looking into allegations over Gaetz having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in 2019 and whether he had violated federal sex trafficking laws.

Voting Rights and How America’s Pastime Got Pulled Into Politics

Major companies have come out in criticism of Georgia’s new voter-suppression law that makes it harder to vote, especially in the urban areas. As companies headquartered in Georgia like Coca-Cola and Delta slammed the law for being “based on a lie” and President Joe Biden calling the law “Jim Crow on steroids,” Major League Baseball has chosen to move this season’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta, resulting in Republicans, who have rallied against “cancel culture,” calling on people to boycott MLB.

Biden to Unveil Major Infrastructure, Jobs Plan

President Joe Biden is preparing to announce Wednesday the first half of his major infrastructure and jobs proposal during a visit to Pittsburgh. This bill, which includes major investments in utilities, transportation, and green energy, is expected to cost at least $2 trillion and will complement another bill (to be announced at a later date) on welfare and social issues, an area which the administration calls “human infrastructure.”

George Floyd Case Trial Begins in Minneapolis

One of the most closely-watched and important trials in a very long time began on Monday in Minneapolis, in the Hennepin County District Court, as the murder trial for former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is being charged with murder in the death of George Floyd last summer, started. The death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, resulted in nationwide protests against police brutality and calls for equal treatment of Black people, igniting the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

Georgia GOP Passes Sweeping Voter Suppression Bill

Georgia Republicans, who currently hold a majority in that state’s legislature and the governorship (despite Democrats winning statewide on the presidential level and having both U.S. Senate seats), passed a disgraceful bill Thursday which would substantially restrict voting rights and make it far more difficult for people to vote, especially to those living in cities and for communities of color (both groups which vote overwhelmingly Democratic).

The Liberalization of America: Liberal Policies Increasingly Popular in Washington

Policies even the far-left couldn’t even dream of two decades ago is now becoming mainstream in Washington, and President Joe Biden is turning in favor of many of them too. From eliminating the filibuster, to investing big in green energy, to overhauling voting rights, to spending big in America’s infrastructure, and to admitting Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico as states, liberal ideals are now starting to gain footholds in Congress.

Boulder Shootings Reignite Gun Control Debate

On March 22, 2021, a 21-year-old man opened fire inside a King Soopers supermarket in the town of Boulder, Colo., a suburb of Denver, killing 10 people, including a police officer. This is the second major mass shooting in a week. Last Tuesday, a gunman opened fire in three spas in the Atlanta area, killing a total of eight people. The shootings have once again brought the issue of gun control front and center onto the national stage.

GOP Opposition On COVID-19 Relief May Backfire

There is no doubt that the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill is popular among Americans. Among the bill’s many provisions include a provision that sends most Americans $1,400 in stimulus money, extends unemployment benefits, and provides many poverty-reducing measures, including a tax credit that could cut child poverty in half. However, the Republican Party has been completely united on opposing the bill, a decision which may come back to bite the GOP in the foot come the 2022 midterms.

Atlanta Shootings Bring Attention to Anti-Asian Racism

Last Tuesday, on March 16, eight people were killed in a series of shootings which took place at three spas in the Greater Atlanta area. Of the eight that died, six were Asian American and two were white. All of them, except for one, were women. The shootings fueled fear that the shooting may have singled out Asians, and draws attention to the longstanding racism many Asians have faced in America, which has sadly become more exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Facing Major Scandals

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York’s three-term Democratic governor, was once one of the most popular governors in the country. Many had hailed him for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, in an ugly turn of events for Cuomo, multiple scandals are now plaguing him. Not only was it discovered that Cuomo had underestimated the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state’s nursing homes by as much as 50 percent, but at least six women have also accused the governor of sexual harassment and misconduct.

SCOTUS: The Worst Decision Ever (Dred Scott v. Sandford)

In 1857, the Supreme Court likely made one of the worst, if not the worst, decisions in its entire history in the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, now commonly known as the Dred Scott case. It ruled that not only was slavery legal, but Black Americans were also not entitled to U.S. citizenship, regardless of whether or not they were enslaved. This court case is considered to be one of the major factors which caused the Civil War.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Faces a Recall Effort

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing a major recall effort organized in part by the state GOP after outrage began last year over coronavirus-related restrictions. It is the largest and likeliest-to-succeed recall effort of a California governor every since then-Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, was recalled in 2003, with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger succeeding him.

It’s Time to Abolish Daylight Saving Time

On Sunday, millions of Americans (except Arizonans, Hawaii residents, and residents of most U.S. territories) “sprang forward” one hour in order to observe daylight saving time for the next eight months, until the first Sunday in November, when everyone “falls back” again onto standard time. Daylight saving time is, however, an old, antiquated concept and it is well past time that America—and the rest of the world—rids itself of.

Why So Many GOP Senators Are Retiring in 2022

Midterm elections are generally seen as being unfavorable to the incumbent president’s party. For example, Republicans made large gains during the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections during the Obama administration, while Democrats won back the House in the 2018 midterms during the Trump administration. So to see five Republicans (and counting) announcing retirement in the 2022 election cycle is extremely unusual and surprising.

Congress Passes $1.9T COVID-19 Relief Package

Both the House and Senate have now passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, 49 days after he took office on Jan. 20. The package passed both houses of Congress with zero Republican support, and the approval from Congress comes as U.S. COVID-19 cases and deaths are on a sharp decline and vaccine rollout occurs at one of the fastest rates in the entire world. The bill now proceeds to Biden’s desk, awaiting his signature in order for the bill to become law.

SCOTUS: Why Presidents Aren’t Immune From Court (US v. Nixon)

The 37th President of the United States, Richard Nixon, was very, very popular. He had won the 1972 presidential election against Democratic opponent Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota with 520 electoral votes, with McGovern only carrying Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Unfortunately, it was later revealed that Nixon’s campaign had conducted a number of illegal activities against McGovern’s campaign. The case United States v. Nixon, decided in 1974, involved whether Nixon, as president, was required to deliver subpoenaed materials to a federal court, and it serves as one of the most crucial cases limiting a president’s executive power to this day.

Manchin Signals Openness to Filibuster Reform

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate West Virginia Democrat, signaled on Sunday that he is open to modifying the filibuster to make it more “painful” for the minority party to invoke, while maintaining that he does not support removing the filibuster altogether. The comments come as progressive and liberal Democrats call to eliminate the filibuster altogether to allow the Democratic Party to pass substantial reforms.

Senate Passes Biden’s $1.9T COVID-19 Stimulus Bill

The U.S. Senate passed President Joe Biden’s historic $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill after an all-night “vote-a-rama” session and a daylong struggle to convince one key senator, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to get on board with the bill. The bill passed 50-49 by a party-line vote and the House will vote on the bill again Tuesday before it is sent to the president to be signed into law.

House Passes Landmark Sweeping Voting Rights Bill

The Democratic-controlled House passed the For the People Act of 2021 on Wednesday, also known as H.R. 1. This is a major, sweeping election reform bill that will expand voting rights, limit gerrymandering, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of financial lobbying, create a public financing option for congressional campaigns and create new ethics rules for officeholders. Unfortunately, it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

Biden Supports Amazon Workers’ Push to Unionize in Alabama

On Friday, Feb. 5, 2021, Amazon, the e-commerce giant, lost a major push to suspend a closely-watched unionization vote at a major warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., allowing over 5,800 workers to decide whether or not to form a union in the first major unionization effort at Amazon since 2014. On Sunday, President Biden issued a video statement on Twitter showing his support for the unionization bid.

SCOTUS: Guaranteeing Criminal Rights (Miranda v. Arizona)

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.”

This is the now-famous “Miranda warning,” dramatized in movies, which must be read off to all people in police custody to alert them of their rights. Miranda warnings were derived from the landmark Supreme Court case ruling of Miranda v. Arizona in 1966, which required police to advise suspects of their rights, especially the right to remain silent.

Trump Dominates CPAC, Showing the Future of the GOP

In his first major public appearance since leaving office, former President Donald Trump used a lie-filled speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., to vilify President Biden’s administration, showed no remorse for the Jan. 6 insurrection, repeated his lies about election fraud, and signaled that he would run for president again in 2024. His comments at CPAC demonstrates that the Republican Party is still very much a party centered around Trump.

Senate Official Rules Against $15 Minimum Wage In Stimulus

Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, suffered a major setback on Thursday in their bid to include a provision that would gradually increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package, after the Senate parliamentarian, who acts as the rule enforcer, said that it could not be included in the bill, since the bill is to be passed via the budget reconciliation measure.

Supreme Court Denies Trump’s Final Bid to Shield Tax Records

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way to allow the Manhattan district attorney to obtain eight years of federal income tax and financial records of former President Donald Trump after it denied Trump’s last-ditch Supreme Court petition to get the court to hear his case. The decision marks the end of a long-running battle of prosecutors’ access to the documents.

Neera Tanden Faces Hard Path to Confirmation as OMB Director

Neera Tanden, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, is facing scrutiny from members of Congress. As Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced on Friday that he would vote against her confirmation, it significantly reduces the likelihood of her confirmation given Republican resistance to her confirmation.

Nevada Looks to Succeed New Hampshire to Hold 1st Presidential Primaries

Iowa and New Hampshire have always been the first two states to hold presidential primaries every election cycle. The Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire Primary have become synonymous with the first primaries and have always been seen as particularly important to prospective candidates. However, Iowa and New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation status when it comes to holding primaries is facing another threat: Nevada.

Ted Cruz Vacations in Mexico As Texans Suffer

Much of Texas has been weathering from days of harsh winter weather, snow, ice, and freezing rain since a major winter storm hit the region beginning on Feb. 15, battering the state’s power grid and leaving millions without power or water. Meanwhile, as Texas recovers from the winter storms, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, was spotted on a plane heading to Cancún, Mexico, on Thursday.

SCOTUS: Right to an Attorney (Gideon v. Wainwright)

The right to an attorney when charged with a crime is laid out in the Sixth Amendment, and is widely known today that those unable to afford an attorney must receive one provided by the state to represent themselves in court. However, this was not always the case. Such precedent was only established in the landmark Supreme Court decision of Gideon v. Wainwright in 1963.

What Would Happen if the GOP Broke Into Two?

We have increasingly begun to see that the Republican Party is seeing two distinct factions forming within it: the more moderate, traditional type conservative faction and the pro-Trump, far-right faction. Especially after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the two sides haven’t been getting along quite well lately, with people on both sides mulling over starting their own party.

