Blog#6 The Chained Down Anti-War Machine

 

Is it really any surprise that sites like ANTIWAR.COM and The American Conservative do not receive any real traction or publicity like that of Fox News or MSNBC? Is it really any surprise that one would have to go out of their way to find such sites? (It could be argued that ANTIWAR.COM's poorly optimized site could play some role) Is it really any surprise that we never hear any strong anti-war voices in the mainstream media?

I don't think that it is. After all, there is always a common denominator when there is conflict; that common denominator being the moolah, the money. There is money to be made when we are at war, and when we go to war. There are so many parties interested in war that the strongest anti-war voices often go unheard. Why though would anyone want to go to war? Well, it's both a simple and complex answer, the simple answer is that they want things. The more complex answer has to do with people in power wanting more of it, and the people with money wanting more of it also.

Those in power in this country have an interest in obtaining more of it, and those who have money have an interest in making more of it. When there is war, there are highly profitable defense contracts handed out. War makes for great television, it makes for great news. Broadcasters have no reason to want war to end. As long as there is a conflict there is money rolling in. Finally, the government has an interest in being at war. For one, the president retains war-time powers. Apart from the president, when we are at war, the government is able to violate our rights; and get away with it.

While at war, the government is allowed to restrict our civil liberties to seemingly the point of excess. There is an incentive for the government to be in a constant state of war. There is an incentive for the press to not feature strong anti-war columnists and commentators. War makes money and gives power. However, war also takes money and spends lives. Strong anti-war voices will never be a part of the mainstream in America because the most powerful industries and government profit from it. The only thing that will get us out is enough of us waking up and taking them to the ballot box. 

Blog #5 EOTO Presentations - Wifi

 The technology I enjoyed learning about most from someone else's presentation has to be Wi-Fi. Released to the public in 1997, I believe that it has been one of, if not the most influential piece of technology since. That's right, since 1997 I do not think that there has been a more influential piece of technology. There is no greater way of staying in contact with another, and for the most part, it can be used for free (at the expense of another individual or business).

Dr. John O'Sullivan was an Australian engineer who led the team that ended up creating Wi-Fi. The need for Wi-Fi arose from computers using only a wired connection to communicate. When Wi-fi was created it started out at only 2 megabits of speed per second. Two megabits per second was the maximum then. Today I'll easily hit speeds of up to two hundred and forty megabits per second. Of course, people all over the world still use wired connections, as they are more stable and generally more reliable, however, the creation of Wi-Fi really opened the door to the Internet everywhere.

Internet everywhere really changed the way the world worked. Suddenly there was this ability to be able to work and use the internet away from the clunky desktop sitting under the desk at home. As more and more and eventually everywhere seemed to have wifi, the opportunities to be able to connect with others began to grow with it. Wi-Fi added the ability to be able to send and check emails, search the web, and even send messages without using data. Apart from communicating with others, it gave us instantaneous access to news.

As the internet became available everywhere due to the spread of Wi-Fi, the ability to produce and consume news also spread. Suddenly anyone with an internet connection, two eyes and ears could be a journalist. Anyone could read about breaking news as soon as it broke, even if they were away from the TV or home desktop. Wi-Fi is a technology that I believe has not been surpassed in usefulness, and will not be surpassed in usefulness, at least for a very long time.

Blog #4 EOTO Tech

In 1899 a man named Guglielmo Marconi telegraphed the results of yacht races from a ship out at sea to a station on land in New York. In 1900 Marconi filed patent No.7777 for  "Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless Telegraphy"; in 1943 the Supreme Court overturned that patent, believing thatSir Oliver Lodge, Nikola Tesla, and John Stone had priority in the development of the radio-tuning apparatus. Shortly after this in 1901, Marconi had started his own company and transmitted the first transatlantic signal. 

It was not until the 1920's though, that radio really began to boom. From 1922-1927 the number of radio stations increased from just thirty stations to six hundred and eighty-one radio stations. From 1922-1927 radio equipment sold went from $60m to $426m. From 1927-1935 the amount of money spent on radio advertisements grew from $4.8m to $112.6m. The growth of radio in the 1920's into the 1930's really was incredible. It grew the profiles of athletes, led to the creation of the first syndicated radio shows, and gave Americans at home access to almost instant news

Americans at home received almost instant access to the news, for instance: In 1925 the inauguration of President Calvin Coolidge was broadcast, in 1933 President Roosevelt began speaking to the nation through broadcasted fireside chats, and in 1938 H.G Wells' The War of the Worlds was broadcast, leaving many Americans in a state of frenzy believing that the State of New Jersey was being invaded by Martians. In 1941 Americans were able to receive live updates on the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Before the radio, Americans would have had to wait at least until the next day to receive any sort of national and sometimes local news. The predecessor of the radio, the printing press, allowed Americans to consume news faster than ever, however, any breaking news would have to wait at least until the next morning when the papers when out. The radio revolutionized the speed at which we consume news. A great majority of Americans most likely would never have been able to hear a presidential inauguration, hear a president speak directly to them, or listen to their political leaders debate without the invention of radio. The radio gave many Americans a way to hear what was going on in their country, but it also gave soldiers an ear on the battlefield.

Radio became a way for the military to communicate and better coordinate with its units. Rather than wait days for orders in a letter, it led to instant communication between commanders and their units. Radio transmissions began to become intercepted during World War II, so the United States Marine Corps selected 29 Navajo men, the Navajo Code Talkers, who created a code based on the complex, unwritten Navajo language. The code was incredibly effective during the war and still has not been cracked today.

