Post 1 Invitation

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Guests list:

J. Edgar Hoover- J. Edgar Hoover is an obvious choice because he is the main character of the dinner and his input on all topics of conversation would be valued. Especially the questions and topics surrounding him.

Clyde Tolson- Clyde Tolson is another guest who deserves an obvious invitation. He was the deputy director of the FBI for many years and worked very closely with Hoover. To the point where there were rumors that the two were lovers. It would be a crime to not have him and Hoover at this dinner gathering.

Leonardo DiCaprio- Leonardo DiCaprio has had titanic success in the film industry but the actor is lesser known for his role playing J. Edgar. As someone who played the role of Hoover it would be interesting to have them together to compare how accurate his acting really was.

Armie Hammer- Armie Hammer was the actor who played Clyde Tolson and since Leonardo DiCaprio is getting invited it would be rude not to invite Armie Hammer who along with DiCaprio depicted the story of Hoover very well in the movie J. Edgar and having the two actors and the two real individuals at the same dinner would make for very interesting conversation. But their skill at the mystery games might not be up to the caliber of Tolson and Hoover.

President John F. Kennedy- President Kennedy will also be receiving an invite to the Dinner and games because he was rumored to have had drama between him and Hoover. He even considered dismissing Hoover as director of the FBI but decided against it and it was rumored that Hoover used information on his family especially his brother to intimidate him. Hoover also led the investigation into his assassination.

Clint Eastwood- Clint Eastwood was the director for the movie J. Edgar. It would be interesting to see how he interprets the life of Hoover compared to his actual life and personality which is why he deserves a spot at the dinner table.

Christopher A. Wray- Christopher A. Wray is the current director of the FBI. He is going to receive an invitation because the comparison between Hoover and Wray and how the FBI was back then compared to how it is now would be a worthy of and invite. He would also fit well in his participation in the mystery games. Maybe he is even better than Hoover.

Curt Gentry- Curt Gentry is the author of  J. Edgar Hoover: The man and the Secrets he is a historian and author who portrays Hoover and the FBI in a controversial light and having him at dinner with the rest of these people he would fit in very uniquely.   

Blog Post 4: Annotated sources

Sources: 

American History, 9th Edition Chapter 21 "Unsettled Prosperity: From War to Depression 1919-1932," Pages 653,666-Chapter 29 "Conservative America in the Ascent 1980-1991," Page 937- General information on J. Edgar Hoover and details on his various actions such as the "Palmer Raids" and the FBI's actions during prohibition and the "Red Scare" 

Encyclopedia Britannica (Britannica.com), "J. Edgar Hoover-United States government official"- Detailed information on Hoover's life from when he first started in politics to his death along with many notable achievements and controversies and the politics that surrounded him

PBS-American Experience (PBS.org), "Biography: J. Edgar Hoover" - Told Hoover's whole life and focused on who he was as a person from childhood to death and listed out many of his achievements and actions and information on the results of those actions. 

J. Edgar (IMDb.com)- used for information about Hoover's whole career in politics and specifically on how he transformed the FBI into a well known respected Government Organization 

2.10 FUNNEST BLOG POST EVER

The US policy to contain communism resulted in military and non-military action in countries all across the globe, many countries were unhappy or questioned the decision of the US take initiative against communism in their own countries.

The evidences start out with an excerpt from President Truman's speech to congress where he discusses how the world is split into free countries and oppressed countries and it is the job of the United States to help those oppressed countries. Then there is a statement from the President of South Korea at the time which criticizes the actions of the US and how they are in their country. There are more statements from different Secretary of States which discuss how the US can handle any attack and are ready to react at anytime and how the communist countries aim to destroy the US. The second to last evidence discusses how the Japanese are somewhat thankful that the US is willing to help them and the last evidence goes over how in Guatemala the US is making living conditions and the economy much worse and they have no right to interfere with other countries issues.

Global Cold War

Drug Policy in the US

Max Miller
Drug Policy in the US

Drugs have always been in the forefront of news. Whether its news of the drug epidemic that we are facing today with the Opioids or news in other countries such as Mexico about the drug issues that they're facing or the legalization of weed in the states. Drugs have always been a heavily talked about topic of conversation. There is no doubt that the use of drugs causes many problems not only in the United States but all over the world. Specifically in the United States why is it such a problem and how can we fix our drug policy along with what are the benefits of doing so?

