COA 350 Current Issues
Quiz 2 – Spring 2019
Dr. May Chidiac
Student’s Name: Charbel Bou Tanos
ID # 20171413
Define and explain the following terms or concepts:
Each correct answer is worth one point for a total of 5 points:
-
Swing States+Examples:
Swing states are the US States in which two major political parties such as the democrats
and the republicans have almost equal amounts of support and number of votes in the state.
The states are considered as the most important states to look after when determining the
overall winner of presidential election, as swing states are very crucial in determining key
victories. Examples of swing states are: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
-
Electoral College:
The Electoral college is a unique method for indirectly electing the president of the United
States. The Electoral college consists of a total of 538 members, one for each US Senator
and representative, and three additional electors representing the District of Columbia.
Each state has a number of electoral votes equal to the combined total of its
congressional delegation, and each state legislature is free to determine the method
it will use to select its own electors.
- Women Rights:
Women’s rights are human rights in general and are rights and entitlements claimed for
women and girls of many societies worldwide. These laws and legislations are sometimes
supported and backed up by legal constitutions and governments while in other places
might be ignored, suppressed. It has been an ongoing issue and debate throughout the past
years and the fight for rights and for equality between men and women has been a very
crucial hotkey in which many organizations, governments, and figures have stood up to
and still do till this very moment. These rights can include: body integrity, freedom from
sexual violence, voting, ownership, having equal rights in family law, entering legal
contracts, having abortion etc…
- Presidential duties
The first duty is that he the commander In chief, yet he does not have the right to declare
war as this is the responsibility of the Congress to do so. He should make sure that the legal
system is functioning properly and is going in the right direction. By that he will be making
sure that all the laws and the regulations set by the government and by the legal institutions
are being well-implemented and executed properly. The President also has the right to sign
foreign treaties and also sets the State of Union thus has a say concerning the resolution or
recommendation of solutions for problems occurring at the national level. Moreover, the
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President is also in charge of implementing laws written by the Congress and thus appoints
the heads of the federal agencies including the Cabinet. The Vice president is also part of
the Executive branch and can take the position of the president at any time the need arises.
- Winner Takes it all system:
Each State legislature determines how the electors are allocated to candidates. As of the
last election, the District of Columbia and 48 States had a winner-takes-all rule for the
Electoral College. In these States, whichever candidate received a majority of the popular
vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other
candidate), took all of the State’s electoral votes. Only two States, Nebraska and Maine,
did not follow the winner-takes-all rule. In those States, there could have been a split of
electoral votes among candidates through the state’s system for proportional allocation of
votes
- JCPOA.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is a detailed, 159-page agreement with
five annexes reached by Iran and the P5+1 (China France, Germany, Russia, the United
Kingdom, and the United States) on July 14, 2015. The nuclear deal was endorsed by UN
Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted on July 20, 2015. Iran’s compliance with the
nuclear-related provisions of the JCPOA will be verified by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) according to certain requirements set forth in the agreement. On
May 8, 2018, President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the
JCPOA and reinstate U.S. nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime.
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Fill in the Blanks:
Each correct sentence is worth one point for a total of 5 points:
1. George Washington the first president of the United States, was chosen under this
new system in 1789. Many US presidents who were elected for presidency since
1789 had a major role in enhancing America’s economy, international affairs, and
social ideas.
2. Journalists have been struggling in Lebanon since the Ottoman Era, when the
Ottoman governor of Sham, Jamal Pasha, set up a moot court in the Aley region in
Mount Lebanon.
3. Lebanon ranked 102 out of 180 countries in the annual ranking issued by Reporters
Without Borders on April 21, continuing its downward trajectory that began in 2015
4. In 1993, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
(DEVAW) stated that governments should:
-Should act to prevent violence
- protect and defend women’s rights
5. In the middle of the last century many journalists presented themselves as martyrs
in defense of freedom in their countries. In 1958, journalist Nassib Al-Matni was
assassinated, and in 1966, the thinker and journalist who founded the newspapers
Al-Hayat and The Daily Star, Kamel Mrouwa was assassinated.
6. January 2, 2020: The U.S. Department of Defense publishes a press release
claiming responsibility for the targeted killing of Iranian Major General Qasem
Soleimani , who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.
According to the release, “the strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack
plans.”
7. Earlier in October 2020, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 18 Iranian
officials effectively locking Iran out of the global __financial_______ system and
further damaging its collapsing economy.
True Or False: (Correct)
1 points each
1) The U.S President is directly elected by the US Citizens (FALSE) Through
The Electoral College.
2) February 16th is the press martyr’s day (FALSE). May 6
3) On November 10, 2015 the Tunisian Parliament adopted a new law that
allows women to travel with their minor children without the father’s
permission (TRUE)
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4) Donald Trump won in Pennsylvania which is not a swing state (FALSE)
Biden won and Pennyslvania is a swing state.
5) Lebanon has 15 separate personal status laws for its recognized religions
but no civil code covering issues such as divorce, property rights, or care of
children. (TRUE)
Choose two of the following four topics and write brief essays: (5 Points for each essay)
1) With the status of women in the MENA region falling behind the whole
world, and while having the constitution protecting and guaranteeing the
equality between men and women in Lebanon, can we foresee a better
future for women in the political arena in Lebanon? Will the quota find a
way to break through the stereotypical perspective of a patriarchal
society? And if so, who will be the first to put sticks in the wheels?
