Based on this article from The Economist: An Odd Way to Make Friends: Russia’s Syrian War

Intervention in Syria was supposed to rebuild relations within the West. Unsurprisingly, it is not working. The list of foreign powers stung by Russia continues to grow. At the beginning of the week, Turkey protested after Russian fighters intruded into its airspace, a no-fly zone. The two countries relations are deteriorating as the Russian presence frustrates Turkey’s goal of toppling the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Russian observers say their real goal is not to alienate the West, but to force America to recognize Russia as an equal partner. The fight against ISIS is intended to establish common ground between the two powers.The people of Russia are now extremely confused, and rightfully so. For the past year they have been told to see America as an enemy that sponsors Ukraine fascists, bent on undermining Russian sovereignty. Now, the Russians are being told that Russia and the US are on the same side in the battle against Islamic terror. While Russian’s enjoy the dramatized efforts to stand against the US, they are not in the mood for real isolation or economic sanctions. The new war is being televised on Russian television like a blockbuster film, with dramatic shots of Russian military jets flying across the camera, weatherman forecast favorable bombing weather in the Syrian skies. Russian television has created a virtual reality that excludes any suffering by Russian soldiers.

In my opinion, I do not think Russia’s plan was to rebuild relations with the West, that just happened to be a potential benefit. I believe the main goal was to shore up Assad for future negotiations. Maybe in a few moths we will understand Putin’s interesting strategy.

The Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton has finally decided to dive head first into current events. Before now, Clinton has tried to avoid these subjects, probably because she can’t fit it in between answering questions about the email scandal, but now she is answering her before avoided questions. On Monday, Clinton proposed tighter gun-control measures, including expanded background checks, and suggested that if elected she would use executive powers to meet her goals. Clinton will unveil more details about her plans Monday during a campaign swing through New Hampshire.
In my opinion, Clinton muttered two phrases in her statement that shows me her ignorance and that she is incompetent to hold office. The first quote is, “I want to push hard to get more sensible restraints,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I want to work with Congress, but I will look at ways as president.” To me, this shows that even though congress may rule against her, she doesn’t care because she will find a way to make it work as president. Her role as president is not when people vote against her to find a loophole and pass whatever she wants, that is why checks and balances were implemented in the early stages of our growing government. Basically, for a bill to pass, it would have to be proposed, I’m assuming by her, and it would have to get voted through by congress. Basically what she is saying is that even if it doesn’t pass through congress, she will find a way to make it happen. The ignorance in a statement like that is completely stunning.
“I’m going to try in every way,” Clinton said Monday. “I am going to get those guns out of people’s hands.” This quote just further proves what I just stated. As any government official, your job is to make the country better for the people. Although that may not be what the congress and senate are filled with, that is how it is supposed to be. When another branch of government objects against your bill, she as president could veto it or whatever, but is that really what we want in a presidential candidate? Someone who advertises their power and basically rubs it in your face? All we hear now is how we have such an ignorant president, but if we elect Hillary we are totally contradicting ourselves in that very way. Clinton is showing the signs of becoming a show-off president, which is the root of our problems with Obama. If a candidate is flaunting their potential power before they even gain it, is that what we want representing us?

Based off of this article from Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/10/05/hillary-clinton-to-push-new-gun-control-proposals-executive-action-expanding/?intcmp=trending

Due to the schools system being hacked, Leaguetown High School will be on a three-week computer shut down to install new security software. There will be an emergency school board meeting whether to rent the journalism department four Mac computers.

This is causing a strain on many groups in the school, specifically the journalism department, who have to meet a strict deadline in order for yearbooks to make it to the school before the end of the year.

Rodney Stephens, the yearbook adviser, is requesting the school board rent four Macintosh computers for $500.00, so his class can finish the yearbook before their deadline. The school board will vote on Friday.

“If the board doesn’t approve this $500 expenditure, I am not sure what we will do,” Stephens said. ” I would rather not think that way. I am hoping for the best and crossing my fingers.”

The district technology director, Ed Robles, is stunned by the hacking job against the school.

“This is some pretty sophisticated hacking,” Robles said. ” The police are getting closer to the hacker, though. We understand the inconvenience of the shutdown, but it is necessary.”

Meanwhile, the student yearbook staff is in panic to meet their deadlines. They had pushed the final deadline back as far as possible, in order to add more coverage from the year into the book.

“We were confident this would not be a problem,” Junior editor, Alex Zavia said. “In fact, before this computer hacking problem, we were ahead of schedule.”

Many student are worried about whether or not the yearbook’s will be in by “Yearbook Day,” a senior signing party held in the gym.

” Yearbook Day is one of the highlights of senior year,” Reggie White, senior, said. “It would be weird not to get my friends to sign my book before I go off to college. Yearbook day is more popular than prom.”

Based off of this article from the Economist: A New Spectacle for the Masses

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, became the first leader in the Kremlin since Leonid Brezhnev, who invaded Afghanistan in 1979, to send military aircraft on bombing missions outside the territory of the former Soviet Union. Mr Putin has ruled out the use of ground forces in Syria, for fear of awakening painful memories of the Soviet debacle in Afghanistan. But by deploying jets and air-defence systems, Russia is complicating Western operations in Syria. France this month joined America in the increasingly crowded skies of the Levant. Two weeks ago it held elaborate domestic war games in terrain closely resembling the Syrian desert. Russian war reporters who spent months on the eastern Ukrainian front lines have suddenly appeared in Syria. For Russia though, it almost seems just as important to confront America, which Putin claims is trying to take over the world. Russia’s bombing in Syria was preceded by a flurry of diplomatic activity. On September 28th Mr Putin spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, comparing Russia’s role to that of the Soviet Union in 1945 and blaming America for unsettling the Middle East. He did this by saying, “I am urged to ask those who created this situation: ‘Do you at least realise now what you’ve done?’ But I’m afraid that this question will remain unanswered, because they have never abandoned their policy, which is based on arrogance, exceptionalism and impunity.” After this statement, Russian media portrayed him as a God-sent superman who was sent to save the world. Mr Putin may be hoping that by claiming to fight IS he can force America into accepting him again as a partner in power, one too important to be isolated by sanctions imposed by the West in response to the war in Ukraine. Although this is a quite risky task with the possibility that Russia may get bogged down in an unwinnable conflict. The issues with America could get worse rather than better, which is definitely not what we want to happen. Russia’s official—and not entirely unreasonable—response is that IS poses a threat to its national security, particularly in the north Caucasus, where many young fighters in Syria come from. Even more important for Mr Putin is his hold on power at home, and here too Syria may be of use. The bombing provides a new and badly needed spectacle at a time when the war in Ukraine, which dominated the airwaves for a while, is starting to freeze and euphoria over the annexation of Crimea is fading.

This is important to us in the U.S. because foreign relations are really important right now. they are already extremely damaged and we can’t afford for them to get any worse. with tempers already flaring in the Middle East, the interaction of these two easily flareable nations is definitely risky business. two of the biggest powers, in nuclear and many other things, having bad relations is not only bad for them, but catastrophic for the whole world.