Antiwar: The Hidden Opinion of Many [#4]

 Antiwar Voices in America

    The media as of recently has only been talking of Trump or the COVID pandemic world wide, which are important stories to cover, but what about the rest of them. The mainstream media has a long history of keeping out the voices that call against war and the stop to military operations that the U.S. has globally.

    Two websites such as Antiwar.com and Realism & Restraint Archives | The American Conservative have many authors who are passionately against the wars the U.S. still rage today. Many Americans forget that we are in a constant state of war in the Middle East, simply because the war does not look like the wars we were taught to prepare for. We aren't in World War 2, where the entire country was up in production against the Axis powers. There are no large factories in our backyards making guns, but there is a large amount of our tax money going to military spending. The U.S. spent 730 billion dollars on military alone in 2019, which is more than the next top 10 military spenders globally combined ( The Militarized Budget 2020 (nationalpriorities.org ). So why don't we hear about it?

    We have to seek out small obscure websites to hear strong antiwar voices, something the majority of the U.S. population wouldn't do or have time for. I believe it is because the big companies that benefit from the war (ex. oil companies) use their influence and power, which in our capitalist society, comes from money, to suppress these voices and highlight other global issues to insure that their profit isn't jeopardized by the American people. 

    Some of the front page news on the two websites I mentioned above are highlighting that either party will always find a war to get involved with and a way to justify it, in order to keep the old order of things ( The Blob is Addicted to Overseas Interventions | The American Conservative ). On Antiwar.com, there are headings for each of the countries that the U.S. has some military intervention in or lack of, one way or another. Those countries include Syria, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Tunisia, Iran, Israel, Palestine, and continents as a whole such as Asia, Africa, and Europe. If you think about the amount of the countries, that is over half of the global we are involved with war, war that most of the U.S. population doesn't know is going on.

The First Amendment & Current News [#3]

 The First Amendment Basics

    Not a lot of people are aware that. the first amendment is made up of 6 freedoms or 6 negative rights. A negative right is a right that simply means something that the government cannot do to you. The clauses are freedom from religion, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, the freedom to peaceably assemble, and the freedom to petition the government. 

First Amendment | U.S. Constitution | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute (cornell.edu)

The First Amendment & Current News

    The first thing one needs to understand is that constitutional claims like something "violates the first amendment", according to the State Action Doctrine, "without government involvement, no constitution claim can be made because only the government can violate your constitutional rights; therefore, the first amendment doesn't reach private actors."

State Action Doctrine Archives - FIRE (thefire.org)

    A big thing recently in the news was the suspension of the 45th President of the United States', Donald Trump's, Twitter account. Many people were quick to break the news and claim that it was a First Amendment violation, but according to the State Action Doctrine, it isn't. The 45th President lost a way to contact millions of people and it isn't a First Amendment violation. Twitter is a private corporation and therefore, does not fall under the First Amendment. I, like many others, was excited that Trump could no longer tweet, what I felt were, unneeded tweets to the public, but on further thought and exploration, it doesn't matter what I think of his tweets, he should be allowed a platform to speak. If Twitter was run by the government, this situation would not have happened because it would have been extremely illegal. My question is what has these companies done to deserve more protection from the government than its own President? (Yes, the answer is money and power, but it shouldn't be.)

Opinion | The Scary Power of the Companies That Finally Shut Trump Up - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

US Supreme Court [#2]

 Supreme Court History

    The Supreme Court was established in 1789, by the United States Constitution, and it was made up of  John Jay (Chief Justice) and John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison and James Wilson (Associate Justices). The number at the start of the Court was to have only six justices, but now it has advanced and stayed at nine total justices. 

    The first real notable Supreme Court case was Marbury v. Madison, with Chief Justice, John Marshall. This case set the precedent that the Supreme Court would have judicial review over the other two branches of government. Judicial review means that the Supreme Court has the power to deem actions by the executive and legislative branches constitutional or unconstitutional. That case was the start of all of the historic cases to come after.

Source: Supreme Court - HISTORY

Historic Supreme Court Cases

• Mapp v. Ohio (1961), which held that evidence obtained illegally cannot be used in criminal cases
• Texas v. Johnson (1989), which found that flag burning and other potentially offensive speech is protected by the First Amendment
• Roe v. Wade (1973), which ruled that women have a right to an abortion during the first two trimesters
• U.S. v. Nixon (1974), which found that the President cannot use his or her power to withhold evidence in criminal trials
• Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which struck down state anti-sodomy laws
• United States v. Windsor (2013), which revoked the U.S. government’s ability to deny federal benefits to same-sex couples
• Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage across all 50 states

Source: Supreme Court - HISTORY 

How The Supreme Court Works

    The Supreme Court receives tens of thousands of petitions every year to take a case to court and if 4 out of the 9 judges deem it important, they issue the case a writ of certiorari (to get the case information from the lower courts). From that step, they have to decide if the case effects the entire population of the United States or if it is a minor issue that they do not need to solve. If they decide it effects everyone, they take it on, but they only see about 80 cases a year, so the process is very selective.

