Blogs

 Brandon Mogrovejo - 09/25/10

New Visions Health - English - **Blog #1** - How the World Works 
 * How to be a true (non-mosque fearing) American** 

I find the t-shirt’s label to be very powerful, though it is simple and straight to the point. In reality, those kind of messages address the public better in my opinion. Instead of going around what is really happening to our country and its views, this t-shirt does what someone in a high level of government office should be doing: reminding we, the people what it means to be American. People have become so….afraid, for lack of a better word. They are afraid of anything different, anything outside their normal culture or way of life. I regretfully find myself in a prejudice state of mind when it comes to different cultures and backgrounds; not always of course, but in certain situations. For example, when touring Times Square in the city, I often find myself aggravated at the sound of a foreign tongue. When I look over, I see a tour group of either French, Italian, German, or some other European country. Though of course, they intend no harm, I still feel myself swell with anguish. What am I so annoyed about? Could it be I am scared of the idea of a separate culture blending in with America, and therefore obstructing my own current thoughts? That is why we need to step outside the box and remember that we are in this country because somewhere down the line of your lineage, whether it was you, the generation before you, or seven generations before you, you wanted freedom; the freedom to say what you want, practice what you want, and basically do what you want to do. Almost everyone in this nation, when you get to the bottom of it, is here for that reason; they want to live their life freely. Now, obviously there are some “bad apples” in the mix but does that mean we should be suspicious of them all? The answer should be no, but apparently, in the United States, the expression, “the bad apple spoils the bunch”, holds true.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 09/27/10 - New Visions Education – English - **Blog #2** – How the World Works 
 * Is Citigroup trying to make Obama "anti-business"?** 

Clicking on the link, “Wall Street’s attacks could turn President Obama into a true populist”, I am brought to an article by //The Washington Post// reflecting on a comment made by Blackstone Groups chief executive Stephen Schwarzman. President Obama has a proposal to tax the earnings of private equity (the rich investors of Wall Street make their money off of this) at the same rate as other workers' income. Schwarzman directly compares this to Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Now, that is a very bold match up to say the least! I always find it funny seeing the rally signs of protestors against President Obama. Those who, “disprove” (a nice way of putting it), of the President’s actions usually carry picket signs stating things such as, “Stop The March Towards Socialism”, or have signs like, “O-B-A-M-A: One Big Awful Mistake America” or, signs with Obama styling a mustache in comparison to Adolf Hitler’s. These people are convinced that our current President is the absolute evil of the world and will lead to the downfall of this country. I laugh when watching them on TV, not due to their dull creativity, but out of shame. To compare a President, whose policies you may disagree with, to a man who was responsible for leading the worst genocide of any race in the entire history of the world is a very daring comparison. Now, I can see that protestors might want the attention, or simply want to exercise their freedom of speech rights, but for a big company executive like Schwarzman, who gets more than his needed fill when receiving his paycheck, to compare Obama to Hitler is a little outlandish. However, he may in fact be seeking attention as well, because in all likelihood he worries that Obama’s proposed policy may take away what he values most: his money. Now we all could debate Obama’s policy’s back and forth forever but the truth of the matter is that as stakeholders (New Vision’s students, protestors, myself, and the norm of society), we have little power over matters of politics. All we can truly do is cast our own vote to try and sway the opinion of the electoral votes; of course, we did do this and chose Obama so it’s important we try and make the best of what happens.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 09/29/10 - New Visions Education - English - **Blog #3** - How the World Works

** Melting ice cap clears path for further destruction **

The story of global warming and the ice caps melting isn’t anything new. The glaciers in the north continue to melt, and faster than ever in recent years. Yet, the human race pays no mind and just continues using up the planets resources without hesitation. The blog mentioned Russia now being able to transport gas to China even faster since so much ice has melted on its route over there. This is blatantly ironic. The ice caps are melting fast enough as it is, and at the first opportunity to export even more amounts of fuel (which in turn fuels cars that release those greenhouse gases), we jump on it. Not “we”, as in you and me, but “we” as people in general. All of us really don’t seem to care, or seem to care too little. Everyone just looks at the years of scientific research on global warming, forms an opinion on it, and continues their lives. In retrospect, why should anyone care at all? It doesn’t affect any one of us today, or tomorrow. In all truth, that’s humanities biggest downfall. The human race will not come together under one single opinion unless we are all influenced and distressed immediately by a stimulus. What might be the end of all living things on earth, in God-knows-how-many years, due to temperature risings, doesn’t seem to bother individuals in this current period. Our biggest weakness is as follows: we are considered the most intelligent beings on the planet and though we can predict a potential demise of our species, we simply ignore it. If any one person could, I am sure they would reverse global warming themselves. Unfortunately, it takes all of us to halt this relapse on society’s progression and at the moment, the future is looking quite dim for all of us.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 09/30/10 - New Visions Education - English - **Blog #4** - How the World Works 
 * Meg Whitman's illegal immigrant hot button **