Trump Acquitted for 2nd Time in Impeachment Trial

Former President Donald Trump was acquitted for a second time in his Senate impeachment trial on Saturday, drawing one of the fastest-ever impeachments to an end in the Democratic Senate. He had been impeached by the Democratic House of Representatives after his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection for high crimes and misdemeanors, more specifically, for “incitement of insurrection.”

Trump Displeased With His Impeachment Defense

The impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump began on Tuesday afternoon in the Senate, just over a year after he was last acquitted of high crimes and misdemeanors in his first trial. Trump has been accused of inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Though there had been debate over whether or not the trial of a former official left office was constitutional, the Senate voted to continue with the trial in the end.

Trump Impeachment Trial Begins Tuesday

In an unprecedented move, the House impeached now-former President Donald Trump in the middle of January over his alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The impeachment now moves on into its last stage: a trial in the Senate. After this trial, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, the Senate will vote as to whether or not Trump is guilty over the articles of impeachment filed by the House.

SCOTUS: Protecting Press Freedom (New York Times v. US)

One of the most significant Supreme Court decisions was the case of New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), now also known as the Pentagon Papers Case. This case, which concerned whether it was legal for The New York Times to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers, saw the Supreme Court defend the First Amendment-guaranteed right of a free press against prior restraint by the government.

House Removes Greene From Committee Assignments

After House Republicans voted against removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of her committee assignments on Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled House held a floor vote on Thursday which removed her from her committee assignments on the House Budget Committee and House Committee on Education and Labor.

Divided GOP Refuses to Punish Greene But Lets Cheney Stay

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the House Minority Leader, refused on Wednesday to take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for spreading false and dangerous conspiracy theories and threatening violence against Democrats by removing all her committee assignments. However, in a House Republican Conference call, House Republicans voted not to remove Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from Republican leadership even though she voted to impeach Trump last month.

Dems Pave Way to Use Reconciliation to Pass COVID-19 Relief

Senate Democrats took a major step Tuesday in advancing toward passing a major $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic relief and stimulus package by voting to kickstart the process to pass the package via budget reconciliation. This is a congressional maneuver which could avoid a Republican filibuster in the Senate stopping the package from passing, since reconciliation requires only a simple majority to pass in the Senate.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Faces Backlash for Conspiratorial Comments

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a newly-elected Republican representative from Georgia’s 14th Congressional District in the northwestern part of the state, is under huge scrutiny from the Democratic Congress and even Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for her embracement of QAnon conspiracy theories, some of which include 9/11 conspiracy theories, school shootings as Democratic conspiracies to enact gun control, and more.

SCOTUS: How Same-Sex Marriage Became Legal (Obergefell v. Hodges)

Same-sex marriage was legalized throughout the entire United States just five years ago, in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). Prior to this ruling, it was only legal in 36 states plus Washington, D.C., and Guam. With this landmark civil rights case, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples under the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment.

2020 Election Recap: Most Tumultuous Election of Our Time

With the inauguration of President Joe Biden on Jan. 20, 2021, the 2020 election season officially comes to an end, marking the end of one of the most tumultuous, most defining elections of our lifetimes. A record-breaking 158 million Americans voted in this election, and 74 million of them voted for the Donald Trump-Mike Pence ticket, and 81 million voted for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. It was the first time in history any ticket surpassed 70 million votes.

DC Statehood Bill Introduced In US Senate

On Wednesday, Democrats once again reintroduced legislation in the House and Senate that would make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. The measure was reintroduced in the House after it died in the 116th Congress when the then-Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a vote on the bill after it passed the house by Washington, D.C., Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a nonvoting delegate representing the district in Congress, and in the Senate by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.

Trump Likely To Be Acquitted In the Senate

Senate Republicans largely voted against trying former President Donald Trump after he was impeached with just a few days left in his term in the House for incitement of insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Only five Republican senators voted against tabling a bill forced by Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky, which, if passed, would have declared the trial unconstitutional and ended.

Sen. Rob Portman to Retire in 2022, Opening Path For Dems

Sen. Rob Portman, a well-respected two-term Republican senator from Ohio, announced Monday that he will retire when his term ends in 2022 and will not run for reelection, explaining that it is becoming increasingly difficult to “break through the partisan gridlock” in Congress and opening up a major battleground state in what will be a hotly contested midterm election for Senate control.

Arizona GOP Censures Three of Its Top Members

The Arizona Republican Party may have just spelled out its own death sentence. The state GOP approved resolutions on Saturday to censure three of its most prominent members, including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain, the widow of former Sen. John McCain. Including its previous censure of McCain five years ago, before his death in 2018, the Arizona GOP has now censured almost all of its members who have managed to win statewide in recent years.

Biden Signs Executive Orders On COVID-19 Control, Stimulus

On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed another 11 executive orders to coordinate a better federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was severely mishandled by the Trump administration and has already taken the toll of more than 400,000 Americans to date. He is also expected to sign another two orders Friday to provide some more economic relief to the millions of people affected by the pandemic.

‘Democracy Has Prevailed’: Joe Biden Officially Sworn In

Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Kamala Harris were officially sworn in Wednesday as the 46th President and 49th Vice President of the United States respectively. The historic inauguration took place in a country slashed apart by a deadly pandemic, division, and polarization after the tumultuous Donald Trump presidency, which tested American democracy in unprecedented ways. But ultimately, one thing was clear, in the words of Joe Biden: “Democracy has prevailed.”

A New Day In America: Biden Prepares to Be Sworn In as 46th POTUS

At precisely noon EST on Wednesday, Donald Trump and Mike Pence will cease to be president and vice president of the United States respectively. At the same time, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in as the 46th President and 49th Vice President of the United States. The swearing-in of Biden and Harris will flip open a new page in American history and will also simultaneously mark the end of the Trump era.

Battleground States of the Next Election

The 2020 election has shown us some marked shifts in how some states vote. Some states have made themselves evident as being battleground states, while others have solidified for one political party or the other. In today’s post, we are going to discuss and analyze how the results of the 2020 election tell us which states will be (and will not be) the most hotly contested battlegrounds going forward.

Possible Policy Changes In the Biden Presidency

With the Democratic Party controlling the House, Senate, and presidency for the first time since 2008, a wave of big changes in Washington could soon be upon us. President-elect Joe Biden has made pledges to reverse or remove some policies implemented by the Donald Trump administration, as well as pass aggressive COVID-19 relief and stimulus. Here are some of the major possible policy changes under a Democratic government.

A Look at Biden’s Final Cabinet Picks

With President-elect Joe Biden taking office in just five days, he has confirmed his final nominees to serve in his Cabinet and other cabinet-level positions. Biden has picked a very diverse cabinet, with almost all races having some representation in his Cabinet. Among the 15 Cabinet-level department secretaries, five are female and seven are nonwhite.

Impeached Again: Trump Impeached for a 2nd Time

President Donald Trump has become the first president (and first-ever federal official for that matter too) in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives for a second time, this time for “incitement of insurrection.” In the most bipartisan impeachment ever, 10 Republicans bucked the party line and voted to impeach a president from their own party.

Trump’s Presidency Will End With Second Impeachment

Representatives in the House said they would move to impeach the president on Wednesday, after formally calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office Tuesday. The sole article of impeachment accuses the president of “willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States,” after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week.

First Look at the 2022 Midterm Senate Elections

Although the 2022 Midterms are still two years away, it is never too early to start thinking about them. In today’s post, we are going to take a look at where things stand in the 2022 Senate elections. Like in every American election, there will be some key battleground races to focus on, which will once again determine which party will gain (or retain) control of the Senate.

Silicon Valley Bans Show Where Power Truly Lies

On Jan. 8, Twitter announced that effective immediately, President Trump’s Twitter handle, @realDonaldTrump, would be permanently banned from the platform for inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Other platforms later jumped onto the bandwagon. Later that day, Google and Apple announced bans over the Parler app, a popular platform for conservatives, and Amazon stopped hosting the website beginning today. The removal of Trump’s megaphone and a conservative hotbed by Big Tech in Silicon Valley shows where power truly lies.

Donald Trump Could Be Impeached Again

While Congress certified the electoral votes to affirm Joe Biden’s victory on Wednesday, an armed insurrection, egged on by President Trump’s claims of voter fraud, of the United States Capitol Building took place. Insurgents and rioters attempted to stop Congress certifying Biden’s victory after Trump called for people to go to the Capitol Building. Now, the president is now being accused of causing the insurrection, and Democrats floating the idea of impeaching Trump for the second time.

Violent Rioting Mob Storms Into US Capitol

After a proud moment for the Democrats and the country yesterday as the party took back the United States Senate for the first time in six years, yesterday, Wednesday, January 6, 2021, marks a sad and disgraceful day in the history of the United States. A violent mob, encouraged by the words of President Trump, rioted in the nation’s capital city, eventually breaking into the U.S. Capitol and causing the building to be evacuated, just as Congress began certifying electoral votes for President-Elect Joe Biden.

Democrats Poised to Gain Control of US Senate

In a fairly surprising turn of events since November, both Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, are expected to unseat incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Georgia’s two U.S. Senate election runoffs, giving the Democrats a slim majority in the Senate and a trifecta for the first time in a decade.

US Senate Majority to Be Decided Today In Georgia Runoffs

This is it, folks. The last official race of the 2020 election season, and arguably one of the most important set of races. Voters in Georgia will be deciding which party controls the United States Senate in two runoff elections today, Jan. 5. Incumbent Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing off against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and the Democrats must win both races in order to win the Senate majority.

Trump Demanded Georgia Officials to ‘Find’ Votes So He Wins

In a stunning hour-long phone call on Saturday afternoon made public by The Washington Post, President Trump demanded Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes in order to overturn the results of the election after his decisive loss to President-Elect Joe Biden. The call raised legal questions from experts and is causing issues for the GOP in the Georgia runoffs, which are just two days away.

GOP Plans To Challenge Electoral College Vote Will Fail

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is planning to object to Congress certifying the Electoral College vote for President-Elect Joe Biden when on Jan. 5, after the 117th Congress is sworn in. He is expected to be joined by over 140 House Republicans in objecting to the vote, citing voter fraud, which has already been debunked thoroughly, including Trump-loyalist former Attorney General William Barr and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The move, though has attracted criticism not just from across the aisle but also from fellow Republicans.

