Feminists Enjoy watching Fiorina take on Trump

Feminists everywhere are confused by the Fiorina campaign. On one hand, they love watching her stand up to Donald Trump. Some say that Fiorina reminds them of themselves at times. Then, on the other hand, her conservative views are viewed as something that is to be against the feminist views. These views include her stance on Planned Parenthood. One interesting question that has been brought up by her campaign is "Can you love a campaign but hate a candidate's policies?"

"First in the Nation" states shouldn't be too comfortable

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, has announced that Iowa and New Hampshire may no longer have the right to kick off the nomination season. The Republican party has often fought to keep the two states from being overruled by other states, but this could soon change. The Times says opposition of the "First in the Nation" states claim that by being the first in the nomination process the states receive too much attention from candidates and thus receive far more money in campaigning than do other states in order to get momentum going into the nomination.

Jeb gains top fundraiser

Anthony Scaramucci, a New York investor and top fundraiser for Scott Walker's failed presidential campaign, was recently picked up by Jeb Bush's campaign. The hire is expected to make donors feel more confident in the Bush campaign and Jeb Bush has even said that Scaramucci is a "valuable asset." One good side note is that other members of Walker's failed campaign joined Marco Rubio's campaign, a candidate who recently saw his numbers go up in the polls.

Jeb Bush focuses campaign on New Hampshire

Jeb Bush's campaign has announce that it is saving millions of dollars for television ad time in January and February. They also announced that $4.6 million would be set aside for New Hampshire alone. The Times reports that these totals show the importance of the state to Bush's campaign. The hope is that New Hampshire votes will be more for a a Republican candidate with more moderate views on issues such as immigration.

Trump back on Fox

A week ago, Donald Trump announced that he would not be "doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future." Yet, now, he is expected to be on the O'Reilly Factor on Tuesday. This comes after Fox had cancelled his appearance just last week following Trump's twitter boycott of the company. The Times reports that the feud comes from Trump feeling as if he was treated unfairly on Fox's Republican debate. However, it is rumored that Trump and the CEO of the company are set to meet sometime this week.

Government Shutdown harms Anti-Abortion cause

Carol Tobias, President of the National Right to Life Committee, said that her group had not yet taken an official stance on opposing a government shutdown, because even though the Planned Parenthood undercover videos had surfaced, she believes there are flaws in the Republican plan to block any government-wide funding bill that spent any money on the company. Ms. Tobias even went on to say "Quite frankly, I think Planned Parenthood is a vile organization..." The Times reports that Tobias likes the idea of stand-alone measures, ones in which funding is only cut to Planned Parenthood affiliates who perform abortions.

Trump doesn't fact check

In the most recent Republican debate, Donald Trump claimed that he believes vaccines can cause autism in children. The only thing is, decades of scientific research and evidence have came up with nothing. There aren't any true, credible studies that show the linkage between vaccines and autism. Ben Carson and Rand Paul, both physicians, argued that the science linking the two is lacking, but that maybe spreading out the childhood vaccination schedule would be helpful. Due to parent requests, however, many doctors are forced to administer the vaccines to children, which puts them at risk of exposure to disease pre-vaccination. The Times reports that a recent outbreak of measles was aided by people who didn't receive the vaccine and were able to help spread the disease.

Jeb defends George

After sending much of the year sending mixed signals about his plans to deal with the legacy of his brother, Jeb Bush recently took to twitter to defend his big brother against Donald Trump. The tweet contained the iconic picture of George W. Bush standing on top of the ruins of the World Trade Center following 9/11 with a microphone making a speech. Next to the picture Jeb quoted himself, saying "When it comes to my brother, there's one thing I know for sure, he kept us safe." The point during this Wednesday's debate that Jeb said that regarding his brother's foreign policy record was seen by many as his strongest moment. The Times predicts that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing voter-wise for Jeb Bush to embrace his brother a little more, as his is still largely popular in Iowa and South Carolina.

Millions watched Republican Debate

The Times reports that nearly 23 million people tuned into CNN Wednesday to watch the Republican debate, The three hour debate averaged 22.9 million viewers, a record for CNN. However, the debate drew less attention than last month's, which appeared on Fox. Before this year, CNN's highest total viewers for a debate was 8.3 million, which came from the Democratic debate in 2008.