This whole situation with Meg Whitman and her housekeeper is a tangled one. On one end, I feel that if the housekeeper Nicky Diaz really did falsify her working documents and came out later about being illegal, Whitman had every right to fire her. Also, if Diaz is in fact illegal, she has no right to be filing for wage claims! That makes absolute no sense and in fact, it should be the other way around since she forged working documents unlawfully. The fact she is coming out now, a year later, in the heat of the campaign is also suspicious… Now, on the other hand, Whitman most likely fired Diaz in order to save her own political reputation since California’s apparent “hot button” is illegal immigration. That could be a political scandal in itself. It’s interesting that so many sides can be seen and on the moral issue of things, a clear cut innocent is always hard to make out. Malpractice in medicine is just the same way. It is hard to distinguish who has rights in what and who is obligated to do something. Just as in the first day of English class, when Mr. Brunelli gave the trolley cart situation, a straight answer was not always instantaneous among the classmates. Now, with this issue at hand, you can look on each side of the debate and see there is truth in both of them. However, I personally think that if Diaz comes out to the press making such a bold statement against Whitman, she wasn’t thinking over her situation because to the eyes of the law, she was illegal at the time (and maybe still is, there is no specification) and purposely lied to Meg Whitman as the employer about being a permanent resident of the U.S. Basically, she has no leverage on her side of the case beside some drama and a substantial amount of tears.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 11/07/10 - New Visions Education - English - **Blog #5** - How the World Works ** Labor report: Finally, some jobs **

It seems that the issue of employment in this country will never go away. No matter what is done, there never seems to be enough jobs. This is all I hear and read from the newspapers and TV! Even though the October employment rates are promising, I feel this still shows no light at the end of the tunnel. You never know if that same rate will crash next month, and then be back up again in January. I for one have applied all over the place from stores in the Jefferson Valley Mall, to local supermarkets and with little avail. I thought that at the end of summer to the beginning of fall, there would be a ton of job openings left over from the panic of college students returning to school for their first semester. Unfortunately, I was greatly mistaken! It appears the job strain of the US is worse than I thought because even a part time high school student such as myself, cannot seem to find an opening for a position as simple as that of a cashier. It really is sad to know! Nevertheless, the one thing I still have hope in, is that the medical field will and still have a demand for employment. That way, when people like me get by med school, we will have a job and a career waiting for us!

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 11/20/10 - New Visions Health - English - **Blog #6** - How the World Works

** Defending Einstein from the new barbarians **

This blog basically discusses an argument a site called Conservapedia, (“the right-wing alternative to Wikipedia”), made on relativity. The writer of the blog says he just doesn’t take this site seriously because some of the foolish things on it, but I give much respect to them for their questioning of such a topic. As children, we are all taught a little about Einstein’s genius behind “ E=MC²”, basically to the point where you forget the theory of relativity is still, just a theory. Like anyone else, I sort of held that concept of space and time as truth. What Conservapdia did was bring the theory into question and I applaud them for it. I may not understand their whole opposition to the theory, but I do believe it is always good to question concepts of science. Never accepting something for what it is has lead individuals to create the most spectacular things in human history. Take the Wright brothers for example. When they told people they intended to create a flying device, the response was, “It cannot be done”, “Man was not meant to fly”, and so on. Yet, they broke that barrier of ignorance and saw to it that it that flight IS possible (though their ascension into the air was short-lived). In the medical field as well, things that only appeared science fiction just two generations ago are now so in-tuned with society that they are part of our everyday lives. Devices such as an artificial valve, which keeps your heart beating when the muscle itself can no longer do the job, and the recent invention of robotic legs to assist disabled people in walking are both prime examples of what doctors in the early 20th century wouldn’t even dream about. It really is remarkable. In short, questioning what is out there in the realm of scientific knowledge is only human and it should occasionally be practiced as to maybe make greater strides in the future of science.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 11/25/10 - New Visions Health - English - **Blog #7** - How the World Works