2020 Lookback: All the Major Events This Year

It is not a stretch to say that 2020 has been a tumultuous year for many. Amid a global pandemic that has infected over 82 million people globally and killed almost 1.8 million people around the world, with over 19 million cases in the U.S. and 336,000 deaths, 2020 has been chock-full of suffering and pain for many people. On this last day of the year, let’s take some time to reflect on some major events that occurred this year.

Georgia Senate Runoffs Edge Closer and Closer

Although the outcome of the 2020 presidential and House races have been determined for the Democrats, control of the Senate still remains up in the air. With the Democrats and Republicans alike hardly flipping any seats in the Senate this election cycle, the Georgia Senate runoffs will now singlehandedly decide the balance of power in the 117th Congress.

House Overrides NDAA Veto; Passes $2,000 Stimulus Checks

In a special holiday session between Christmas and New Year, the House of Representatives convened again to do two things, presenting a major issue to the GOP and causing a fracture within the party: scheduling two votes, one to override the veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and another to increase the amount offered to Americans via stimulus checks in the stimulus bill from $600 to $2,000.

Trump Signs Relief & Funding Bill, But Only After Aid Lapses

President Trump has finally signed the massive $2.3 trillion combined COVID-19 relief and government funding bill for the next fiscal year, despite calling the bipartisan bill, which passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming veto-proof majorities, a “disgrace” a few days earlier on Twitter. Though signing the bill will avert a federal government shutdown which would’ve begun Monday, the bill was only signed after two critical unemployment provisions lapsed.

Trump Demands More Stimulus, Throwing Relief Bill Into Doubt

After Congress finally managed to negotiate a bipartisan coronavirus relief deal after months of arguments and it passed both houses of Congress by overwhelming veto-proof majorities, President Trump is now throwing doubt as to whether or not the bill can be passed by demanding that the bill include more money than the proposed $600 stimulus checks and to cut back the non-coronavirus related spending (the bill is tied to an omnibus government funding package, which means it has lots of unrelated provisions).

The States That Swung The Most In the 2020 Presidential Election

There were lots of surprises in terms of how each state voted in the 2020 election. A number of states shifted drastically in terms of how they voted this election compared to the 2016 election. And though this year was not the Democratic landslide many had hoped for, all states to see big swings were to the left.

Congress Passes COVID Relief Bill, Providing Temporary Relief

Capitol Hill leaders announced Sunday night that after months of partisan deadlock in Congress, they have finally managed to secure a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. This package is smaller than is ideal, but offers a sign of rare good news during an otherwise dark time and will provide some temporary relief to millions of Americans, which could avert a looming poverty crisis and the economy from falling back into recession.

Biden Picks First-Ever Native American to Lead Interior

President-Elect Joe Biden has chosen Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico to lead the Department of the Interior (DOI), making her the first-ever Native American cabinet secretary and to lead the department which is most intertwined with Indian affairs (the Bureau of Indian Affairs, BIA, is under the DOI, after all). She is the third House representative to be chosen and this selection has some major implications on the Democrats’ House majority.

The American Court System Explained

The U.S. has one of the most complex judicial systems in the world. It has two court systems—the state courts and the federal courts—and all are overseen by the United States Supreme Court. Each system works a bit differently, and it all gets super complex when states sue each other or the U.S. government itself (i.e., the Department of Justice, DOJ) is a party. Let’s take a closer look at how the American judiciary system works.

Pete Buttigieg To Become Transportation Secretary

On Tuesday, President-Elect Joe Biden officially announced that Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a leading frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic primaries, to become the next Secretary of Transportation, taking over the job currently held by Elaine Chao. The nomination is a significant one for America, for Biden’s cabinet, and for Buttigieg personally.

Electoral College Affirms Biden Victory

President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election was affirmed as the electors of the Electoral College cast their votes, giving Biden a 306 electoral votes to 232 for President Trump. Not one elector voted faithlessly. The Electoral College vote went smoothly with no dramas, and the vote successfully affirms Biden’s victory, putting a close to President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud and this election being “rigged” (no evidence has been found of election-rigging or voter fraud).

SCOTUS Rejects Texas Suit Trying to Nullify Election

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton which sought to nullify the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, effectively trying to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters and overturn the results of a fair, free election which found no evidence of voter fraud. The rejection effectively puts a rest to the shameless attempt by the Trump wing of the GOP to subvert the election.

Texas GOP Lawsuit To Invalidate Millions of Votes Is Ludicrous

On December 8, 2020, the Republican Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court alleging that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Michigan violated federal law by changing election law prior to the election, claiming that voter fraud would be “undetectable.” The lawsuit is basically asking the Supreme Court to disenfranchise millions of voters in battleground states and overturn the results of a fair, free election with no evidence of voter fraud.

US Government Sues Facebook For Being an Illegal Monopoly

In a major groundbreaking lawsuit, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in conjunction with 46 states, the District of Columbia, and the territory of Guam, accused Facebook (FB) Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of being an illegal monopoly, by buying up its rivals in order to quell competition.

SCOTUS Denies Pennsylvania GOP to Overturn Certification

In just one sentence, “[t]he application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday denied Pennsylvania Republicans’ request to overturn the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, where President-Elect Joe Biden won by 1.2 percent.

Colorado, New Mexico, and Virginia Cement Themselves as Blue States

Colorado, New Mexico, and Virginia were once hotly contested swing states. All had voted Republican in 2004 for George W. Bush, but ever since then, these three states have begun a steady (and rapid) transition into cementing themselves as Democratic strongholds. The 2020 presidential election solidified this standing.

Texas Is Undoubtedly a Swing State

For the longest time, Texas has been a solid Republican stronghold. It has always voted for the Republican presidential candidate since 1976, and as recently as 2012, it voted for the Republican by a safe margin (Mitt Romney won the state by a whopping 16 points that year). Ever since then, though, the state has been moving gradually toward the left. There is little doubt that the results of the 2020 election in Texas show that the state is a swing state.

Trump Considering Preemtive Pardons for 20 Allies

President Trump is considering preemptively pardoning upward of 20 close allies and aides before leaving office in January, including his sons Eric and Donald Jr., his daughter Ivanka, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and even himself. The possible move is frustrating fellow Republicans, who are worried that such moves could cause massive backfire.

US Reports 3,157 COVID-19 Deaths In a Day

The U.S. has reported over 3,000 COVID-19 deaths in a day for the first time. On Wednesday, December 2, 3,157 new COVID-19 deaths were reported in the U.S. This breaks the record of 2,603 deaths a day back during the spring outbreak on April 15. Compared to the total number of deaths related to 9/11 (2,977), the number of deaths recorded today has already surpassed the total number of people who died on that fateful fall day in 2001.

William Barr Breaks With Election Fraud Claims

President Trump’s fantastical election fraud claims received yet another credibility blow Tuesday. Attorney General William Barr, a staunch supporter of the President, admitted Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ), which he heads, found no instances of significant voter fraud. This comes as the Trump campaign has faced defeat after defeat in court over vain and longshot attempts to overturn the results of a legitimate, fair election. Republican governors and secretaries of states, including in Arizona and Georgia, have all certified their results for President-Elect Joe Biden.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Dismisses Another GOP Lawsuit

On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed yet another Republican-led lawsuit trying to invalidate all votes cast by mail in the state. All seven judges in the court unanimously voted to throw out the lawsuit brought by Rep. Mike Kelly and other top-level Republicans. With this lawsuit loss, the Trump campaign has lost 39 election-related lawsuits. The President, despite losing the election, has so far refused to concede, despite already approving the transition process to a Biden administration.

‘Rigged Election’ Claims Raise Concerns From Georgia GOP

The Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections will decide control of the United States Senate of the 117th Congress. Currently, the GOP sits at 50 seats in the Senate, while the Democrats are at 48. To win a majority, Democrats must win both seats in the upcoming runoff elections. It isn’t a stretch to say that this runoff will be a very, very important election. Yet, President Trump’s comments about the 2020 election being “rigged” is causing concern for many Republicans, especially the Georgia GOP.

The Story of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving

As America continues to battle its way through the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected over 13 million Americans and killed 263,000 more, we have reached the busiest travel season of the year: Thanksgiving. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has requested all Americans avoid travel this year, and consequently, over 61 percent of Americans have decided to change their travel plans. While you’re at home on Black Friday, let’s take some time to understand how Thanksgiving came about, and debunk some of those myths you were told about the holiday back in school.

SCOTUS: How SCOTUS Decided the 2000 Election (Bush v. Gore)

The 2020 election has ended with Joe Biden being declared as the victor and the president-elect, and despite lawsuits and claims from the Trump campaign, no voter fraud has been found. In addition, the Trump campaign has failed at getting the courts (even Trump-appointed judges) to sympathize with his cause and throw out hundreds of thousands of legally cast ballots. He has already lost over 30 lawsuits, and with a Pennsylvania court throwing another of his lawsuits out, he is running out of legal ways to overturn the election. However, in the 2000 presidential election, the Supreme Court actually played a huge part in determining the winner.

Transition to Biden Presidency Formally Begins

Almost three weeks after Election Day, the Trump administration has finally formally approved to begin the transition progress to the incoming Biden-Harris administration. The announcement comes after Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed head of the General Services Administration which leads transition, designated Joe Biden as the “apparent winner” of the 2020 election.

Trump Makes Last-Ditch Effort To Overturn Election

There is no doubt about it: President-Elect Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fair and square. Yet, make no mistake: President Donald Trump continues to deny the election results, refusing to concede the election. He has filed lawsuit after lawsuit to try and get courts to throw out hundreds of thousands of legally cast ballots and tried to attempt to change the results of the election so much that it may amount to a coup.

Georgia Finishes Recount; Biden Affirmed As Winner

After a very grueling recount, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has officially declared President-Elect Joe Biden as the official winner of the 2020 Presidential Election in Georgia. The announcement comes as President Trump has sought to delegitimize the election results and pressured the secretary of state to not announce Biden the winner. It also comes as Georgia’s Republican U.S. Senate candidates, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has also asked the secretary of state to resign or throw out ballots to allow Trump to win.

Were Polls Wrong In the 2020 Election?

We have analyzed lots of polls prior to the 2020 election, and they have formed a large part of our pre-election predictions. Obviously, there is no “one-size-fits-all” type analysis for the polls, since polls were wildly incorrect in some states but almost spot-on in others. In this post, we are going to take a look at some of the presidential polls and how they were very wrong (or right) about the results of this election.