Source: Judicial Learning Center 

Supreme Court Presently

Chief Justice:
John Roberts, Jr.
Associate Justices:
Amy Coney Barrett
Clarence Thomas
Brett M. Kavanaugh
Stephen Breyer
Samuel Alito
Sonia Sotomayor
Elena Kagan
Neil Gorsuch

Source: Supreme Court - HISTORY

My Top 5 News Sources [#1]

 #1 - https://www.nytimes.com/

    The New York Times is where I go to really follow up on news and stories I hear from elsewhere, say there is this long Twitter thread about the crisis in Yemen and ways to help, I go and read up on the story on sites like The New York Times to get a better feel of the story. I also love them for statistics and number based facts. They did a great job covering all of the COVID-19 numbers and I was basically checking them everyday to see the updates they had on that.

#2 - https://www.spiegel.de/

    I do like having as many perspectives as possible when it comes to my news and this German news site does just that. I have taken German for four years of my life and this site was an amazing resource, not only for news, but also for German language practice. The translators are not always one hundred percent accurate so it really cause me to dig deep into the story as well as the language. I have found it insane that the front page of this website is often full of American drama and stories, rather than German ones. If you want to check it out, but don't speak German, I suggest hit translate with the idea in mind every word doesn't mean exactly what it was translated to. 

#3 - the radio

    I really don't know how I am supposed to link to the radio, but if you want to listen go start a car and join a station. I mainly listen to the radio on a variety of stations while I drive, so I don't have a favorite one, but the radio is really where I can consume the most mundane to the most out there news stories. I find it convenient to get news stories while driving as well, since you are focused on the road, the news stations are allowed to fill up the back part of your mind and make you more aware of the world around you.

#4 - https://twitter.com/

    I want to start off by saying, Twitter should never be the end all, be all, of the news you get. Never. Ever. It used to be that way for me, but that was my first mistake. I mainly use Twitter now as a quick tool to see what the world is up to and from that I search the articles in my more trusted sources. All news sources tend to be bias that is the way of humankind, but Twitter can get even more dangerous due to confirmation bias and Twitter showing you news you like to see, rather than the entire picture. Be careful when using Twitter as a news site, because for me it is more of a quick portal off of social media and into the world of news websites. Sometimes you can get lost in internet memes and as many problems as Twitter has, it always without fail, gets me to check up on the world around me.

#5 - https://www.instagram.com/jameelajamilofficial/

    Back to social media platforms, for how I get my news, but instead of a more general feel of the app, I narrow in on certain influencers to follow them for news. I never expected, when following an actress from my favorite show (The Good Place) to see stories about feminism and stories for racial equality in my feed, but I really enjoy her take on things. She tends to post in her stories about her take on current events. She even runs a podcast called I Weigh, where she talks to so many different kinds of people about their experiences in the world and the problems they face now that are often overlooked by major news outlets. It is not only here I follow, but I also follow a wide variety of people to get really personal in depth opinions of all sorts of people. I feel that social media is overlooked a lot of the times for all the crap that goes on there in terms of news, but if you really look for it, it can be a real useful tool of being more globally minded.  

About Me

Good morning/afternoon/night blog visitors.

My name is Brittany Secraw. I am a freshman at High Point University, majoring in Popular Culture and Media Production. My major is quite a mouthful, but to put it simply, I am majoring in film. I have always loved learning and telling stories. It brings me joy to give voices to everyone.

I do feel like I was born in the wrong city, Oak Ridge, NC, rather than basically anywhere that is close to the West Coast. I am from the South and I don't even like sweet tea and mac & cheese, which most people think is crazy.

I have not ran a blog before, but I have made a website for my photography before so I am looking forward to fixing up this dusty website into something more aesthetic. 

I used to work at the local movie theater. I am missing when they were open around here. I loved serving popcorn and getting free movies every week, now I am stuck watching Netflix at home with stale microwave popcorn to snack on. 

My first semester at HPU was filled with adventure as I took a production class that really validated my love of making film, from editing to filming, I had a blast doing it all. I am looking forward to continue that passion as well.

Enjoy or don't enjoy my blog, either way have a great day. (But enjoy my blog.)