** What Beijing's horrendous traffic jams say about green energy **

This blog discussed Ambassador to China, Chen Yonglong, and the talk on his country’s steps to a much more eco-friendly nation. However, there was an ironic nature of the speech in that the ambassador himself was sort of ignorant. Yonglong basically stated that all of China’s bad emissions were due to development, while over here in the West, it was about luxury. I laughed at that comment. As Andrew writes, “…just moments earlier, our group had driven past a Lamborghini dealership in downtown Beijing, just a few blocks from a Gucci store so imposing that it made the Forbidden City palace structures I can see from my hotel look paltry.” China is obviously heading in the same direction of any other “luxurious” Western country, so it’s silly to say otherwise. The ambassador also didn’t just mention the nation’s emission use in a casual way; to me, it came off like he was basically stating China is better than its Western counterparts. Mmmm, really? The funny thing is that I didn’t know a country’s “renewable resources growth” was related to how much cars there are on the street. That could signal growth in general, like that of the population (what a surprise for China), but definitely not in the step towards a much “greener” nation. Another thing, when I used to think of China, the first thing that would come to mind were the streets completely filled with people…tons of people and bicycles. I guess things have changed because according to the blog, that mental image of mine is actually replaced with lots of cars. This is again, ironic, because it shows “development,” but not the same development I think the ambassador believes. When I go down to New York City, the bunch of cars, people, and brand name stores signal a sort of “luxurious” culture indeed. If this is so, why is China different with the same principles? …It appears the truth can be quite hard to face.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 11/28/10 - New Visions Health - English - **Blog # 8** - How the World Works

**Marx, Engels, Mao and a brand new fridge**

It’s interesting to see the advancements of the rural, Chinese farmers. Though it may be the nicest house in the village, the layout discussed is quite impressive: a larger than life TV; a computer with internet; a brand new refrigerator. Though both are common ground over in this country, I cannot really think of one of those hundred-year old farmers plowing the land all day and then retiring for the night by going on YouTube. The people interviewed say they only use both to assist with agricultural reasons like seeing the weather, or an outcome of crops for the year. Nonetheless, the scenario displays technology’s integration into all aspects of life, even where they were once thought a rarity. On the tour of Hudson Valley Hospital Center, during the first week of rotations, I was surprised to see how much technology in patient’s rooms had been updated. Flat screen TVs and remote computers were abundant, as each patient under care had access to them. The tools in the medical field had also changed. The common “paddles” shown dramatically on TV are now obsolete. In their place are the much less adrenaline paced pads of a defibrillator (it’s very surprising the show “Scrubs” had been using the paddles for the past 5 years on air, even though they stopped being used 5 years ago!). To compare, laptops used to be an extreme technological tool and now they are handed out for free by colleges across the country. To foresee this advancement of technology continuing into my own future is really incredible. I’m really excited to see not only what will be available for leisure, but what the medical field will have to soon offer - a medicine to cure all diseases? Maybe not, but it’s always fun to imagine the possibilities.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 11/25/10 - New Visions Health - English - **Blog #9** - How the World Works

** Obama and Bush: A real difference **

With the current recession in check, it’s hard to picture this time being any better than just several years ago. However, this blog points out the inconvenient truth that many choose to ignore: that we are better off than we were under Bush. For one thing, no one even bothers talking about the war in Iraq anymore. Obama has sort of pulled his attention off of the situation, which is good because as a country, we had not established ANY reason to get involved there in the first place (oil, terrorists, to protect the decent citizens there?). The blog really likes to highlight the strengthening of OSHA, the FDA, and the EPA. I also believe at least some of this to be true. Specifically, I think EPA has stepped up its game. For years, my friends and I have been going to a spot by a reservoir and gone cliff jumping. The spot is so widely known, that there are always people there upon arrival. There are even rope swings placed about. No one ever got in trouble…until two summers ago. The story goes like this: I’m heading over there and see two trucks outside the path entrance to the cliffs. My friends ignore them and continue to head up, but I take a closer look at these suspicious trucks. Then I see it. Hanging from the rearview mirror is a sign reading in official print, “Environmental Protection Agency.” I yell for my friends, show them, and we ran out of there. As it turns out, the EPA had arrived to dismantle the ropes set up and in the process, caught some other unlucky kids who supposedly were fined. This never happened before, so apparently someone high up put out an order. My summarized experience could have nothing to do with the White House putting pressure on the agencies mentioned above, making them put out stricter regulations. However, I believe it may be of some importance to mention because I think it really is the effect of the Obama administration in some way.

