So I know today in class Mrs. Garber mentioned how Russians want everyone in Russia to be and act Russian even if they're not. This is actually really true.
Elections are expected to take place in March of this year, and Putin is expected to win. Interestingly, his is taking a strong stance on immigration and labor laws.
Last year, Russia saw seven percent unemployment. This is while immigrants are flooding into the country, taking jobs without proper permits or documentation. They are either forging it or employers are ignoring it/forging it for them.
Many Russians are really frustrated with these immigrants because not only are they taking much needed jobs illegally, they are overcrowding living spaces. This has caused discrimination against anyone who doesn't appear to be or act Russian and it has caused the Russian people to fear and detest different people. Certain groups have even come about that kill or beat these workers who are also openly criticized by politicians.
Putin, if reelected, plans to take a serious stance against illegal immigration and labor and not only punish the illegal workers, but the employers also. For the Russians, this is a serious threat and many people are clearly angry. Out of the ten million foreign workers, there are about four million that are there illegally.
To be clearer, I don't think that it is necessarily that the Russians hate that people that are different, but the lack of respect for Russian law towards immigration and labor is apparent when workers come work in the country illegally and this is a blatant refusal to accept a Russian identity.
Do you think the Russian government is really going to crack down on immigration? Do you think it will be effective? Do you think it is possible to keep a close enough eye on this problem to be able to solve it? Do you think Russians put a permanent stigma on foreigners because some of them came to work in Russia illegally? Do you think this is anything like America's relationship with Mexico and immigration? Similarities? Differences?
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
STOCK. Yeah, that's it.
So I don't even know if it's my week to blog...but here it is!
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge act was proposed to stop congressmen from trading stocks based on information not available to the public obtained on the job. The House version of STOCK makes congressmen disclose their trading activity ninety days after it happens and the Senate version goes even further and requires a thirty day deadline.
Occupiers can cross one concern off of their list with this bill receiving a majority of the vote in Congress. This would have been a major accomplishment for reducing corruption and reduce the incentive for going into Congress for money.
HOWEVER, Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, is blocking the bill! He cancelled the markup session that was scheduled for next week because he wants to "give Congress more time to examine the bill." He also claims that he wants to expand the bill by building upon it to focus on stock trading, too. This action could kill the whole bill. Other Congressmen have criticized Cantor calling him "petty" and saying his action is "absolutely is unacceptable."
So why is Cantor blocking this bill? Do you this his actions mean that Cantor doesn't see problems with Congress' unethical insider trading? Does he really have the authority to override a majority vote on the bill? Isn't it odd that Congress is voting on a bill to control its own actions.
Also, I didn't feel like re-reading this, so sorry if some parts sound kray.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge act was proposed to stop congressmen from trading stocks based on information not available to the public obtained on the job. The House version of STOCK makes congressmen disclose their trading activity ninety days after it happens and the Senate version goes even further and requires a thirty day deadline.
Occupiers can cross one concern off of their list with this bill receiving a majority of the vote in Congress. This would have been a major accomplishment for reducing corruption and reduce the incentive for going into Congress for money.
HOWEVER, Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, is blocking the bill! He cancelled the markup session that was scheduled for next week because he wants to "give Congress more time to examine the bill." He also claims that he wants to expand the bill by building upon it to focus on stock trading, too. This action could kill the whole bill. Other Congressmen have criticized Cantor calling him "petty" and saying his action is "absolutely is unacceptable."
So why is Cantor blocking this bill? Do you this his actions mean that Cantor doesn't see problems with Congress' unethical insider trading? Does he really have the authority to override a majority vote on the bill? Isn't it odd that Congress is voting on a bill to control its own actions.
Also, I didn't feel like re-reading this, so sorry if some parts sound kray.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
SOPA: it's not just about soup anymore.
As you are all aware, a recent bill by Congress, known as SOPA, is trying to censor the internet. What may have started out as an attempt to stop illegal pirating of music to protect the copyrights of Hollywood musicians and artists has become censorship of free speech which resembles oppressive nations that the US openly scrutinizes for such censorship.
What really concerns me about this bill is how few people know about it. I had to tell my self-proclaimed "I know everything about everything" older sister about it, and as an devout Google-r and Facebook-er, she should really know about this. It seems to me that only people who are really interested in politics or the news or have enough free time to muck around the depths of the internet are aware of this. Tweens trying to post pictures of their future husbands Justin Bieber and Taylor Lautner--don't know about this bill. Teens tweeting their favorite song lyrics or posting a funny meme to their friends' wall--don't know about this bill. Young adults sharing articles and posting philosophical quotes to their Facebooks--don't know about this bill. What they also don't know, is that they won't be able to do any of these things under this bill.