The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation states that over 40 million Americans have been arrested for drug related charges. That is more than any other country in the world. The majority of the charges that have been filed are almost all petty crimes which can include something as simple as just possession of that substance. The substance that is primarily debated is weed because it is not nearly as dangerous as other illegal substances yet it is treated like so and people who are caught with it are treated the same as someone who was in possession of something like Heroin. This has created the largest prison population in the world. The US drug policy does not only affect the US but other countries as well. The drug policy that is in place right now among many things aims to stop the production of various drugs by its source. Often countries in South America where the majority of the drugs that we consume are produced. Because of this policy the US conducts massive raids on properties of poor individuals who have no other alternative to make a living. This fuels gang warfare in those countries along with destroying many acres of crops and land. Another negative to the current policy is that hundreds of thousands of American citizens are still addicted to a substance and are punished instead of getting the proper treatment that they need. The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation highlights what they think are the areas in our drug policy that are in need of reform. They say that the main issues are that are drugs are treated the same, from marijuana to heroin the punishments are usually the same. This is because of the Drug Abuse Act of 1986 where it states that most drug crimes should illicit a punishment of 5-10 years. This includes anything from possession to manufacturing. This resulted in Judges being forced to give a minimum prison sentence for all drug crimes regardless of the situation. Another act was the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 which was used to eliminate certain discrepancies in punishment times which resulted in more widespread and harsher sentences. The mandatory minimums are almost always misused because it mainly targets lower-level drug offenders. All of these things are only a small amount of factors that contribute to the massive prison population that we have today.

 The prison population that we have today is the largest in the world. That is extremely expensive for the government to maintain. In 2017 it cost $7 Billion to maintain the current prison population which exceeded the $5.5 Billion allocated in the federal budget. Because this money is coming from tax payers many citizens believe that the Federal Government should be doing more to fix this problem. The Institute for Policy Studies says that the US drug policy is not guided by hard facts and evidence for its effectiveness but is guided by political opportunism and the consideration for fair justice is almost never brought up. The drug policy has had no evidence that it reduces deaths, abuse, availability and the only evidence that is there is that it massively promotes the funding for law enforcement instead of actually using proven measures to control the issue. This has led to the drug policy being racist and targeting the lowest level offenders who never commit an act of violence. And the heavily relied on use of law enforcement has led to minorities being disproportionately targeted. There is no data that supports that these actions have led to a reduction in production of drugs which was its intention. The only thing that it has done is support drug enforcement and even drug trafficking industries while the disproportionately target groups such as minorities and foreigners are the real victims and the real people suffering from this misguided policy.

Psychology Today writes that it is not possible to control the supply of drugs but it far more effective to reduce demand. With 70,000 drug overdoses in 2017 the impact of drugs not only impacts direct individuals but families and even whole communities. They estimate that the cost of crime, lost productivity, healthcare costs, and cost for the drugs is estimated to be over $500 billion annually. Making it almost imperative for the United States to fix this issue that has plagued our country. But What is the most effective way of doing so?  The Washington Post wrote an article where 13 experts combined their knowledge and try to come up with a solution. They wrote that above all the main issue is weed. EJI writes that 88% of all marijuana violations are for possession only.  EJI also says that minor drug crimes make up half of the prison population and many polls indicate people are in favor of looser regulations on that substance. Going back to the Washington Post article the 13 experts came up with the idea that the legalization of weed with a state controlled market is widely regarded as the best option. It has many upsides and very few downsides but not enough to significantly outweigh the benefits.

In conclusion it is clear that the Federal government does not understand the current drug crisis that is at hand. Whole communities are suffering because of the lack of knowledge that they have. The United States is loosing over $500 billion a year because of various drug related problems and we have the largest prison population in the world. Fixing this problem as many upsides to it if the government would pay attention to the facts because there are solutions such as a state controlled market. Instead minorities are being disproportionately targeted while the drug crisis only grows.

Drug Involved Overdoses in the US-Wikipedia 

Incarceration Rates in the United States-Wikipedia

World Incarceration Rates-Drug Policy Alliance 

Sources:

US Drug Policy- Institute for Policy Studies

Drug Policy- Criminal Justice Policy Foundation  

EJI-States Rethink Drug Policy

Drug Policy in America- Foundations Recovery Network
United States War on Drugs- Stanford. EDU

What Drug Policy Will Look Like in A Perfect World- Washington Post

Reflection

2.7 Mid-Semester 2 Reflection

Max Miller
Mid-Semester 2 Reflection

1. The most important thing I feel that I learned about 19th-century immigration was how much immigration impacted life at the time. Specifically in the United States Immigration was a big deal and I found it very interesting to learn how much of our history is actually attributed to immigrants.