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Brandon Mogrovejo - 12/25/10 - New Visions Health - English - **Blog # 10** - How the World Works

** Mitt Romney dives into the tax cut tar pit **

Contradiction is at its finest with Mitt Romney. Read the blog, and you get an insight to exactly how he contradicts himself. I feel a lot of politicians are like this, just some are better at hiding it then others. Romney over here just can’t seem to take a firm position on anything because it seems he does not want to upset any group that could be the majority of voters in the coming election, because if he did this, votes will probably not go in favor towards Republicans. That’s what I believe anyway, but the reason I am reflecting off this blog is not because Mitt’s arrogance astounds me. In fact, I specifically choose to write about this blog because I feel the concept of contradictions is too commonplace in society today. I say this because just the other day, I met one of my distant cousins who, as it turns out, was a Respiratory Therapist. I’ve been on the Respiratory Therapy rotation, and seen what a Respiratory Therapist does, so I talked with her about it. She told me how much she enjoyed the work and must have mentioned pretty much every other aspect about the career. Here comes the contradiction: while wandering my aunt’s house, (the place where my family was gathered), I looked out the window to see my cousin smoking a cigarette! I was pretty much shocked. Here is a woman who preaches the importance of keeping your lungs healthy; whose very job is to take care of a patient’s respiratory system; and yet she is outside, doing the worst possible damage, aside from physically impaling her lungs! (Yes, that is a bit of an exaggerated remark, but I am trying to get my point across). This is only one example of a walking contradiction in the world today, and I know there are plenty out there, but I’m still left in despair about what my cousin is doing. It really makes one think about how ignorant people can be, and how that sort of ignorance can come out of those you least expect.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 01/26/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 11** – How the World Works

** The missing word in Obama's State of the Union **

You can tell Andrew Leonard, the blog person of //How the World Works,// was just a little upset with Obama dodging the issue of unemployment in his recent State of the Union address. In fact, he was so upset that he even gave a slight, humorous comparison of Obama to Bush. Obama stated that the recession has been beat, and Leonard points out that it sounds a lot like, “Mission accomplished.” The term refers to a speech given by our last President where he basically states that the major fighting in the Iraq war was finally over. This proved to be very false, because soon after that speech, fighting resumed to an even greater degree in the country. Now you can see why the comparison of Obama’s statement to Bush is trying to induce that same controversy. I do believe Obama skated around a large portion of the issue, but like the blog also states, it may have been a key strategic move in combating any poor publicity aimed at him, and I totally get that. We have to remember that Obama is most likely considering reelection, and he does not want to get any backlash so close to the 2012 election. Now, unlike what some people may think, Obama is not the worst President we’ve had. He just has a lot on his plate, and I believe anyone else as qualified for presidency wouldn’t be able to do just as good of a job as Obama is. I must note one of his key breakthroughs was in the repealing of the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” stature with the military. I had full support of repealment when it was first announced because I feel any sexual and racial barriers should be removed in the modern age of today. I remember reading somewhere that in the beginning of the 19th century, an American general stated that no blacks would be of any use in the army and so there was a law banning enlistment entirely. The act of banning blacks was repealed after much controversy, and today they are valuable members of our army, navy, air force, etc. Same thing follows along the same lines for women. To sum up, sexual orientation, sex, and race should not factor into who can enlist in the military, because those traits don’t determine who you are and what your capable of. Back to the issue at hand, I felt that Mr. Leonard was a bit critical of Obama, but I partially agree with his idea. If Obama get’s reelected, I only hope he jumps on the problem of unemployment in this country, but all I can do for now is wait and see.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 02/21/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 12** – How the World Works