President Trump’s Refusal To Concede Is Dangerous

Amid a global pandemic that has already claimed 246,000 American lives, lame-duck President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede to President-Elect Joe Biden and continues to deny the integrity and security of the 2020 elections in an attempt to cast doubt on the safety of the nation’s voting systems. The refusal to concede by a sitting president in an election he clearly lost is unprecedented in such a nontight race and is dangerous to the United States as a whole.

As COVID-19 Spikes, the GOP Turns a Blind Eye

The United States is seeing its worse COVID-19 spike since the pandemic began in March. For the past 12 days, the U.S. has seen over 100,000 new confirmed cases. Texas and California both surpassed one million confirmed cases. Even in the Northeast, where, after a particularly disastrous outbreak in April, the states were able to stave off a second outbreak, cases are climbing up steadily once again. Throughout this crisis, the Trump administration and top Republican officials have been turning a blind eye.

Biden Wins the Electoral College With 306 Votes

With the Associated Press and most media calling the state of Georgia for President-Elect Joe Biden and the state of North Carolina called for President Trump, the President-Elect officially wins the Electoral College with 306 electoral votes over the President’s 232 votes. Ironically, Hillary Clinton lost with 232 votes back in 2016, so in terms of the number of votes, there has been a complete flip.

Arizona Finally Called For Biden By Most Media

On November 12, most media organizations, including CNN, NBC News, ABC News, The New York Times, and CBS News called Arizona for Joe Biden. The call comes days after the Associated Press and Fox News called the state, and well over nine days after Election Day. This marks the first time since 1996 a Democratic presidential candidate carried the traditional Republican stronghold, and only the second time since Harry S. Truman won the state in 1948. This leftward shift is evident of demographic change in the state and ushers in a new era of politics for Arizona.

Key Ballot Measures Voters Voted On In Nov. 2020

Besides voting for statewide and nationwide offices, voters in over 32 states decided on about 100 statewide ballot measures, including on issues regarding voting, elections, abortion rights, drug legalization, taxes, and more. Let’s take a look at some of the most important ballot measures that voters approved in this post.

SCOTUS Hears Another GOP Case Trying to Repeal Obamacare

The Supreme Court is once again hearing another GOP-led case which could determine the future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, which provides health insurance to over 23 million Americans and ensures that all Americans with preexisting medical conditions can still purchase health insurance plans. As of writing, over 38 states, including some very conservative states, have expanded Medicaid via the ACA to allow cheaper health care coverage to more Americans.

Senate Control Likely Decided By January Georgia Runoffs

With the Democrats failing in flipping Maine and Iowa’s U.S. Senate seats and likely failing to flip North Carolina’s Senate seat, and failing to win over voters in Montana, South Carolina, Alabama, and Kansas, all seats thought to be competitive, the control of the U.S. Senate will probably (barring any surprises in N.C. and Alaska) end up being determined by two key Senate runoff elections to be held on January 5.

What Went Wrong For the Democrats This Election?

This year was widely expected to be a Blue Wave year, with Democrats winning big in the Electoral College, expanding their lead in the Senate, and widening their majority in the House, as well as flipping a number of state legislatures, etc. However, election night proved that none of these things happened. What went so wrong for the Democrats, and what can be done about it going forward?

Joe Biden Declared As the 46th President of the United States

Following the announcement that the 2020 Presidential Election has been called for Joe Biden by most major news networks at 11:25 a.m. ET on Nov. 7, 2020, I would like to follow up with some quick analysis about the race. All major news networks have now called the race, with President-Elect Joe Biden winning 279 or 290 electoral votes currently.

BREAKING: JOE BIDEN WINS 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election by the Associated Press. CNN, NBC News, ABC News, The New York Times, Fox News, and more have called the race as well. More to come.

BREAKING: Decision Desk HQ CALLS Race For Biden

Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) has just called the presidential race for Joe Biden after Biden took the lead in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, declaring Joe Biden the victory of the 2020 Presidential Election and the 46th President of the United States. With DDHQ calling Pennsylvania and the entire race for Joe Biden, an Associated Press (AP) race call is imminent.

America Awaits Anxiously as Biden Leads In Georgia

Overnight, a number of new developments have occurred, the most significant being that Georgia, a traditional Republican stronghold, has flipped blue for the first time since 1996. As of writing, Biden currently takes a 1,096-vote lead, or a 0.0002 percent lead, with 99 percent of precincts reporting and 4,960,275 people voting. America now awaits anxiously for the race to be called.

Races Tight In Georgia and Pennsylvania

Two days after Election Day, the presidential race is still too close to call, with leads being extremely tight in the key battleground states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, which will decide the election. Let’s take a look at where the race currently stands.

Where the Race Stands One Day After Election Day

_{This post last updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, at 8:30 a.m. EST.}

It’s now one day after Election Day but we still do not have a clear winner of the presidency; nor do we have a clear idea of which party will gain Senate control. Though the House has already been called for the Democrats by a number of news organizations, a number of swing states are still yet to be called.

Key Races By State and Expected Vote Report Times

Election Day is now officially here. Over 99 million people have voted already, according to data compiled by the U.S. Elections Project. In actuality, “Election Day” really is vote-tabulation day, since so many people have chosen to vote early this year. In today’s post, we are going to take a look at each state, from Alabama all the way to Wyoming, and discussing the key races briefly.

What To Watch For On Election Night (Final Update)

Election Day is officially here. After a very, very long, very, very drawn-out campaign season, we have finally reached the last day that people will be able to cast their ballots all over the country. With the first polls closing at 6 p.m. Eastern and the last polls closing at 1 a.m., even if all the states were to be called immediately at poll closing (it won’t happen), that is still a five-hour wait. In this post, we are going to discuss which states and races to keep an eye on tonight, which could indicate in which direction the race goes.

Final 2020 Pre-Election Electoral College Prediction

This is it: tomorrow is the big day. In just one day, we will finally see the big showdown between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. This is the last Newshacker Blog Electoral College prediction, and, spoiler alert: Joe Biden continues to be the expected winner in this projection. Already, 94 million people have voted already based on data from the U.S. Elections Project, and Joe Biden has an approximately 90 percent chance of victory on FiveThirtyEight.

Final 2020 Pre-Election US Senate Prediction

Welcome to the final installment of the Newshacker Blog U.S. Senate election prediction. This will be the final prediction from this blog for the Senate elections from now through to Election Day. 91 million Americans have already voted early, based on data compiled by the U.S. Elections Project, and with this year expected to be a Democratic wave year, the Democrats ride high with a 73 percent chance of gaining a trifecta in government.

Final 2020 Pre-Election Gubernatorial Race Predictions

Welcome to the final installment of Newshacker Blog‘s governorship race prediction of the 2020 election cycle. Though not much has changed since the last governorship prediction in early September, I do want to make one last recap of where the governor races around the nation stand prior to Election Day on Nov. 3.

Wisconsin: The State That Polls Got ‘Wrong’ In 2016

Like Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Rust Belt state of Wisconsin completely broke everyone’s expectations when it voted for Donald Trump by a margin of 0.77 percent, or 22,748 votes, in 2016. In fact, the Badger State was the only state that ended up having a vote result outside of the margin of error of polling data. Clinton led by 6.5 percent on Election Day here, based on Real Clear Politics’ polling average. Though many are worried about another upset here again, as we’ll see, this year’s election is nothing like 2016’s.

Is Michigan Is Safer For Biden Than South Dakota Is For Trump?

One of the three Rust Belt swing states (the others being Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), Michigan shocked the nation when it voted for Trump in 2016 by a margin of just 0.23 percent. This prompted many to ask whether the so-called “Blue Wall” will ever exist again. However, it seems like that the Great Lakes State, along with its neighbors, have been able to rebuild the lucrative “Blue Wall” again.

Three Competitive Senate Races: Alabama, Alaska, and Maine

Among the most competitive U.S. Senate races this year we have Alabama, Alaska, and Maine. That may seem strange, given that these states are very solid on the presidential level. Two in three of these states have Republican incumbents: Dan Sullivan from Alaska and Susan Collins from Maine, while Alabama, a deep-red Bible Belt state, has an incumbent Democrat, Doug Jones, and all of them are super competitive. Let’s find out why in this post.

Why These States Are No Longer Competitive For the GOP

There are a number of states around the country that were once considered swing states but have staunchly moved in favor of Democrats in recent years. These include the past swing states of (alphabetically) Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Virginia. In this post, we are going to be taking a look at why these states are no longer swing states.

Nebraska and Maine’s 2nd District Explained

If you’ve looked at any electoral map prediction, you may have noticed that Maine and Nebraska are slightly different in the way that they assign electoral votes to presidential candidates. Rather than assigning all of that state’s electors to the overall statewide winner, the two states assign two votes for the at-large winner and one each for each of their congressional districts (three in Neb. and two in Maine). Coincidentally, in both of these states, the second district is competitive. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at these districts.

Final Presidential Debate Likely Isn’t Persuading Voters

The last presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden took place in Nashville, Tennessee, on the night of October 22, just 12 days away from Election Day. With the U.S. Elections Project already reporting a vote count of 50 million (more than that of the total early vote count in the entire 2016 election cycle), unfortunately, it seems as though the President was not able to use this debate to flip his campaign around from the 10-point polling deficit he is seeing.

How the Electoral Map Looks Based On Polling Data (Oct.)

We are now just 12 days away from Election Day, and with 40 million people casting their ballots already based on the U.S. Elections Project, Joe Biden continues to maintain a double-digit lead in the national polling averages on FiveThirtyEight. Today, we’re going to take a look at how the Electoral College map may look like based purely off of polling averages from FiveThirtyEight and making use of RealClearPolitics (RCP) averages as well.

How Did Kansas’s US Senate Race Get So Competitive?

Among the numerous surprising U.S. Senate races that have gotten very competitive this year, like South Carolina and Montana, Kansas is one such race. The Sunflower State is one of the most socially conservative and Republican-leaning states in the country. In this open Senate race, Democratic candidate Barbara Bollier has managed to run up the numbers against Republican candidate Roger Marshall. In this post, we are going to take a look at how this race got so competitive.

2020 Shatters Early Voting Records

As this post is being written, this year’s election cycle seems to be on a trajectory to be one of the highest turnout elections in American history. Based on the U.S. Elections Project’s early voting statistics, maintained by a professor from the University of Florida, as of writing, over 28.4 million people (compiled from 44 reporting states) have voted in November’s elections. With Florida starting in-person early voting today, there is no doubt that people are turning out in the masses to cast their ballots.