2. To me the vast complexity of immigration around the world today is something that I found to be very important. The first step to knowing something is finding out what you don't know and upon my research on the immigration crisis in the EU I found out that there is a lot that I do not know. This resulted in a vast amount of information that I accumulated and when I analyzed that information I found out that immigration around the world and specifically in Europe is a very complex topic and everybody has their own take on the problem and their own evidence to support their solution. I see this as important because it really opened my eyes to how complex the world is especially when it comes to a global issue.

3. The 2 most challenging aspects of living that people faced in the 19th-century, I think was the quality of life and the lack of technology to solve simple problems. I think that America was very successful with meeting both of these challenges. Because back them the quality of life was very poor compared to how it is now and manual labor was still a major factor in everyday problems. I think that because of this it forced people to develop new technologies like the toilet . Something very common in life today but a new invention back them and groundbreaking for the world at that time. The invention of such technologies dramatically changed the way America and even the world is today because the quality of life has improved a lot since then and challenges that were often very time consuming and laborious to fix are now much easier to due thanks to the new technology and the need to develop new solutions to meet such problems.

4. The Highline and the concept of progressivism have similarities and differences. The similarities are that the Highline was something that has never been done before and nothing like it has ever been seen which goes along with progressivist views on how in order to move forward as a society some things are going to need to be done that have not been done before. The Highline was also accomplished by the knowledge from many experts such as gardeners, engineers, and business people who worked together to make the surrounding area a better place to be around this is what progressivism supports, the collaborative effort from different people with all a single goal. Make the world a better place. Although there are similarities there are also differences between the Highline and progressivism such as how the highline relied in part on wealthy powerful businesses and businessmen supporting it which progressivism is against and how it is still an old structure that could have potentially been torn down and replaced with something new and potentially more modern. 

Highline-Nyc

Philanthropy

Max Miller
Philanthropy

What is the meaning of the word philanthropy, and what types of activities are associated with it?

Business Dictionary defines philanthropy as something that is done for the benefit of all the human race this includes a level of personal sacrifice from an individual in order to help the larger cause. Activities associated with it are things like donating to charity of the research for a cure or it can even be something like volunteering. 

How is philanthropy different from “charity” or “charitable giving.”

Philanthropy and charity are often confused. They both involve giving money or volunteering ones time but charity is focused on helping to eliminate the suffering caused by social problems meaning that the majority of people can be charitable because it is often fairly easy to help. But Philanthropy involves trying to fix the social problem that causes the suffering all together meaning that philanthropists are looking for a long term solution to a wide spread problem and this usually requires a lot of money and time from many individuals.

Learning to Give.org

Find out about the philanthropic work of Andrew Carnegie, including the amount of money he spent and the types of projects on which he spent it. Why did he invest so much in philanthropy, and why he decided to spend his money in the ways he did?

According to Columbia University, Andrew Carnegie gave away over $350 million of his own money to many different projects but they centered around global education and world peace. He invested so much in philanthropy because be felt that people who had more than they needed had a moral obligation to give it away to help those who didn't which he stated publicly. At the time of his wealth there weren't a lot of education programs such as libraries so Carnegie spent a lot of money building many libraries around the world. 

During Carnegie’s lifetime, the press called attention to philanthropic giving of his business rival, John D. Rockefeller. How did the two men’s giving compare?

Carnegie and Rockefeller both gave away massive amounts of their own money. And many regard them as both pioneers in the philanthropy world. They both gave a lot of money to education but in different ways. Carnegie focused on building public libraries as Rockefeller focused on building schools and collages. New York Times 

What type of philanthropic work is the Carnegie Foundation involved with today? There are many different branches of Carnegie Foundation involved in philanthropic giving – be sure to note them all.

The Carnegie Foundation is still heavily involved in philanthropic work today and they are still involved in many aspects of giving but they still mainly focus on education. 

Who are currently considered major philanthropists? Find a current list and then choose one to focus on.  Summarize what you are able to learn about that individual’s philanthropic giving.

Major Philanthropists include people like Chuck Feeney, Gordon Moore and Bill and Melinda Gates. Bill and Melinda Gates have given away the overwhelming majority of their money and are known to encourage other billionaires to do the same and join them in their efforts. Their mission is to make sure that the younger generation of people survive and thrive as said on the Bill and Melinda Gated Foundation website.

Imagine yourself as a philanthropist. What types of work would you invest in, and why?

If I was a philanthropist I would focus in investing in saving the environment and specifically the animals that are going extinct because many species of animals are going extinct at an alarming rate and its kind of humanities fault.