** Obama's bum rap on entitlement reform **

The way this blog summed up the fact that President Obama has made headway as a President was very appealing to me. A hardcore critic mentioned in the blog deemed the budget cut recently made by the President was, “a massive pile of fiscal bullshit,” and that for all of us under 30 who supported him, (a high claim that the “youthful” of America is almost, incompetent in a sense because of this), “he just screwed you over.” This guy should obviously calm down a bit. As the blog points out, Obama has tackled what no other modern president has done before him and that is the issue of healthcare. He implemented a policy that may or may not work, but in it lies high hopes of a better future in healthcare; a future that hopes to reflect off the national healthcare laws of other countries and mimic that success. As I said before in my previous blog reflection, I applaud on Obama’s progress. It takes a lot for any one man to try and drive up America, and rid the country of the problems accumulated from the Bush Presidency (Bush Jr. that is). I won’t get into how awesome I believe Obama is, because I may be just a tad bias in representing him, so I will mention another piece of the blog that interested me. Mr. Brunelli stated once in class that the “old people” of this country are the ones who vote the most, and this blog states that they mainly vote republican. The blog also says that Republican’s try not to tamper with Medicare policies for the simple fact they do not want to lose the critical amount of voters. Well, I just want to voice my opinion that I believe younger voters should get more active! If not, the elderly will continue to basically “govern” the direction of politics, and in their favor. It should be the other way around!! Those relatively young and working need the political support; in fact, there should be no bias at all in politics, but assistance for all United States citizens. I for one, am planning on voting when I am of legal age (next year unfortunately). Until then, I can only sit and watch (or in this case, read blogs) and hope that politics shift generally toward the favor of __everyone,__ not just the elderly.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 02/26/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 13** – How the World Works

** Are we ready for a Libyan oil shock? **

The blog states that not only will Republican budget cuts hurt the economy, but so will rising oil prices (due to the turbulence in the Middle East). Reading what could be, it seems that if turmoil continues throughout other Middle Eastern countries, oil will actually halt our economic recovery and bring it back a few paces. The U.S. economy is already having a hard enough time without problems, so I cannot imagine what the potential disaster lying ahead will bring. I always felt oil was one of the biggest shackles around this country, and that one of our top concerns should be to free ourselves of imprisonment. Obama’s policy on electric cars seems promising in this way. It is his hope that by 2015, there will be 15 million electric cars on the road. I am not sure what his policy is exactly, but I do know that recently the electric car market was making headway. Just the other day, I saw on the news that Chevy released their new electric car, the “Volt,” to 15 lucky people to test drive (throughout the nation). One of them was from Westchester! He displayed the mechanics on TV and I was pretty impressed. The car plugs into your wall at night and then runs throughout the day. If you drive 64 miles without charge, the car switches to gasoline reserves (good if you’re on a long trip). A pretty impressive feature was also that every time you break, kinetic energy gets absorbed and used to charge the battery! Now there is a fallback to electric cars….they run on another earth mineral: lithium. The U.S. does have enough lithium reserves to last up to 10 years, but eventually we will have to either mine our own source, or buy from another country’s resources. The latter will surely bring us back to the oil cycle of today, but even if it did that would still take about 10 years. That is why I think electric cars are our best bed to basically say “FORGET YOU” to OPEC, and the Middle East. The U.S. is one of the biggest, if not the biggest vendor of oil from other countries, so I’m sure foreign oil companies will not fare well. So, if electric cars such as the Chevy Volt do come into market soon, I’ll be the first to buy one!

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 02/26/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 14** – How the World Works

** How to kill off economic growth **

This economy is definitely worrying me. It seems that the future gets darker and darker with each passing day. Now, with the Republican’s budget cuts underway, there is an expectation that growth __will not__ improve as generously as previously thought. I really do not think people will vote Republican in the upcoming elections! They had their chance of control in the House since the last congressional elections, but what they seemed to do with that chance is put our economy on a straight train-ride to obliteration. What I propose for the country is the simple FDR strategy to the Great Depression: have people do seemingly pointless jobs for money! Have people get paid to dig a big ditch in the ground and then fill it up again. Better yet, have people do meaningful jobs! Yorktown itself has horrible roads, and I’ve been around New York State enough to known that highways and routes aren’t exactly in “tip-top” shape. Unemployment will obviously drop and with it, our economy will rise! More people will have spending money earned from the jobs, and this will obviously fuel the economy. If nothing is done soon enough, and the economy does begin to plummet as speculated, it seems the last option will be to create more money! Mr. Brunelli mentioned in class that the government has the ability to do this, wipe away all our debt (despite the loss of trust concerning lending to other nations), and put us back on top as a country. The only downfall is that the big CEO’s of banks, the banks themselves, and the elderly, will see their investments lose money. Honestly though, who cares? The CEO’s make a ridiculous amount in their salaries, more than any one person should get. Some could argue they earned those positions, but regardless, I think they don’t deserve such a grotesque pay. Doctors in poor countries, humanitarians, etc., these are the people who change the world and try and make it a better place, but you don’t see them with salaries in the millions. The banks….I won’t even get into them. People are fed up with the banks as it is. My mother had a credit card that she paid on time for over a decade. However, because one of her other cards had some unpaid credit on it, the bank decided to cancel her good card….and they had the NERVE to expect her to pay what she owed that month on the card they just cancelled (she found out while buying the month’s groceries at A&P). You have no idea how angry this got me! Lastly, elderly people won’t be tremendously affected by this loss of value in the dollar. They’ll feel the sting, but really, should they be valued more than the youth of America?! (I mean “youth” as in all non-retired people). I only pray that harsh economic times do not lie ahead, and that we rise up from this mess as a more unified, and better nation.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 03/01/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 15** – How the World Works