How Pennsylvania Could Decide the Election

Pennsylvania has been a key swing state for much of modern history. Though the Keystone State has trended bluer in recent elections, leading to the formation of the so-called “blue wall” consisting of the Rust Belt states of Penn., Mich., and Wis., as well as other Northeastern states. However, Donald Trump managed to break through this blue wall, winning the state by a mere 44,000 votes (a 0.7 percent margin) in 2016. This has pushed the state back again into the swing state column, and both campaigns are heavily targeting the state this year.

Democrats Have a 73% Chance of Winning the Senate (Mid-Oct.)

As Election Day draws closer and closer, the Democrats and Republicans are battling over who will win the U.S. Senate majority. With 16 million people having voting already, it is just a matter of time until we know which party wins back the Senate. Since my last Senate prediction, not much has changed on the Senate level compared to the presidential level, but there have still been a number of changes.

How South Carolina’s US Senate Race Got So Competitive

South Carolina is traditionally a ruby-red, solid Republican state. However, the incumbent Republican U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, is facing the fight of his life. Polls have shown the race at a virtual statistical tie. How did the Senate race in the Palmetto State get so tight, when he won reelection in 2014 by a safe margin? And will Graham actually lose?

Presidential Race Moves In Biden’s Favor 20 Days Out (Mid-Oct.)

We are now officially 20 days from the election, and, since the last prediction, it was revealed that Trump paid just $750 in taxes, we have had the most chaotic presidential debate in history, and the President tested positive for COVID-19, all while Senate Republicans try to push through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and refusing to pass any coronavirus aid relief bills before Election Day.

Will Texas Flip Blue This November? (October Update)

I last covered the topic of Texas flipping blue back in August. Since then, a great deal has changed in the national landscape. So, today, we will be looking at whether the Lone Star State will flip blue in either the Presidential or Senate levels. Texas is a key state to watch as it is the second-largest Electoral College prize at 38 electoral votes, behind only California with 55.

A Discussion On the US House Elections (October)

FiveThirtyEight has released its U.S. House prediction model on October 7. With this influx of new data, I believe it is time once again to take a look at the U.S. House elections as they stand in early October. Though not much has changed regarding the House elections since my last prediction in September (Democrats are still clearly favored to win), there are some close races to talk about.

This May Be the Most Important VP Debate Ever

On Wednesday night, Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic nominee for Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris, engaged in the first and only Vice Presidential debate held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The debate was very civil especially compared to the hot mess that was the first presidential debate. In an already very tediously drawn-out election cycle amid a global pandemic that has already taken the toll of 210,000 American lives, this year’s vice presidential debate might just be the most important one that has ever been held.

Two Tossup Senate Races and a Tight Presidential Race in Georgia

Georgia may have long been a solid Republican state, but like many others, is a hotly contested swing state this year. The Peach State has two high-stakes U.S. Senate elections and a very tight presidential race, with all candidates virtually neck-and-neck. In fact, based on FiveThirtyEight’s U.S. Senate forecast, it is the closest GOP-leaning state in terms of margins.

Democrats Maintain a Modest But Consistent Lead in NC

North Carolina is one of the most hotly contested swing states this election season, with a very competitive presidential race, a moderately competitive Senate race, and a less-competitive governor race, all of which are projected to go to the Democrats. The Tar Heel State is a former Confederate state and leans slightly Republican in recent years, but owing to demographic shifts, may possibly be moving back in the Democrats’ favor once again. The state is quite a large electoral prize, possessing 15 electoral votes.

The Longest-Lasting Bellwether State of Ohio: Will It Last?

The Buckeye State has been the longest political bellwether on the presidential level, having voted with the eventual president every year perfectly since 1964. (In fact, it has only not done so four times since 1860: in 1884, 1892, 1944, and 1960.) In fact, no Republican has ever won an election without having carried Ohio. As a result of this and a similar split in party registration, Ohio is a key battleground state in the Rust Belt, heavily targeted by presidential campaigns.

President Trump Catches COVID-19: Effect On the 2020 Election

Early October 2, President Trump announced on Twitter that he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19, coming just hours that senior advisor Hope Hicks tested positive. This throws a major uncertainty into the 2020 presidential campaign race, throwing a major wrench into the president’s reelection campaign. The positive test comes after months of downplaying and minimizing the threat and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic by the current administration.

Iowa: Presidential, Senate, and House Tossup

Though Iowa, the Hawkeye State, is seen as getting progressively more Republican due to the state voting for Donald Trump by a 10-point margin in 2016, it is still a hotly contested swing state and definitely on both parties’ radar. There are close presidential, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House races in the state, and we also must not forget the fact that Iowa has a long history of big swings between presidential candidates.

The Worst Presidential Debate Ever

On Tuesday night, Joe Biden and Donald Trump debated each other for the first time this election cycle in what could have been called the worst debate ever in the history of presidential debates. It was more like two people constantly shouting at each other rather than a “debate.” In fact, 83 percent of debate watchers in a CBS News/YouGov poll said the overall debate was “negative.” Last night’s debate took place in Cleveland, Ohio, and the moderator was Chris Wallace from Fox News, who is well known for his tough and ambitious interviews.

The Key Battleground State of Florida

Florida has always been a key battleground state in virtually every election cycle in modern history. The Sunshine State has a slight Republican tilt, but its 29 electoral votes, the third-biggest electoral prize, is always sought after by candidates on both sides. This year, none of its Senate seats are up for reelection.

NYT Reveals Trump Paid Just $750 In Taxes

For what seems to be the hundredth time since becoming president, there has been another revelation about President Trump Sunday: The New York Times has found out that the President had paid zero dollars in federal income tax in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2015, and that in two of the years in which he did pay, he paid just $750 in 2016 and 2017. Could this be the “October surprise” that may result in Trump losing the election this November, just as Hillary Clinton’s email allegations brought about her downfall in 2016?

SCOTUS Opening Shakes Up the Senate Race (Late Sept.)

^{Disclaimer: As this article was written before the new revelations on President Trump’s tax returns, the information in this article may not fully reflect the political landscape that has developed because of these revelations.}

Since I last covered the Senate race earlier this month, a lot has changed due to the sudden passing of Justice Ginsburg. With Democrats adamant on not replacing Ginsburg’s seat until a new president is elected in November, the Democratic Party is sure to come out in full force to vote this November. This has shaken up the Senate race by quite a lot, so let’s take a look.

Trump & GOP Threatening to Undermine Election Legitimacy

Donald Trump and the Republican Party are trying to undermine election legitimacy and the integrity of the election, particularly in key battleground states. His words and actions indicate a total disregard of current election systems, which have worked well for decades, as well as a blatant disregard of American democracy.

SCOTUS: Ensuring Gender Equality (US v. Virginia)

In commemoration of Justice Ruth Ginsburg’s death, today, we are going to look at the landmark 1996 Supreme Court case of United States v. Virginia, a landmark case regarding women’s rights, of which Justice Ginsburg wrote the majority statement and played a huge role in deciding.

The Fast-Changing Presidential Race (Mid-Sept)

Welcome back to another 2020 presidential prediction. As we near the election, the dynamic of the presidential race is fast-changing, and there will be an update every two weeks on the races up until Election Day. Since the last prediction early this month, the national landscape has changed drastically, including the extremely unfortunate and saddening passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

A Race to Fill the Supreme Court Ensues After Justice Ginsburg’s Death

In the late afternoon of Friday, September 18, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 due to complications from pancreatic cancer in her home in Washington, D.C. This came just 45 days away from the general elections in November. With a Supreme Court justice death so close to the election, the fight to fill her seat will have a number of political implications.

The Races In Montana Are Tightening Up

In most people’s eyes, Montana is a solidly Republican state, having voted for the Republican president every election since 1992 (and prior to that, 1964). But just dig slightly deeper, and you will find that Montana is not actually that solid for the Republicans at all.

The Races In Arizona Are Moving In Democrats’ Favor

Arizona, once a ruby-red state that has voted the Republican nominee for president since 1996 (and before that, 1948!) is no longer. It isn’t even just a swing state, like Texas or North Carolina. Rather, it is now a state that is favored for the Democrats to win. Let’s take a look at some of the data coming out from Arizona.

The Election Is Moving In Joe Biden’s Favor

As November’s general election draws closer with just 47 days to go, neither the Senate nor the Presidential races are tightening up. Rather, just about every swing state is moving in the Democrats’ favor. Let’s take a look at how the races stand today, based on forecasts and polling averages.

Wildfires and Hurricanes: It’s Time For a Green New Deal

Wildfires are tearing through the West Coast at rates never seen before. The smoke from wildfires is causing places like Seattle, Portland, and the Bay Area to experience some of the worst air qualities in the entire world. Hurricanes are hitting the Gulf Coast and many areas of the East Coast hard in recent years. It’s undeniable that climate change has become a real threat to human life, but hardly anything is being done about it.

SCOTUS: How Interracial Marriage Was Legalized (Loving v. Virginia)

Believe it or not, as late as 1967, interracial marriage (marriage between a Black and a White) was illegal in much of the South. Interracial marriage bans were only ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the very fittingly-named case Loving v. Virginia of 1967. We will take a closer look at this case in today’s post.

The Different Electoral Maps of the Presidential Election

In today’s post, we are going to take a look at various forecast models and possible electoral map outcomes and discuss what each could mean for the 2020 election. Many swing states have been rated differently by each forecaster, so it will be interesting to see how various states are rated. As many forecasts are updated numerous times a day, all characterizations are correct as of writing.

The 2020 Presidential Map Based On Polling

In today’s post, we are going to take a deeper look at the 2020 Presidential electoral map based on FiveThirtyEight weighted polling data, as well as RealClearPolitics (RCP) averages and a few other compilers. Note that this isn’t a prediction, but rather a discussion of the data available.

Pres. Trump Admits Downplaying COVID-19 Severity & DHS Leaks

President Trump has admitted to intentionally downplaying the severity of COVID-19 in a series of new tapes released by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward. Separately, Brian Murphy, a whistleblower who was formally the head of the intelligence division at the Department of Homeland Security, accused the department of serving the president’s political interests.

The House Elections as of September 2020

In this post, we are going to take a look at the most competitive House of Representatives races and how they stand about 55 days out from the November general election. We will only discuss the most competitive house races, because otherwise, we would be here until tomorrow morning if we were to discuss all 435 House seats.