One of my favorite websites, Reddit (which I do not recommend going to if you're a major procrastinator like me because it has so many wondrous and distracting things...), has take the responsibility upon its whole community of users to fight congress and keep this bill from passing. So far, they have launched a boycott of the host GoDaddy.com because they were a creator a supporter of SOPA. After Reddit got tons of users and companies to switch their domains away from GoDaddy, GoDaddy changed its view on SOPA and now publicly opposes it.
Through Reddit's influence, other companies like Nintendo, EA, and Sony (who also received a menacing letter from the hacking group Anonymous, basically threatening to destroy the company) also dropped or at least mitigated their support for SOPA.
Taking inspiration from Reddit's leadership and action on this issue, many other websites have decided to take a stance against SOPA through a self-induced blackout. This means that for at least a day, the website will be inaccessible to users except for a message that will appear on the homepage telling users about the dangers of SOPA and telling them to contact their congressman. Possible websites to do this include: Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Twitter, and maybe more. A popular website, Tumblr, has already included a pop-up message on their page with information about SOPA and successfully initiated almost 90,000 calls to congress from its users.
I can't help but think that congress underestimated the American public and avid internet users. It seems to me like they thought that this bill would pass through legislation unnoticed and they could continue doing what ever they want. This probably comes from their complete lack of understanding about the internet. One congressman described that internet as a series of tubes. Not only that, they have no internet experts and to give a perfect comparison, "it's like going into surgery and performing an operation with no nurses or doctors." However, this bill has erupted a major response from the internet community and it is amazing to see that there are more people on the internet than trolls and Justin Bieber fangirls and they're taking action--and I'm really interested to see what will happen.
There have been rumors that the bill will be debated on January 24. This is also rumored to be the date of the blackout. Let's hope that congress realizes that 95% of the country they legislate for is against them.
Do you think SOPA will pass? Will there be congressman so stubborn and money hungry to pass the bill even with so much opposition? What would happen if it did pass? Do you think Obama will veto it if it gets to him? Would a blackout of popular websites be effective? Would it communicate the right message to users? Have you noticed that most news stations (at least our local ones that I keep an eye on, anyway) have not even mentioned SOPA? Why do you think that is?
What really concerns me about this bill is how few people know about it. I had to tell my self-proclaimed "I know everything about everything" older sister about it, and as an devout Google-r and Facebook-er, she should really know about this. It seems to me that only people who are really interested in politics or the news or have enough free time to muck around the depths of the internet are aware of this. Tweens trying to post pictures of their future husbands Justin Bieber and Taylor Lautner--don't know about this bill. Teens tweeting their favorite song lyrics or posting a funny meme to their friends' wall--don't know about this bill. Young adults sharing articles and posting philosophical quotes to their Facebooks--don't know about this bill. What they also don't know, is that they won't be able to do any of these things under this bill.
One of my favorite websites, Reddit (which I do not recommend going to if you're a major procrastinator like me because it has so many wondrous and distracting things...), has take the responsibility upon its whole community of users to fight congress and keep this bill from passing. So far, they have launched a boycott of the host GoDaddy.com because they were a creator a supporter of SOPA. After Reddit got tons of users and companies to switch their domains away from GoDaddy, GoDaddy changed its view on SOPA and now publicly opposes it.
Through Reddit's influence, other companies like Nintendo, EA, and Sony (who also received a menacing letter from the hacking group Anonymous, basically threatening to destroy the company) also dropped or at least mitigated their support for SOPA.
Taking inspiration from Reddit's leadership and action on this issue, many other websites have decided to take a stance against SOPA through a self-induced blackout. This means that for at least a day, the website will be inaccessible to users except for a message that will appear on the homepage telling users about the dangers of SOPA and telling them to contact their congressman. Possible websites to do this include: Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Twitter, and maybe more. A popular website, Tumblr, has already included a pop-up message on their page with information about SOPA and successfully initiated almost 90,000 calls to congress from its users.
I can't help but think that congress underestimated the American public and avid internet users. It seems to me like they thought that this bill would pass through legislation unnoticed and they could continue doing what ever they want. This probably comes from their complete lack of understanding about the internet. One congressman described that internet as a series of tubes. Not only that, they have no internet experts and to give a perfect comparison, "it's like going into surgery and performing an operation with no nurses or doctors." However, this bill has erupted a major response from the internet community and it is amazing to see that there are more people on the internet than trolls and Justin Bieber fangirls and they're taking action--and I'm really interested to see what will happen.
There have been rumors that the bill will be debated on January 24. This is also rumored to be the date of the blackout. Let's hope that congress realizes that 95% of the country they legislate for is against them.
Do you think SOPA will pass? Will there be congressman so stubborn and money hungry to pass the bill even with so much opposition? What would happen if it did pass? Do you think Obama will veto it if it gets to him? Would a blackout of popular websites be effective? Would it communicate the right message to users? Have you noticed that most news stations (at least our local ones that I keep an eye on, anyway) have not even mentioned SOPA? Why do you think that is?
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