2) The state of the press in Lebanon has had a bloody history since the
Ottoman Empire where we had witnessed executions and several
condemnations, this had prolonged and reached 2005 where the Country
had witnessed a serious of Assassinations of prominent journalists, can
you elaborate more regarding this? And with the latest accumulation of
events between the global Pandemic and an explosion destroying the
capital, how is the press resisting through all these difficulties? and will
there be a future of the press in Lebanon whilst many Men and Women of
Journalistic backgrounds leaving the country for better opportunities?
3) The United States of America had witnesses recently a change in the
regime, having Democrats winning over the Republicans with Joe Biden
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winning over President Trump. How did the elections take place? what
were the rules to vote? What makes a candidate win?
4) How did the debate take place? what were the highlights of the Debate?
And with Joe Biding winning the elections will he change his domestic
policy and foreign policy of his predecessor? With this being said, will we
witness drastic changes in the Middle East?
5)
3. The 59th United States Presidential Election was held on Tuesday, November 3,
2020. Americans will go to the polls On November 3, 2020 to cast their ballots for the
man who will serve as U.S. president for the following four years, but first they must
select delegates who will vote at national conventions to determine which candidates
appear on those ballots. The 2 main parties in the election are undoubtedly the
Republicans and the Democrats. With the Republicans backing up Donald Trump and
the Democrats backing up Joe Biden, the 2020 elections were without a doubt a very
heated one. Both candidates compete to win electoral college votes. Each state gets a
certain number of electoral college votes partly based on its population and there are
a total of 538 up for grabs, so the winner is the candidate that wins 270 or more. This
means voters decide state-level contests rather than the national one, which is why
it’s possible for a candidate to win the most votes nationally - like Hillary Clinton did
in 2016 - but still be defeated by the electoral college. All but two states have a winnertakes-all rule, so whichever candidate wins the highest number of votes is awarded
all of the state’s electoral college votes. Legal requirements for presidential
candidates have remained the same since the year Washington accepted the
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presidency. As directed by the Constitution, a presidential candidate must be a
natural born citizen of the United States, a resident for 14 years, and 35 years of age
or older. These requirements do not prohibit women or minority candidates from
running. Some conditions for an individual to be eligible to vote in the elections is that
they should be a US Citizen and is of 18 years of age or older. This year was different
as they have introduced what is known as mail-in ballots, which Joe Biden and
democrats focused a lot on in order to get as many votes as possible prior to the
election day, this has created great confusion and controversy as many of the
republicans considered that the mail in ballots sent on election day should not be
counted and that was what President Trump tweeted about but got removed by
Twitter. Many problems arise out of this election making it seem like a fraud and a
scandal just to remove Trump from office, yet Trump is still on the conquest of
proving that Joe Biden is in no way capable of gathering more votes than Barack
Obama to become the most voted for president-elect in the history of the nation.
1. Lebanon’s religion-based personal status laws discriminate against women
across the religious spectrum and don’t guarantee their basic rights, Human
Rights Watch said in a report released today. Lebanon has 15 separate
personal status laws for its recognized religions but no civil code covering
issues such as divorce, property rights, or care of children. These laws are
administered by autonomous religious courts with little or no government
oversight, and often issue rulings that violate women’s human rights.
Lebanon’s constitution explicitly guarantees respect for the “personal status
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and religious interests” of the individual, whatever their religion. This
constitutional protection has often been used as a justification to keep
personal status laws under the exclusive realm of religious authorities, block
attempts to adopt a civil code or ensure greater oversight over Lebanon’s
religious courts and laws. Lebanon’s current system of personal status laws
violate women’s human rights, including to non-discrimination, equality in
marriage, and at its dissolution, physical integrity, and health. These rights are
all guaranteed in several international human rights treaties that Lebanon has
ratified. Under international law all children are entitled to have their best
interests be a primary consideration in all decisions made by official bodies
concerning their welfare. The Lebanese parliament should adopt an optional
civil code that would ensure equal rights for all Lebanese who wish to marry
under it, Human Rights Watch said. The government should exercise oversight
over religious courts and authorities to ensure compliance with human rights
obligations and bring them in compliance with Lebanon’s international human
rights obligations, guaranteeing women and men equal rights in all personal
status matters. It is hard for women to properly enter the political scene in
Lebanon anytime soon due to the fact that the actual political system in
Lebanon is filled with fraud, corruption, and positions that have been taken
years and years ago and that won’t find new individuals to take over them. The
entire system is based on a heritage of families and strong cults that have been
ruling over the country’s domestic and international affairs for more than 30
years now and have created a strong base for them in which they rooted their
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firmness and their strength in almost every aspect concerning the
government. The political system’s entry is almost null until this moment, and
what currently is happening is trying to overthrow the current cabinet in
position in order to catalyze the process of updating the old constitution and
passing out laws that can protect women’s rights and ensure their political
rights in governing and taking on political endeavors. A slightly yet very
minimalistic hope of having more women in the political scene is the presence
of some women who have been more than powerful and successful in
undertaking many of the country’s trash and dirtiness and trying to flip the
tables. These women have sought hard in achieving their positions and
although very few had made great impact on the trajectory other women with
ambitions and dreams like them will want to reach.
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