The Gubernatorial Elections as of September 2020

The 2020 Governor Race cycle is perhaps less exciting than in other years, for example, the midterm cycle, where over 30 states hold gubernatorial elections, but there are a few interesting races to talk about. Only 11 governor seats are up for grabs this year, that being of Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Who Is Winning the Race For the White House? (Early Sept.)

Welcome to another 2020 Presidential Election prediction, updated for early September. Since the last prediction in mid-August, there have been a number of changes on the national scale, most notably a bombshell story from The Atlantic about Trump’s comments to veterans. (In case you’re not familiar with how the U.S. presidential election process works, click here for a more detailed explanation.)

Trump Down in Military Polls and Calls Servicemen ‘Losers’

(NEWSHACKER) – In a poll conducted by the Military Times before the conventions, more and more servicemen are turning away from President Trump and choosing to support Joe Biden instead. In an exclusive scoop from The Atlantic (and confirmed by the Associated Press), the President has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, called Americans who died in war “suckers” and “losers,” and lots more.

Which Party is Winning the Race For the Senate? (Sept. 2020)

Since we last discussed the race for the U.S. Senate in August, a lot has changed on the national landscape. The DNC and RNC have both taken place, and as we head into the presidential debates, the race for the Senate is undoubtedly going to narrow up. Let’s take a look at where things stand for each party exactly two months out from the November general election.

Why Is Mass Transit So Bad in America?

Mass transit networks are fast, ubiquitous, and cheap in many cities in places like Asia and Europe. Trains, buses, subway lines, streetcars…you name it, plow through the streets of busy cities like Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, and Paris. But in the U.S., with the exception of a few cities like New York and Washington D.C., mass transit sucks. It’s expensive, infrequent, and coverage is extremely limited. Just why is mass transit so bad in America? Well, it has to do with history, culture, and city planning.

The States That Will Decide Who Becomes President

Due to the Electoral College system, many people that live in safe states do not get their voices heard on the presidential level. For instance, a Republican in California or a Democrat in Mississippi are not represented in the Electoral College, because those states are safe for the Democratic and Republican parties respectively. This basically means that a handful of states decide the election. Let’s take a look at them in this post.

What’s Going On In Kenosha, Wis.?

In the late afternoon on August 23, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a town of about 100,000 halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee, while responding to a 911 call about a domestic incident in the area, a Black man named Jacob Blake was non-fatally shot seven times in the back. The incident reignited the Black Lives Matter protests and riots that had roiled America since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The Southwestern United States’s Water Problem

The mighty 1,540-mile-long Colorado River provides water for over 40 million people in the Southwestern U.S. and is a vital lifeline for people in seven states and Mexico. It has a drainage basin of over 246,000 square miles and it provides water to the cities of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, and many more. However, it has been drying up over the 21st century, threatening millions of Americans’ access to freshwater.

Part of the Colorado River in Marble Canyon, Arizona.

How Demographic Changes Will Affect Future Elections

Many states’ political landscapes are changing fast due to rapid demographic changes, while others that are experiencing a slow, declining population are seeing their political landscapes change much slowly. Today, we’re going to take a look at how demographic changes will affect future elections, especially the Rust Belt and Sun Belt regions of the United States.

Is COVID-19 the End of Standardized Testing?

Here are some completely arbitrary numbers that most students will be all too familiar with (and will probably have obsessed over): 1,600, 36, 5, 800, 4.0, 45. (To anyone not in the know, in order, the numbers are a full SAT score, full ACT score, full AP score, full SAT subject test/sectional score, full GPA, full IB score.) These numbers, and what each student’s numbers are, basically defines whether or not they will go to college, and if so, which ones. However, like just about everything, COVID-19 may be about to change that.

RNC Night 1: Trump’s Party of One, Analysis, Takeaways

The Republican National Convention has just kicked off and Donald Trump is the first incumbent president in over two decades to be heading into the conventions over nine points down in the polls. The convention placed a major emphasis on Donald Trump and his family. A large part of it was fearmongering the Democrats and a large number of claims were downright false.

WaPo Releases Audio of Trump’s Elder Sister Blasting Trump

Maryanne Trump Barry, 83, has become the second in the Trump family to speak badly of President Donald Trump. On Saturday, August 22, The Washington Post released (article paywalled) a series of secretly recorded conversations taped by Mary L. Trump, 55, the niece of Donald Trump and the only other person in the family to speak out against him, while she was speaking with Maryanne.

DNC Wrap-Up: Takeaways, Hits, Misses, Analysis

Today marks a wrap for the 2020 Democratic National Convention (DNC). In the first-ever fully online convention, Joe Biden took center stage to accept the Democratic nomination for president, and vowed to end the “chapter of American darkness.”

The US Presidential Election Process Explained

Updated Dec. 31, 2020. This post has been updated to reflect the situation after the 2020 election.

Many people still don’t fully understand the process of electing a president. And, contrary to popular belief, it is way more complex than it seems at first. So in this post, let’s go through the process of electing a president from start to finish, from nominations, to primaries, to debates, to Election Day, and to the Electoral College voting.

Is Big Tech Too Big?

Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft are some of the biggest tech companies in the world. However, their size, market dominance, manipulative power, and monopolistic behaviors are now once again coming into scrutiny over issues like in-app purchases, monopolistic practices that drive out competition, and prices. Let’s take a look at whether or not big tech really is too big in this post.

Takeaways From Day 1 of the DNC

The first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) is now over. And in a jam-packed two-hour-long convention session livestreamed from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern Time last night, over a dozen Democratic speakers made powerful speeches aimed at tying a divided American public together. (The livestream replay can be watched here.)

2020 Presidential Race Updates (Mid-August)

Since the last presidential race update post almost three weeks ago, there have been many changes and updates regarding this November’s presidential elections. Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight has release its official forecast, mail-in voting is in limbo after attacks by the Trump Administration on the USPS, and lots, lots more.

SCOTUS: Why the Supreme Court Matters (Marbury v. Madison)

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest and most important court of the U.S. It has the power of judicial review and sets precedents for all other court cases in its decisions via common law. However, the power of judicial review, meaning the power to strike down laws, statues, executive orders, etc. that the court finds to be unconstitutional, was not given to the courts in the Constitution. Why, then, does the court have this power?

President Trump is Sabotaging the US Postal Service

As discussed in a previous post, the U.S. Postal Service plays a hugely important role in the United States’ economy and was crucial to the founding of a nation. However, President Trump has been politicizing the Postal Service, cutting funding from it at its most crucial time, and trying to make the service worse, all ahead of the 2020 elections.

Kamala Harris Becomes Joe Biden’s Vice President

On August 11, Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden chose California Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate and Vice President. The selection carries a lot of implications for the November elections, so let’s look at some of them here.

2020 Senate Race Updates (August)

It’s been over two months since my last post on the 2020 Senate Race. Since then, a lot has changed and there have been slews of new polls. There are a total of 35 contested seats, one of which is Georgia’s special election. (As per usual, I don’t use the tossup characterization, I try to characterize every state.) Let’s take a deeper look at the Senate elections as they stand in August 2020.

Can Texas Flip Blue in 2020?

Texas: a state in the deep South, once part of the Confederacy, and has been staunchly Republican since Jimmy Carter’s election of 1976, is now in play for the Democrats in the 2020 election. The state has 38 Electoral votes, second only to California, is now considered a swing state and is one of the first times it has been in play in recent years. Let’s discuss the politics of the Lone Star State and see what it would take for Joe Biden to carry the state this year.

US History In the Colonial Period

Episode 2: The Colonial Period

In around fifty posts, we will go over the basics of U.S. History and give a brief overview of the main events that occurred from the first settlers arriving in America to the modern-day. This series is based on the AP U.S. History curriculum.

In today’s post, we are going to cram almost 200 years of American history into one post. Continuing on from the previous post, we are going to continue our discussion on the American colonial period. As this section is generally glossed over in most cases, we will only cover the major events of the colonial period.

Dealing With Controversial Statues

There has been a movement recently, in the United States and around the world, to get rid of statues that depicted figures like slave owners, Confederate generals, brutal dictators, and so on. In the U.S., for instance, statues of Christopher Columbus, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and more have come into scrutiny as the country wakes up once again to the issue of systemic racism. Let’s discuss what should be done with these statues.

Should We Reopen Schools?

With schools’ fall semester starting soon, a debate has been ignited over the reopening of schools. Generally, Democrats (being more open to stay-at-home lockdowns and other such measures) are against reopening schools for in-person, on-campus classes, while Republicans (generally against pandemic prevention measures), especially the president and his Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, is very much in favor of reopening schools. However, reopening schools, especially before the virus is contained, and particularly in hard-hit urban areas, is a terrible idea. Here’s why.

COVID-19’s Eviction Crisis

For American renters, a new, looming deadline is approaching. A federal eviction moratorium, listed in the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Stimulus Act) passed back in March, is about to expire. When the moratorium expires, more than 20 percent of the 110 million American renters could be at risk of losing their homes by September 30.

Analyzing Democrats’ and GOP’s Coronavirus Aid Proposals

While COVID-19 continues to batter America, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to debate over the next round of coronavirus relief measures. And the partisan divide and ideology is strong in this one, with Republicans’ bill strongly favoring businesses and Democrats’ bill favoring worker welfare and safety.

Remembering John Lewis

Today, as John Lewis (1940-2020) body is laid to rest in Georgia, we commemorate the sacrifices he made to the United States in demanding equal civil rights to all Americans regardless of skin color. He was an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, led the Selma to Montgomery marches (later known as Bloody Sunday), and was one of the original Freedom Riders back in 1961. He was later elected to Congress in 1986, where he has remained a representative of Georgia’s 5th District until his death on July 17. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

How the Post Office Changed America

The United States Postal Service: though known for being quite slow compared to private companies, it is one of the most integral parts to the U.S. as a whole. It played a huge part into making America America, and without it, the U.S. would not have been the large, coherent country it is today.

The Constitutional Amendments Explained

Since the United States Constitution was ratified in 1789, twenty-seven amendments have been made to the Constitution. It is very important to know these amendments in order to understand the current government. The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights and were ratified along with the Constitution. The Bill of Rights lists all the rights of people living in the United States. Here are all of the amendments summarized.

The Bill of Rights

Trump’s War Against Mail-In Voting

President Trump and his reelection campaign have been getting increasingly vocal against mail-in voting, and many Republicans alike are vehemently opposed to it. In today’s post, let’s find out more about Donald Trump’s war against mail-in ballots and take a look at why he might be so against them.