Planned Parenthood part of Republican plans to avoid Government Shutdown

Currently, Congress has two weeks left to decide something before the government will go into yet again an other shutdown. One proposed plan to cut spending proposed by the GOP was to cut federal funding to any Planned Parenthood affiliate and to impose criminal penalties on any healthcare provider who doesn't give treatment to any baby who survives an abortion attempt. The bill is not expected to make it very far in the Senate, but it will ignite outrage against Planned Parenthood after a couple of undercover videos show that the organization is illegally selling fetal tissue to researchers for a profit. According to the Times, this video led to many Republicans in both the House and Senate stating that they would not vote for any funding bill that included money being sent to Planned Parenthood.

Federalism

1. Duhaime's Law Dictionary defines federalism as a system of government which has created, by written agreement, a central and national government to which it has distributed specified legislative (law-making) powers, called the federal government, and regional or local governments (or sometimes called provinces or states) to which is distributed other, specified legislative powers.

2. There are currently about 196 Nation-states in the world today.

3. There are about 25 countries in the world today that use the federal system of government. These countries include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Argentina, Austria, Belgium , Comoros, Malaysia, Micronesia, Nepal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, United States of America, etc...

4. The countries tend to have in common that they are all large countries in terms of size.

5. Unitary, by definition, is a sovereign state governed as a single entity.

6. More than 150 countries use a unitary system of government. The 5 largest unitary countries are China, Khazakstan, Algeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Saudi Arabia.

7. The difference between a unitary and federal system of government is that federal systems have states and large national governments that work together. Unitary systems consist of one large government that controls everything.

8.The Picture of the two guys presents the idea that federalism isn't a good thing, or that it is basically just a way for state government's to receive handouts without having to answer to any real authority.

9. This picture presents a sort of ironic view of the federal government because the federal government is preventing someone from getting something that they need for their illness because it is illegal.

10. This picture shows a Republican (the elephant) claiming that he doesn't believe in government obstruction within business and citizen's lives, but the minute a citizen wants to change something he steps in and says they are wrong.

11. The video compares federalism to a three layered cake. The local government is on top, the state government in the middle, and national government on the bottom.

12.  This cake creates a totally different metaphor for federalism. It creates a sense that all the governments are blended together instead of separated.

Donald Trump Golf Course eases Taxes

The Times Reports that Trump is trying to lessen the taxes he pays on the Trump National Golf Club. In order to do so, a Trump lawyer recently filed paperwork stating the property was only worth $1.36 million, significantly less than previous estimates. The property is currently taxed on a $13.5 million value, and if approved the tax reduction will be nearly 90 percent. Interestingly enough, in July, Trump listed as worth $50 million in his personal financial disclosure with the U.S. government.

"If you work all day, you don't have time to do heroin"

Yes, Kentucky senator Rand Paul actually said that. He also said that Americans shouldn't be given a penny if they don't work and that work needs to be attached to everything. Paul delivered this speech in New Hampshire, which has seen a 90 percent increase in heroin users admitted to state treatment centers from 2004 to 2013. Huffington Post reports that Paul eventually went on to say that heroin addiction had to do with more than just lack of work. Paul actually co-sponsors an organization with the goal to treat addiction as more of a health problem by giving medical assistance to the addicted. 

Ben Carson looking better in Polls

A recently released national poll showed that the brain surgeon was the only candidate who outperforms Donald Trump in head-to-head polls. Republican voters preferred Ben Carson 55% compared to Trump at 36%, the Times reports. Patrick Murray, Directer of the Monmouth University Polling institute stated that “The fact that the only one who can challenge Trump is the only other candidate who has never held or run for elected office speaks volumes to the low regard G.O.P. voters have for the establishment.” The new poll puts Carson in second place, following only Trump who received 30% when matched against the full Republican field.

Trump Pledges to Republican Party

Earlier today, Donald Trump signed a pledge to the Republican Party stating that he would no join a third-party and would support the Republican's eventual nominee. In a very Trumpesque way, he made it a big deal. There were many supporters there, holding up there "Make America Great Again" signs and dozens of reporters and photographers. The Times reports that Trump claims he gets nothing out of signing the pledge, just "assurance." Trump also lashed out at other candidates such as Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, mostly Jeb Bush. He also did a great job avoiding the questions he doesn't want to answer, as he always does.