I’m tired of Republicans at this point; fed up with them in fact. I may be a newbie with politics, but I can read just fine. As Andrew Leonard basically pointed out in his blog post, the budget cuts that are coming our way will most likely hurt our country’s GOP a bit for the next two years, as well as cause a loss of nearly a million jobs in that same time span! Now, there may be some sort of long term benefit to the cuts, unseen by the public eye. However, as Leonard gracefully points out, Republicans will not admit any such thing, which is completely ludicrous. It’s like the government introducing some revolutionary technique to reverse global warming, but experts can clearly see the technique will begin to tear a hole in the ozone layer…but the government party in charge won’t say anything and votes for the proposal anyway. The example is a bit farfetched, I know, but do you the stupidity in it? Replace the “global warming” concept with the U.S. economy’s situation, and there lies the dilemma in plain sight. Honestly, at this point, I don’t know what comes next. Apparently, (as mentioned before) 700,000 more jobs will be lost by the end of 2012 due to these budget cuts, and I don’t see the rest of the country being particularly happy about that. They know who to blame (at least, I hope people are keeping up with not just Andrew Leonard’s blog, but all news on our economic situation), and I can sure bet that Republicans will not hold a victory this coming presidential elections. Leonard speculates, “…The Republicans know exactly what the likely impact of their cuts will be, and they're fine with it, because the worse the economy does, the better their chances are of taking the White House in 2012.” However, I don’t see any logic in a grand scheme like that. People tried them out in Congress, and as you can clearly see, they’re not really doing the most appraising job…

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 03/17/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 16** – How the World Works

** Triumph of the flat-earth Republicans **

Republicans believing there is no such thing as global warming? Ridiculous. This is just another reason to put me in disfavor of the political party. How can anyone in their right mind say that global warming DOES NOT EXIST, regardless of its cause? Tons of scientific evidence clearly shows that over time, our global temperature has been rising. Some dumbfounded republican may say, “Well, look at all the snowstorms that hit us this winter! That wouldn’t happen if our planet was getting hotter!” Unfortunately, yes, that is exactly what would happen. Winters like the one we just had (the shoveling was brutal for me) are actually a side effect of rising worldwide temperatures. Now, it is one thing to deny the reason for this rise of temperatures (i.e. human beings; this is always being debated), but a completely different thing to say that it really isn’t there at all. The whole idea is just completely absurd! And not just a few, but every Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted against Democrat proposals suggesting methods of halting and reversing greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. Andrew Leonard is right to say, “I hope to live long enough to see the day when the American Republican position on climate change is seen universally as the 21st century equivalent to older beliefs that the world is flat or that the sun revolves around the earth.” I honestly feel the same exact way. The republicans will be the end of this country if they are not kicked out of their seats in Congress and any other political holdings. They are just so conservative in their approach to problems, and that is not what our nation needs at this point. It didn’t work under Bush…what makes now any different?