100 Days Until Election Day: Race Updates

Today marks 100 days until the general elections on November 3. Since last time, there have been some changes to all three races nationwide. There have also been a large number of new polls that were released recently, so let’s take a closer look today.

American Empire: Overview (US Territorial Claims Explained)

The United States, obviously, consists of 50 states that are united, but if you dig slightly deeper, you can find that the U.S. has much more to it than just those states. In today’s episode, let’s take a brief overview of how the organization of the U.S. territorial empire works.

What the US Can Learn From the Northeast’s Handling of COVID-19

In Northeastern states like New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, what was once the hardest-hit area of the country by the COVID-19 pandemic is now standing out above the rest and basking in its relative success of containing the pandemic back in April. What did these states do so well, that allowed them to avoid a second rebounding of the coronavirus like that in the Sun Belt now? And what can the now-hardest-hit Sun Belt states learn from the Northeast? Let’s find out more in today’s post.

Having an Internet Connection is a Civil Rights Issue

In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of schools across the country (and the world) have switched to all-online, remote distance learning. Unfortunately, this move to an all-online model has once again widened America’s social divide and urban/rural divide. It is demonstrating that a high-speed, stable internet connection is now not something reserved for the privileged few, but a service required for everyone.

SCOTUS: How Abortion Became a Constitutional Right (Roe v. Wade)

Despite all the controversy surrounding abortion today, it is important to understand that abortion was actually a constitutional right as ruled by the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade. How and why did the court decide that abortion was a right? Let’s find out in today’s post.

How Wearing a Mask Became Political: The Politicization of Masks

Somehow, a simple covering that goes over your mouth and nose and which helps drastically reduce the spread of coronavirus/COVID-19 has become a source of major political debate in America. The looming question, though, is why. Why have masks become so political? Let’s find out in today’s post.

Racism Uncovered (Part 5): The Civil Rights Movement, Part II

Part 5: Civil Rights Movement, Part II

In this series, Racism in America, I aim to discuss the history of the United States with a focus on the topic of racism, both systemic and individual racism. Through this series, I hope to play a part in fighting the issue of racism that still persists in our society today. This series was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

Last time in this series, we discussed the Civil Rights Movement up until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Today, we will look at all the events of the Civil Rights Movement after the act was passed, and discuss some implications of how the movement reshaped the issue of race in the United States.

Coronavirus and the Politics of Health Care

As the coronavirus makes its “second sweep” across the United States, states with the highest percentage of uninsured residents have been hit the hardest, reigniting the debate over healthcare and insurance and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The last 13 states which have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA, including Texas, Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota, and Wyoming are now seeing major outbreaks of the coronavirus. Let’s discuss the implications of healthcare on the 2020 election in today’s post.

Mid-July Presidential Race Updates

It has been over two weeks since my last post looking at the 2020 Presidential Race. Yet, since then, the political climate in the United States has changed significantly, especially with the recent uptick in coronavirus cases. Let’s take a look at how things stand for both parties in today’s post.

The Beginnings of US History: The First Colonies

The first people arrived on the American continent around 15,000 BCE. Native American tribes existed for over a thousand years before Europeans got there. Although they had no metalworking abilities, no written language, no wheels (and thus no transportation), and no domestication of animals, they did have basic civilizations, farming, and trade networks.

After Columbus’s discovery* of the Americas back in 1492, the Spanish claimed islands in the Caribbean and in modern-day Mexico, Florida, and the southern United States. The Spanish explored areas as far as the Appalachians, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon, and even as far as the Great Plains. In fact, much of the southwestern United States was once part of Spain (and later Mexico), explaining why cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Fe, El Paso, San Antonio, and so on had Spanish names. This began a period of European exploration of the new continent. Also, this period was also characterized by Native American revolts against European settlers, who often brought disease and destruction along with them to America.

The first British colony was established in Roanoke, North Carolina, in 1585, but the colony fell apart later, leaving only a mysterious message carved into a tree (check out this amazing video by Lemmino to find out more about the lost colony of Roanoke here). Britain’s first successful American colony was in Jamestown, Virginia, which was established in 1607. It was established by the Virginia Company to search for gold (said gold, obviously, did not exist). At the time, most colonists came to America to search for gold and other valuables, and later, to escape religious or political oppression back home in England. Because they were so ill-prepared, they had to rely on Native Americans to teach them how to farm after the colonists suffered from disease and starvation.

By 1610, many colonists had died and the population had severely dwindled. To persuade people to move to America, 50 acres of land were given to each person. Luckily, because tobacco was found in the colony, the colony was able to live on and maintain a steady stream of income for the colony. The first shipment of African slaves to Jamestown occurred in 1619 to help with tobacco farming. By 1624, the colony produced over 200,000 lbs. of tobacco per year! Also, due to this, over one-half of all European colonists were indentured servants.

Another famous colony to be established in America was Plymouth, Massachusetts, settled by the Pilgrims and Puritans in 1620. The Pilgrims (and Puritans) were fleeing England due to religious prosecution. Both groups were Protestants and felt that the Church of England was too Catholic for them, and so decided to head to America. They originally intended to sail to Virginia on their ship, the Mayflower, however, they went off-course and landed in Plymouth instead, and established the Mayflower Compact, a set of rules all the people on the Mayflower would follow. This can be considered the first “government” in the United States.

The colonists in Plymouth suffered from starvation and disease and had to rely on local Wampanoag Indians, led by Squanto, to teach them how to grow food. The first Thanksgiving was held by the colonists in Plymouth in 1621 on the fourth Thursday in November after they finally had enough food. The Plymouth colony was succeeded by the much more successful Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established near what is now Boston in 1630. They established charter self-government from England, which gave them more autonomy compared to Virginia, and elected John Winthrop as its governor. Due to the poor farming land of New England, the area became a center for commerce and industry. Because of this, Boston became one of the most important ports.

The only other major Southern colony established during this time, outside of Virginia, was in Maryland, established in 1632. Like Virginia, it was based on plantations fueled by slave labor. In many ways, Americans like to believe that the United States was founded by groups of people seeking religious freedom from the oppressive British. However, this was only partly true. For example, the Puritans based their society on the Church, which meant that non-church members had no representation or say. Plus, the first colonies were set up for money.

*Columbus was not the first to discover America. Read more about it here.

America’s Coronavirus Missteps

America currently ranks number one in the entire world for the number of coronavirus cases and deaths. By July 12, 2020, over 1% of the entire population in the United States had contracted the coronavirus. What did the U.S. do wrong to cause the pandemic to become so bad? What can we learn from these mistakes? Let’s find out in today’s post.

SCOTUS: Trump’s Tax Returns (Trump v. Vance and Trump v. Mazars)

The Supreme Court decided on two landmark cases regarding executive power on July 9, 2020. In the cases of Trump v. Vance and Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP, the justices ruled that in Trump v. Vance, New York County District Attorney’s attempt to subpoena (order to appear in court) President Donald Trump’s tax returns was valid and did not require a heightened standard. Separately, in Trump v. Mazars, the court ruled that the House of Representatives’ subpoena to obtain the tax returns were not valid.

SCOTUS: Desegregation of Public Schools (Brown v. Board of Education)

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a major, landmark Supreme Court decision in 1954. The ruling declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional and was the first major victory for civil rights activists during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Here’s how the case unfolded.

The US Constitution Explained

The United States Constitution, ratified in 1788 and effective in 1789, is the supreme law of the United States. It comprises seven articles, detailing the framework of the federal government and establishes the structure of the U.S. Government, such as laying out the three branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. It also comprises 27 amendments, most of which detail the rights of the people in the U.S. Understanding the Constitution is essential to understanding the structure of the government and understanding how it works. So, in today’s post, we will look at the seven articles that make up the Constitution.

SCOTUS: Punishment For Faithless Electors (Chiafalo v. Washington)

On July 7, 2020, the Supreme Court made a major decision in the case of Chiafalo v. Washington regarding faithless electors in the Electoral College, especially with regard to those in the 2016 presidential election. In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that states have the ability to enforce an elector’s pledge in a presidential election.

Racism Uncovered (Part 4): The Civil Rights Movement, Part I

Part 4: Civil Rights Movement, Part I

Continuing on from the previous post in this series, today we will be taking a closer look at the Civil Rights Movement. The movement was a fight by Black Americans to gain equal treatment under the law and desegregate the country. Having endured segregation and harsh Jim Crow laws for many years, an uprising occurred during the 1950s and ’60s, beginning a fight for equality and eventually ending in victory.

Continue reading “Racism Uncovered (Part 4): The Civil Rights Movement, Part I”

How July 4th Came to Be

Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the United States’ Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and takes place annually on July 4. On this July 4th, let’s take a look at some of the history commemorating America’s oldest holiday.

Should Washington, DC, Be a State?

Not too long ago, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted for a bill that would make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. The vote was divided cleanly along party lines – all Republicans voted no – and was 232–180. This is partially because making Washington, D.C., a state would guarantee Democrats two free senators, but there are other reasons, too.

SCOTUS: The Time When SCOTUS Legalized Segregation (Plessy v. Ferguson)

In a previous post about the Jim Crow laws era, I briefly mentioned the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case, which was where the Supreme Court legalized racial segregation. In today’s post, I would like to go into more detail about the case.

SCOTUS: Strengthening Abortion Rights (June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee)

On June 29, 2020, the Supreme Court made another landmark decision in the case of June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee, strengthening women’s rights to having an abortion. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the four liberal justices to deliver the 5-4 decision in favor of June Medical Services and abortion. It marks the third major victory for liberals in the Supreme Court this month (the other two being LGBTQ rights and DACA).

A First Look at the 2020 Senate Election

In today’s post, I would like to discuss the Senate Election as it currently stands. A lot has changed in the last couple of weeks, turning the tide, especially in the Democratic Party’s favor. Many seats once considered safe are now flipping in favor of the Democratic Party. Here is the general consensus.

An Update on the 2020 Presidential Race

A slew of new polls conducted by a large number of pollsters shows presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden having major leads over incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in virtually every swing state.

How the Interstate Highway System Changed America

If you’ve ever driven a car in the United States, there is a high likelihood that you have driven on an interstate highway before. The Interstate Highway System is a network of 48,000 miles of limited-access freeway roads that connect every state in the contiguous 48 together. One-quarter of all vehicle-miles driven are on interstate highways.

