US-Iran attacks
By Matthew Smith
On Thursday, March 12th, the US carried out airstrikes in Iraq. The attack was in response to a rocket-attack that killed two Americans, one british, and wounded fourteen people. Though the attack was carried out in Iraq, the US claims that it was actually orchestrated by Iranian militia groups. US Defense Secretary Mark Esper responded to the attacks by warning “Let me be clear: The U.S. will not tolerate attacks against our people, our interests or our allies.” and saying that "All options are on the table as we work with our partners to bring the perpetrators to justice and maintain deterrence." While the attacks are a stubborn reminder that the conflict in Iran is not over, it is important to note that the US has not proven Iranian involvement in the attacks yet and likely won’t take any drastic measures unless Iran furthers the conflict.
2020 Democratic primaries (Super Tuesday update)
By Matthew Smith
The 2020 primaries, the voting for which democratic candidate to nominate for 2020, are currently in progress, and they have been far from typical.
How does it work?
People vote for which candidate they want in the state primaries, and then delegates are distributed among candidates depending on how many people voted for them. The more votes a candidate gets, the more delegates they earn. A delegate is like a representative, they become “pledged” to a certain candidate and vote for them in the national democratic convention. Whoever gets the most delegate votes wins the nomination. A candidate must get over 15% of the vote of a state to be eligible for any of the state’s delegates.
The candidates
The primaries started out with 8 candidates on the ballot for the Iowa Caucuses, Former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Philanthropist Tom Steyer, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and Senator Amy Klobuchar. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg essentially tied in votes in Iowa, though Pete Buttigieg came out with two more delegates.
Which candidates have been successful?
Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar both had early success in New Hampshire and Iowa, earning Buttigieg 26 delegates, and Klobuchar 7 delegates. However after they got under 15% vote in South Carolina they both dropped out to endorse Joe Biden. Tom Steyer also dropped out after South Carolina. Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren, who have had disappointing results all primary, dropped out after Super Tuesday. Joe Biden had a rocky start in the primaries, but after landing endorsements by major politicians he made an improbable comeback to first place.
Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday was a huge surprise. Even the most generous projections showed Biden behind Sanders by a large portion of delegates. But by the end of Super Tuesday, that was not the case. Joe Biden was expected to win a number of the states in the south, and get a large percentage of the delegates in Texas. Joe Biden ended up winning North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, the second largest delegate prize - Texas, and even the very-liberal states of Massachusetts and Maine. Bernie Sanders only won Utah, Vermont, and Colorado.
How did Joe Biden do it?
Joe Biden went from getting 4th place in Iowa and 5th place in New Hampshire to being the frontrunner in the race again. How did he do it? He did it with the help of endorsements and the fear of Trump winning re-election. In South Carolina he got an endorsement by Rep. Jim Clyburn. He won South Carolina, adding momentum to his campaign. Right before Super Tuesday Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race to endorse Biden, and former congressman Beto O’ Rourke endorsed him as well. Another reason for his comeback is that he is a more likely candidate to beat Trump, and beating Trump is huge to many voters. Bernie Sanders has labeled himself as a “democratic socialist,” earning him stiff opposition from the GOP. Joe Biden as a moderate and as a former Vice President is statistically more likely to win in the general election. His delegate lead and momentum from Super Tuesday have also now made him likely to get the nomination.
What’s next?
On March 10th Democrats Abroad, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Washington, and Michigan vote.
By: Matthew Smith
On February 5th, 2020 Donald Trump was acquitted by the senate of his impeachment charges. This means that the charges on him were dropped and he will stay in office.
The impeachment process started when Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry in late September. From there the house started investigating Trump, making charges against him, and then voting on charges. The first charge was abuse of power. This was because of the July 25th phone call between him and Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, where he allegedly asked Zelensky to investigate one of his biggest 2020 election opponents, Joe Biden, in return for a meeting between the two leaders and US funds to Ukraine. The second charge on Trump was obstruction of congress for supposedly blocking people under subpoena, which is an order to testify, from testifying. The House of Representatives voted to pass both of those impeachment articles on December 18th. After that there was a senate trial that lasted almost two weeks. And finally, on February 5th Trump was acquitted by the senate of his impeachment charges in a historic vote by the senate. 48 senators voted Trump guilty of abuse of power and 52 senators voted to acquit. 47 senators voted Trump guilty of obstruction of congress and 53 senators voted to acquit him. On both articles they fell short of the 67 votes required to remove the president.
The only republican that voted to remove Trump was Mitt Romney, this sparked a huge backlash from his party. He voted guilty on abuse of power. Romney said “The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president’s purpose was personal and political. Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.” He voted to acquit him on obstruction of congress.
Though the impeachment is over, the White House and the country still remains divided on the innocence of Trump just nine months before the presidential election.
By: Matthew Smith
On February 3rd the democratic primaries kicked off with the Iowa caucuses, and the New Hampshire caucuses happened on February 11th.
How do the primaries work? Well, People vote for which candidate they want in the state primaries, and those candidates earn delegates. Then, the delegates become “pledged” to that candidate and vote for them in the national convention.
In the Iowa caucuses voters show up to their closest caucus site and at each site everyone pledges to a candidate, and anyone who pledged to a candidate who got less than 15% support at that location has to pledge to another candidate or not pledge to anyone. This happens at many different locations across the state.
The 2nd’s caucuses went well for about two hours until they started having trouble reporting results. They blamed this failure on an app they had been using to collect results. People reported various problems with the app such as it only partially reporting results and crashing just before they could vote. The majority of results were reported on the 4th, and the rest were slowly reported in the following days. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Bernie Sanders virtually came out in a tie. Buttigieg came out with one more delegate than Sanders, he had 22 and Sanders had 21.
New Hampshire had less trouble than Iowa in their primary. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg ended up tying in delegates, however Bernie got the most votes.
The next primaries are Nevada on February 22nd, and South Carolina on February 29th.