Back in 2019, the Trump administration placed tariffs on European goods. The tariffs were in response to the European Union’s subsidies to Airbus, Boeing’s European rival. I currently work in specialty foods, specifically cheese. This was a huge topic during work because it would mean that we had to increase our prices of some of our already expensive cheeses. One thing we were worried about was our customers being upset with us for raising prices when it was out of our control.

Certain European products were imposed with a 25% tariff. This created an issue with many importers scrambling to get as much stock of goods as they can before the tariffs went into effect. This was to keep prices from increasing as long as possible. “Importers began ordering millions of dollars of extra wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano and other harder cheeses after the U.S. Trade Representative’s office in July added cheese to its list of EU products potentially facing tariffs due to the dispute over aircraft subsidies.”

Now that tariffs have been in effect for sometime, luckily our prices did not increase too much so customers while originally upset, majority thankfully knew it was out of our control.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/05/us-importers-stockpile-cheese-as-tariffs-on-eu-cheeses-loom.html

This week I learned about Bureaucracy and a Bureaucrat. A Bureaucracy is an administrative group of non-elected officials charged with carrying out functions connected to a series of policies and programs. Basically in other terms, small and large nations having non-elected workers to have positions of power within governmental structures. A Bureaucrat is the term of the person who works in these bureaucracies. From high-level positions in foreign affairs and intelligence collection agencies to clerks and staff in the smallest regulatory agencies, these people are needed to help keep the government functioning.

This week I learned about Political Parties. What stood out to me the most was the sentence “while people love to criticize political parties, the reality is that the modern political system could not exist without them”. This stood out to me because it is kind’ve true. Simply it is true because the way the system was built, was meant to have different sides of the spectrum so that people can choose between two parties fairly, meaning more choices. There are third parties but they are more local. To me, political parties are needed because they help with demographics which are needed for results. What I would change about them though, is who are in these parties and what results are they getting. We have a lot of elderly people in these high government positions that really aren’t in these communities and seeing how different life is there.

This week was about Political Participation. Political Participation is always equated to voting. I learned about the evolution of voting in the US, and how certain decisions about voting actually shape the outcome of elections.  For example, the single-member districts and First Past the Post/winner make all decision in most American elections help guarantee that the US will only have two parties at one time. Voting to me is probably the least effective way to participate politically. I feel this way because no matter who I vote for, anything can happen. Or even having two people who are running for president that I don’t like but still having to choose between who is worse in my perspective.

From what I learned this week, the Judicial Branch is sometimes looked upon as the weaker branch. They are the people you go to if you aren’t being heard. They voted in favour of same-sex marriages. They are a part of the system checks and balances and they protect the sanctity of the United States Constitution from being breeched by other governments. They also protect the rights of individuals against societal and governmental oppression. But Article 3 which speaks on the judicial powers is the shortest and least detailed article on the constitution. It’s weird because I feel like they kinda almost have the most power. They ultimately give the last say so on situations. What’s also weird is the Federal Judicial System, simply because only the Supreme Court is mentioned in Article III. This means that congress basically had to figure out the rest.

At the end of chapter 11, whistleblower Edward Snowden was briefly mentioned. He was working under a contract with the NSA. He copied and released classified information to the press. This information revealed an operation of a large and illegal surveillance network within the US government.

Below I have also linked a segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver highlighting government surveillance. In this episode he also interviews with Edward Snowden.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

For my 10 minute class, my main topic was about knowing your Miranda rights. I know that a lot of people have heard the Miranda rights being read to someone like on television, but it may not have ever crossed their mind that those same rights might be read to them one day. I think that knowing your rights is very important especially when your freedom is in the hands of someone else.

I prepared my 10 minute class by watching videos on the subject of Miranda Rights and videos about what to do when arrested. I made a slide stating the Miranda rights and the context of it. One thing I learned from this is that people need A LOT OF Direction. My targeted audience for this presentation was black males. After receiving questions from the Q & A portion I realized that people ask question that are clearly stated in the presentation. On the other hand I did receive some good questions too.

Presentation below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LxF0CuNLdl2Dth1l3iPseRhH2cwuk9MaTbk83mAHRsY/edit?usp=sharing

When it comes to government regulation, I think it is very helpful when the government has the public’s best interest in mind. Having multiple bureaucracies such as the cabinet departments, independent regulatory agencies, independent executive agencies, and government corporations keeps decision-making is like a form of checks and balances. Each bureaucracy has it’s own function.

Oversight powers are given to congress, the president, and citizens. When it comes to citizens, they benefit from their oversight powers by being allowed to vote and the freedom of information act. The freedom of information Act says that ” generally provides that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information except to the extent the records are protected from disclosure by any of nine exemptions contained in the law or by one of three special law enforcement record exclusions.” (foia.state.gov)