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 04/29/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 17** – How the World Works ** Maine's child-labor mess **

Governor Paul LePage does come off as suspicious…I for one, wouldn’t trust what legislature is trying to be passed with his approval, especially when you dwell more into the background of it (what the blog mentions). I’ll admit though, when first reading into the story, I thought, “Hey, this isn’t so bad! He just wants kids to be able to have some more money in their pockets when they need it.” If that was actually the case, I would have no problem with the legislation. However, adding onto the bill that children receive under minimum wage is a little bit drastic. Aside from the other actions he performed, which I won’t mention in detail, this one fact alone scared me a bit. It seems as if LePage is actually bringing back child labor!!! A modern version of it at least. It’s funny that this bill almost passed without controversy, even though it really is in poor standards when placed next to the current rights children are supposed to have nationally, at least rights concerning how much we can work. Then again, the Arizona Law passed regardless of its own poor standards, and to me it’s clear that the bill itself violates certain rights all U.S. citizens share (since many Hispanic and tan people alike were being asked to show their paperwork, based off the “assumptions” of an officer). It seems as time goes on, politics is getting a little strange, almost conservative in some methods (you Republican senators out there). I can’t really say how far legislature will go in the upcoming years, but I can say it worries me a bit.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 05/01/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 18** – How the World Works ** Texas whine: Why does Obama love Alabama more? **

For someone so critical of the Obama’s administration, you have to wonder why Texas Governor Rick Perry is so ticked off that his state isn’t receiving aid for the wildfires that have spread about. It seems right that he deserves getting nothing. However, the tornado that swept through pretty recently has a much higher death toll, as well as disaster expenses, that it makes sense Obama is paying more attention to Alabama and nearby states. It just happens that rather than Obama personally seeing to it that Texas was left out of the “state of emergency” club, he has a legitimate reason of being preoccupied with something else. Karma just has a way of getting pack at Gov. Perry for criticizing whatever the Federal Government was doing under Obama, rather than making any headway himself in dealing with things like the recession. There’s a saying that goes, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” This applies here. My dog, Logan, is a mutt. He apparently had abusive past, so we decided to take care of him rather than a shelter. Even though he’s very comfortable with us now, after living with us for almost two years, he still has his moments where he just gets weird. For example, you might find him hiding away under the table, and growling at everyone who gets near him. Or, my parents might let him on their bed (because he whines at their door), and then he tries to bite anyone that moves. Despite all his little transgressions, when the food rolls out, he goes to whimpering and pleasing us for some scraps. If Logan’s been good, we might throw something his way, but if not, we simply ignore him until he trots on over to his bowl (looking defeated and sad I may add). It makes sense to award a dog when he is good, and punish him when he is unloyal. In my opinion, although it’s unclear whether this is on purpose, it serves Gov. Perry right that the Obama administration is not backing him up when he comes “whimpering to the table” like Logan does.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 05/03/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 19** – How the World Works

** How will bin Laden's death affect the economy? **

Osama’s death still has some time to sink in with me. I find the whole situation a bit…strange. It makes sense the way the media portrays it, because the whole operation had to be top secret to guarantee its success, but I’m still left skeptical. Regardless, many Americans were, and still are, out there in celebration of the event. Like Andrew Leonard noted, this can be good for the economy. Just think about it, when the country as a whole is happy, and less stressed, people are willing to go out and spend money, whether through investing into Wall Street, or simply taking the family out to a nice dinner. Less tension is definitely better. When I walked in to take my four-day statistics final, I relaxed myself. I was still wary of the time, but not with whether I studied binomial distributions enough. What I knew at that point wasn’t going to change in the immediate future, so I sat down and did what I could do. Needless to say, I aced the test with a 91 (a “5”), so the method worked out pretty well. However, aside from the improvement of the economy, what would be a greater result from the Osama assassination would be a further step in bringing our troops home. If that can get done, I’m sure Americans everywhere would quit being worried (at least the majority would) about terrorism. The war in itself is a disaster, doomed to fall into history as a second “Vietnam,” because we basically went in there with little to no game plan, and without an expected end date. It can be argued that it is an exact replica, aside from intentions of now and then. Regardless of speculations about what happens next, for now we are just living history as its being written. The best thing I can do is sit back and enjoy the ride, hoping the country’s future makes a turn for the better.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 05/16/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 20** – How the World Works ** Why isn't Wall Street in prison? **