Racism Uncovered (Part 3): Reconstruction and the Jim Crow Laws Era

Part 3: Reconstruction

In the previous post in this series, we talked about the Civil War and also briefly Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. However, despite efforts to reintegrate former slaves (and Black people) back into society after abolition via the aforementioned amendments, it was way easier said than done.

WWDC 2020: What Was Announced?

This year, Apple held its first-ever completely online World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), kicking off with a software announcement keynote on June 22, 2020, at 10 a.m. PDT. Major changes were announced to iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and especially macOS and the transition to ARM-based Macs. Here are some of the major features announced.

Why the Electoral College Should Be Abolished

I was recently inspired by an old video from CGP Grey talking about the Electoral College, and so I thought I might make a post about it. Today, I will be discussing the reasons why I believe the Electoral College should be abolished and replaced.

SCOTUS: DACA Lives On (DHS v. Regents of UC)

On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court made another landmark decision against the will of President Trump. In the case of the Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, the Supreme Court ensured, in a 5-4 vote, that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program introduced under the Obama administration would continue to be in effect after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tried to rescind it in 2017 under the Trump administration.

A First Look at the 2020 Presidential Election

As of today (June 18, 2020), there are 138 more days to go until Election Day 2020. In today’s post, we will take a look at the presidential race as it stands today. The two forerunning candidates are the incumbent, Donald Trump, for the Republican Party, and Joe Biden for the Democratic Party.

Let’s first color in all the safe Democratic states first. All of these states are almost guaranteed to vote Biden based on past history and demographics.

These states are California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine (First Congressional district only)*, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Next, let’s color in all the safe Republican states. Again, we can almost guarantee that these states are going to vote for Trump.

These states are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Lousiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska (at-large and 1st and 3rd Congressional districts)*, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

_{*While most states use a winner-take-all system when assigning Electoral College votes, Maine and Nebraska use a proportional system. In these states, two votes go to the state’s popular vote winner, while the other votes are assigned to each of their Congressional districts. Maine has two Congressional districts while Nebraska has three. In these maps, only Maine’s first district is safe for Democrats, and only Nebraska’s 2nd district is not considered safe for Republicans in their respective states.}

Although polling has shown that in states, like Utah, Montana, Indiana, South Carolina, and Missouri, Trump is only leading by a small percentage, it is highly unlikely any of these states will be flipping in favor of the Democratic Party anytime soon. Therefore, we will be listing them as “safe” for the Republican Party.

Next, we will consider all the states that are highly likely to vote for the Democratic Party. These states may have voted for Republicans in the past, but based on data, they are now likely to vote Democratic in the upcoming election.

These states are Colorado, Maine (at-large), New Mexico, and Virginia. All of these states are solidly trending blue. In addition, in all of these states, Biden is leading the polls by quite a large amount, too.

We will now do the same for all the Republican states that fall into this category.

The only two states that fit into this category are Iowa, Nebraska (2nd district), and Ohio. Although these were once considered swing states (and there is every chance that they could flip in 2020), because Trump won by such a large margin in these states in 2016, and that their federal and state-level representation are run by Republicans, these states will most likely vote Trump. Nebraska’s 2nd district has only flipped once, too, in favor of Obama in 2008, so it is quite unlikely that it will flip either.

If Biden wins these states, it is likely that he will win by a large margin as well. That leaves us with a handful of states to group as “lean” states. We will start off with the less-competitive lean states first. Likely Democrat lean states are as follows:

The states that most easily fall into this category are Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

The Rust Belt states have always been quite difficult to group, as they have been such swing states recently. However, the Black Lives Matter protest movement, coupled with the fact that Trump only won Michigan by 0.2% (and lost Minnesota), I believe that it is more likely that Michigan and Minnesota will be voting for Biden. Nevada has also been trending Democrat in recent years as well, thus pushing it firmly out of swing state territory.

New Hampshire is also quite a difficult one to group. However, because Trump lost the state in 2016, along with the fact that they have voted Democrat in numerous past elections as well, I am grouping it as leans Democrat. We will group all the lean Republican states:

In this category are Georgia, Maine (second district only), and Texas. Although there is every chance that these states could flip this year, I believe that it is less likely to happen due to numerous reasons.

Although both Georgia and Texas are trending blue due to increased population growth, I think that they are not quite ready to flip yet this year. Although there is every chance that they could flip this year, it seems likely that they won’t flip this year, as there just aren’t enough Democratic voters in either of these states to make that happen yet.

Trump won Maine’s second district by a very healthy margin in 2016 (over 10%), so I also don’t think that the district will flip this year, either. That leaves us with the most battleground states of the 2020 election, and it is very hard to group these. These states will likely be determining the outcome of the election.

Because of North Carolina’s voting history, only voting Democratic once in 2008, it seems likely that it will continue to remain Republican for the time being. Although the race in that state has been narrowing up, it will probably take a bit more time before North Carolina will flip again. Also, due to population growth, the state will likely gain another seat after the 2020 Census.

Because of Arizona’s leftward trend and the growth in population there, there is every chance that Biden will win the state, and pundits are expecting a Biden win, too. As such, I am grouping it blue for now.

Florida is a particularly interesting case. It should really be a blue state (due to a large Latino and minority population), but because so many retired people move there, it has turned Florida into a swing state. However, because the state has voted for George W. Bush and various other Republican candidates in the past, it has a greater chance of being Republican than Democrat.

That leaves us with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Because Trump won these states by such narrow margins in 2016, and these states’ past history of voting Democrat, it seems more likely than not that these states will flip this year. In addition, due to the growing resentment of Trump across the country fueled by the Black Lives Matter protest movement, the chances of the states flipping are quite large.

With that, every state (and D.C.) has been grouped as either Democrat or Republican. The current standings do give Joe Biden a majority of the Electoral College votes. Due to the general consensus for this election, it does seem more likely than not that Biden will win over Trump. However, as we are still almost five months away from the election, there is every chance that the map could change before it. The states to watch out for are the Rust Belt states, Arizona, and Florida. These states alone are likely to determine the outcome of this year’s election.

We will be publishing more 2020 Election analysis nearer to the election. Details on the 2020 Senate, House, and Gubernatorial races will also come in due time. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

Racism Uncovered (Part 2): The Civil War

Part 2: The Civil War

In the last post in this series, we discussed the issue of slavery in the United States when it was a young country, all the way until the mid-1800s. We left off after discussing the Dred Scott Decision. In today’s post, we will talk about the events that led to the Civil War and the consequences of the Civil War.

SCOTUS: Civil Rights for All LGBTQ Americans (Bostock v. Clayton County)

On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision regarding LGBTQ rights. In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also protected LGBTQ Americans from workplace discrimination.

The case was Bostock v. Clayton County, where Bostock was fired from the juvenile court system in Georgia after soliciting interest in a gay baseball league at work. Bostock claimed that this was violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court sided with him, ruling against Clayton County of Georgia.

Racism Uncovered (Part 1): Slavery

Part 1: Slavery and the Founding of a Nation

To understand present-day racism in the United States, we must first understand some American history. Slavery can really be considered the first form of “racism” in America (although, admittedly, at the time, the United States was but a small British colony).

SCOTUS: Forced Vaccinations From the Government? (Jacobson v. Massachusetts)

In view of the coronavirus pandemic and the fact that a coronavirus vaccine may be developed soon, I thought that it would be a great time to discuss the Jacobson v. Massachusetts Supreme Court case, which deals with forced vaccinations from the government.

A Better Voting Method: Ranked-Choice Voting

Ranked-choice voting (also known as instant-runoff voting) is a common alternative to plurality first-past-the-post voting, where the candidate who gets the most votes win, regardless of win percentage. This system of election is used to elect the members of Congress in Maine, to elect the Australian House of Representatives, the Presidents of Ireland and India, and in many local elections (New York City will start using this voting method for local offices starting 2021). The Academy Awards are also chosen with this form of voting.

The Debate Over Gun Control

Recently, due to the looting of stores in the recent protests, many store owners have defended their stores with guns, reigniting a very hotly debated topic in the United States: Should gun control exist in the U.S. or not?

Defunding the Police?

On Sunday, nine out of 13 Minneapolis City Council members announced that they intended to defund and dismantle the police department. According to the council, they said that they were looking into shifting the funding for policing to community-based strategies, and would not try to “glue it back together” after dismantling the force.

The Latest on the George Floyd Case

The police officer responsible for the killing of George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, has now been charged with second-degree murder by the state’s Attorney General. The state’s Attorney General, Keith Ellison, said that “the evidence available to us now supports the stronger charge.” With this, the bail has increased the $1 million.

Why the Looting of Stores Must Stop

For the past week, violent protests have roiled countless cities in the U.S., throughout all 50 states and D.C., in protest of police brutality against African Americans, especially with regard to George Floyd’s case. Although many protests remained peaceful, especially those organized in smaller cities, some, like those in downtown Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and more involved rioting, arson, and looting of stores.

Should Troops be Mobilized on US Soil to Quell Protests?

President Trump recently said that “if the city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residence, then I will deploy the United States Military and quickly solve the problem for them,” implying that if governors did not act to his liking to quell the increasingly violent protests and riots that have broken out across America in response to Floyd’s killing, he would call on the military to police U.S. streets.

Five Months Into 2020: A Lookback

Today is June 1, 2020, meaning that 2020 is already five months in. Yes, believe it or not, we are already almost halfway through the year 2020. So many things happened in 2020, and so, I thought I might use today’s post to recap what has happened in 2020 so far.

The Killing of George Floyd

In Minneapolis, on May 25, 2020, Memorial Day, at around 8:00 p.m. CDT, Minneapolis police responded to a forgery call on Chicago Avenue South, located south of downtown Minneapolis. George Floyd, an African-American man, was accused of allegedly using a forged $20 bill at a grocery store. According to the police, Floyd was in a car and seemed to be “under the influence,” and he “physically resisted” when ordered to exit the vehicle. After getting him into handcuffs, officers called for an ambulance as he “appeared to be suffering medical distress.” No weapons were used during the arrest by either party.

Twitter and Trump

On May 26, 2020, President Trump made a number of false tweets regarding mail-in voting in the 2020 election this November. Twitter “fact-checked” his tweet and flagged it, posting a little message that sais “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” noting that the tweet contained false information. This prompted outrage from the president.

The Politics of Lockdowns

In the age of the coronavirus pandemic, everything has become a political symbol. From something as simple as wearing a mask to state lockdowns, the pandemic is further dividing the two parties and causing society to become even more polarized.