The radio eventually was surpassed by the invention of the Television as the most popular form of broadcast. Even though it is no longer the most popular medium, the impact radio has had on the world has been tremendous. While the radio came with some negative effects (misinformation), it revolutionized the way and speed in which we are presented our news. Today the radio is still a thing, and still popular. Car radio remains by far the most popular, with 89% of car buyers believing broadcast radio should be standard in every vehicle. The radio was at one point the most popular medium for entertainment and news, and while not the most popular, it still commands the ears of millions of Americans.

Blog Post #3 The Right to Dissent

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”. The right to dissent and the right to disagree with the government is a fundamental right as a citizen of the United States. Similarly to the Electoral College, the First Amendment is in place to protect the view of every American; no matter how small the minority.

Of all eight values of free expression, I believe that Protecting Dissent is the most important. While the other seven are certainly important, I believe that being able to criticize the government for just about anything it does is the most important of all. Without the ability to criticize there can be no changing the trajectory of how the governed are governed. Without the ability to criticize would our president and elected officials be any different than those of 1776? The challenges we face today in regard to Free Speech and the protection of dissent are different than they were over two hundred years ago, yet they remain the same in that there should never be a point in time when the government is protected from dissent.

“[W]e consider this case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” -Justice William Brennan. This came from New York Times Company v. Sullivan and leads me to believe that the government has forgotten about it. Particularly the line, "vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.", has me wondering whether the government remembers this case.

People can be held liable for questioning the election. People can be charged criminally for questioning the election. People can be charged and held liable for dissenting with the government. It wasn't always like this though. This new phenomenon of having the government come after you for disagreeing with it is both dangerous and anti-democratic.

The right to dissent, whether it be with unpleasantly sharp attacks is a fundamental right we hold as citizens. As our country has aged, the ways in which we communicate have expanded. As our options for communication have expanded, so have the ways in which the First Amendment has become applicable. For instance, more people get their news from social media than the newspaper now.

The right to dissent does not only apply to literal speech or physical writings. It includes any form of speech intended to criticize. With new mediums of communication and uncharted legal waters, the government tries to limit what our rights should protect us from. More recently the case of Missouri v. Biden found that the Biden administration had made inappropriate communications with tech companies, which led to them censoring private citizens. The ruling led to
limiting the government from censoring online speech.

In conclusion, the right to be able to tell the government that what they're doing is wrong is a crucial part of the First Amendment. Without it, we wouldn't be free. The ability to say, "No I do not agree" is why The United States of America exists at all. If we give the government an inch in the fight for our rights they will take a mile every time. The right to dissent, the freedom to dissent is what makes us Americans.

Blog Post#2 The Supreme Court

The history of the Supreme Court is incredibly interesting. It is also one of, if not the most influential branch of the United States. The Supreme Court has powers that maybe no other court in the world has, and that is Judicial Review: The power of the court to review all actions by all departments of government and deem them constitutional or not. Judicial Review was established in Marbury v. Madison, in which Chief Justice John Marshal gave the Supreme Court the power to interpret The Constitution by setting the precedent which said that (the Supreme Court) it could.  

The most surprising things I learned from reading the article on the Supreme Court must be that: Chief Justice John Marshal served as the Chief Justice for over thirty-four years, and that in the Supreme Court's first term, it did not hear a single case.

Things I did not know that I found to also be interesting were that these justices were required to hold circuit court twice a year in each judicial circuit. This went on for about a hundred years. 

What I think is really incredible is that in my opinion, the Supreme Court has done more for the American people in giving and protecting rights than Congress has done in the last one hundred years. Whether flawed rulings or not, the court through Roe v. Wade, Texas v. Johnson, Gideon v. Wainwright and many many others has passed down rulings that afford Americans protections that they otherwise would never have had.

Blog #1 Top Five

 I tend to consume a good bit of news every week. I find keeping up with current events to be great not only for personal knowledge but also for conversation starters. News is not just what is in the paper, what happened today, it's also entertainment. The way in which news is presented to us is often times dramatized to draw more viewership or sell more copies. The more news seems like entertainment, the more likely they've drifted from the facts. So I like to draw a more informed opinion from listening to more than one outlet.        

RocaNews is a much more recent news organization. It was founded in 2020 and within a year had already gained over a million followers on Instagram. RocaNews tries to deliver the news without the fluff or tilt that other outlets bring. It gives short summaries each day of most current events with posts on Instagram and more recently its new app that just launched on iOS and Andriod. The kind of news RocaNews presents can be anything, Politics, Sports, Tech, etc., there's never a shortage and never an obvious tilt.

Fox News seems like it's been around forever, but was only founded in 1996. Fox News is one of the largest news organizations in America and has been the most watched network on cable for a while. Fox News reports both nationally and locally on anything that might seem interesting to viewers. They report on everything business, politics, sports, etc. Politically they lean more to the right, however they tend to have more political variety than other networks.

ESPN, or the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network was founded in 1979. It has been where Americans all across the country can watch sports. ESPN provides commentary and analysis on both games and players. They also contribute written articles that sometimes are more informative than their television commentary.

CNN has been around since 1980. Similarly to Fox News it reports on almost everything, business, politics, sports, etc. Politically CNN and Fox News are compared as the left and right-wing news outlets respectively. CNN though I believe is more to the left than Fox News is to the right, simply due to CNN's lack of political diversity in its opinions.

  The Daily Wire was founded in 2015. It is mainly a news and entertainment organization that provides coverage through a more conservative lens. They don't hide the fact that they cover the news in this way, and provide accurate and sometimes breaking news. It's a great way to look at the news from a different perspective.