My parents bring up this question now and then when dealing with the monthly bills. I think many Americans bring up the question every once in a while, and with proper conviction I believe. The “mess-up” that occurred among the corporate titans did end pretty disastrous for almost everyone in the country, most notably the middle class. The recession that followed was the worst thing that hit the economy since the Great Depression! Though my parents would like nothing better than to see justice served to those responsible, this blog has a point in saying that throwing CEO’s behind bars isn’t exactly the right way to go about getting this fixed. Rather, an economy that depends fully on the Wall Street market may need some tweaking. Or better yet, regulations, such as mentioned “penalties,” should be given to high-risk takers. This only makes sense, since these people are willing to risk a blow to the national economy, and millions of people, just for a shot at getting rich. Now, as for dealing with the big executives who have the finger pointed at them for causing the recession, I feel giving bail out money so quick was not the right answer. I mean, Obama was trying to salvage what was left of the economy, but maybe his move to throw a few billion their way was a bit…hasty to say the least, because after getting that money (the economy didn’t completely crash and burn, true) the people given a second-chance did little with it besides continue to pay themselves an overly gracious paycheck. It really is sad how some people have much, much more money than they actually need, and I mean like a disgusting amount. It bothers me a bit, just like the recent wedding in England with the princess. Here she is throwing away so much money on 20 different dresses for different parts of the wedding (okay, not 20, but still), when there are problems in our world, like the situation for people in Haiti, that could use the money. Actually, to reiterate my previous statement, that bothers me a lot, not just a bit.

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Brandon Mogrovejo – 05/24/11 – New Visions Health – English – **Blog # 21 ** – How the World Works

**The GOP's wrongheaded fixation on taxes ** The blog is sort of related to Mr. Brunelli’s last economic lesson, in that it points to the fact that despite all the Republican’s economic proposals being different from one another, they all decrease the tax burden for the richest Americans!!! That’s completely insane, considering that the tax rate for the rich is the lowest it has been in the country’s history. What makes them think by lowering it more, the economy will be better off? I mean, the theory is that the rich will invest their abundant amounts of money into all sorts of projects, benefitting everyone else. But what if they don’t? What if they decide to keep their money to themselves, retire early, and leave the rest of us in the gutters? I’m just not so sure I like the Republican strategy. The Democratic way of helping the lower class people seems much better, in that if we have more money, we can buy things that in turn benefit the very rich (like if I had some extra money, I would put it towards a MacBook). In the economic power point, Mr. Brunelli pointed out that under Democratic presidents, the rich and poor inequality gap decreased, rather than increased. In all honesty, that sounds like a much better end result. I realize that if I am to become a physician or surgeon someday, financially I’ll be considered one of the rich. Nonetheless, for the American economy to suffer just so I can prosper doesn’t make much sense. I believe it would be in everyone’s benefit to make the taxes a bit more equal. Cutting some slack for the rich isn’t that bad, but they’re getting more than a break currently, so it’s a really bad idea to keep pushing the routine. __[]__

 <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Brandon Mogrovejo – 05/26/11 – New Visions Health – English – ** Blog # 22 ** – How the World Works

**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Never mind Medicare. What about the economy? **

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">I’m going to try and get this straight. Republicans seem to be backing up the “Ryan Plan,” a plan created by Paul Ryan to change up Medicare and make it privatized. Vice President Joe Biden met with Republican heads agreeing to cut spending for Medicare (so, sort of appealing to their ideology) as part of a way to reduce the federal budget deficit, but only if the party agreed that some methods of reduction would come off revenue based gains, or mainly taxing the wealthier Americans a higher amount. And basically, the Republicans didn’t go for it! The budget talk was said to be going along slowly, but surely; however, I’m not so sure what to think of the situation. In a time as critical as ours, where the hypothetical “light at the end of the tunnel” is nowhere in sight for America’s economy, I don’t see why the hell we wouldn’t stop giving the wealthy such a large break. It’s completely crazy! Any rational person should see that getting that sort of revenue, over the course of years, would give the government a lot of extra spending money to put towards so many economy-recovering tactics, like creating new jobs. Yet, the Republicans remain on the conservative end of things, sticking to what Republicans do best (yes, aiding the rich). To make matters worse, the blog states that the current unemployement rates, if not drastically improved, may leave Obama a one-term president. This is fine by me, as long as another Democrat is elected. God help us if we get another Republican in the White House!!! Still, I see the hope of another Democratic victory ahead, based off the fact of what the Repulicans are doing now. In class, we learned that the elderly tend to be the main stream voters, because (1), they have nothing really to do in retirement, and (2) politics have been in their favor in recent years so they’re very reluctant to lose that. With Republicans taking a stand against the current methods of Medicare, they are essentially taking a stand against the elderly, the mainstream voters of the nation. What a better way to set up another Democratic victory?

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