TOW #10: Jeff Sessions Could Reverse Years Of Progress On Marijuana Policy

Jeff Sessions Could Reverse Years Of Progress On Marijuana Policy

              This article discusses Jeff Sessions, President Elect Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General, and his position on the legalization of Cannabis. Generally, the article criticizes Trump’s choice as Sessions has expressed very anti-cannabis ideas that contradict ideas set forth by Trump himself. This editorial was written by Matt Ferner, a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles who specializes in writing about drug law. He has written four pieces on the subject of cannabis so far this November.

              This article was written for the American People in a time of great turmoil. Protest regarding Donald Trump’s victory have taken place around the country. The author of this editorial criticizes one of Trump’s actions (appointing Jeff Sessions as the Attorney General) and speaks to Trump’s critics.

              Although the editorial criticized Trump, the author uses rhetorical devices to maintain credibility and eliminate the sense of bias. This is seen when the author quotes Representative Earl Blumenauer, who believes “Trump likely picked Sessions because of the senator’s views on immigration, not weed.” However, the author compares Trump’s decision to step back on Drug policy. He says “Donald Trump’s decision heralds a return to the worst days of the drug war.” He also criticizes Sessions himself with an anecdote that claims Sessions was accused of believing that “the Ku Klux Klan was acceptable until he found out members smoked marijuana.”

              The author’s point in writing this text is clear, to encourage people to take a stand against politicians who are fighting for what so many people (and a rapidly increasing number of people) don’t want. The author is successful in doing so by emphasizing Trump’s hypocrisy in appointing someone he doesn’t agree with, Sessions’ highly questionable opinion that smoking cannabis is the worst thing the KKK does, but also by recognizing another side of the issue and appealing to the opposition of the argument by explaining that Trump may not be that hypocritical after all.

IRB Intro #2

I have chosen to read Art Spiegelman's Maus for my second IRB. This award-winning novel tells a second-hand story of the holocaust. The story comes from the author's father, who survived the Holocaust as a Polish Jew. As a Jew, the holocaust has always been s subject of fascination. However, as a human, the horrific acts that were committed fascinate me even more.

TOW #9: Donald Trump’s win will make Brexit more painful

Donald Trump’s win will make Brexit more painful

             This article discusses the recent presidential election that saw Donald Trump elected president of the United States, and how his victory will affect international business for the both the United States and United Kingdom. The publisher of this editorial was Britain’s The Economist, who has been ranked the most trusted news outlet in the world by Business Insider. Being an outlet based in the UK, their bias in the United States’ politics is minimal compared to America’s counterparts.

              In late June, 2016, the residents of the United Kingdom woke up to alarming news, they had seceded from the European Union in an event soon to be known as “Brexit.” To many, this was a sign of impending doom. Britain would need to find new trading partners, the Pound would lose value, and investments would slow. The reality turned out to not be as dramatic as predicted, at least not yet. However, on the morning of Wednesday, November 9^th, Americans woke up to a similar feeling. Donald Trump, who has called himself “Mr. Brexit”, was elected president. Now the terror that flowed through Britain in June is back. This article appeals to the residents of Britain and explains the likely impact Trump will have on trade between the US and the UK. In the concluding paragraphs, the article speaks directly to Theresa May, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, about how to handle the situation with Britain’s interests in mind.

              The most obvious rhetorical device is the extended metaphor between Trump’s election and Britain leaving the EU, and how the aftermath affected their countries. Other comparisons are seen when the author compares relatively inexperienced Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, who they describe as n “instinctive Anglophile”, implying that a victory for Clinton would have been better for Britain. This idea is further backed up with logic when the author references Trump’s expressed loathing of foreign trade to show how Britain is likely to lose business with the United States. The rhetoric in this article is effective because it follows such a logical path.

TOW #8 Freakonomics" Part Two

            In the second half of Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, they slowly transition from one complex ides to another. It begins by continuing to explore the mindset of dug-dealers. It then uses the information presented to explore the causes of the unpredicted fall in crime during the 1990s. From there, the authors discuss parents. Specifically, who makes the best parents and what is under parents’ control. They finish by discussing the effect that a person’s name has on their success and opportunities in life.

            The most important idea presented in the second half of the book is that preconceptions can be not only inaccurate, but they also drive people, even experts, away from the true answers. This is best shown in chapter four. When crack cocaine began to take over entire cities, and crime began to rapidly increase in the 1980s and early 1990s, experts predicted that crimes would reach a level that would make the country dangerous to live in. Instead, crime rate abruptly, and drastically fell. Many causes were cited. These included the increased reliance on prisons (which had a significant role to play but was not the main reason), and more rigorous police tactics (which was the most cited cause but later proved to not have any effect on crime. The real main cause was the sudden nationwide legalization of abortion following the Roe v. Wade case. This idea is supported by showing similar situations in Romania after abortion was legalized.

            In the first half of the book, each chapter was a series of anecdotes used to support a thesis regarding a central anecdote. In the second half. The chapters are continually referenced throughout, making them a sort of extended metaphor. The story of the drug-dealers here used to explain how legal abortions stopped crime. The facts about abortion were used to explain why nature is different from nurture (which explains why many aborted children would be destined to life of crime), and the analysis of naming concludes the comparison.

TOW #7: "Gallons of Light" (visual text)

Tesla Model S: "Gallons of Light" Commercial

This commercial tells the story of the Knapp family, who took a road trip in their all-electric Tesla Model S. Not only that, but they used free, solar-powered charging stations to recharge their vehicle. This advertisement was created by Jordan Bloch who has also created commercials viewed over 20 million times on Facebook and YouTube. The subject of the commercial was Tesla’s Model S. Tesla was experiencing one of the most prolonged and significant rises in stock value in recent history and their new solar-powered public charging stations had just begun construction around the country.

The most obvious intended audience for this commercial is drivers concerned about the environment. This is shown through the emphasis on “all electric” and how the narrator descries the road trip as being “sponsored by the power of the sun.” An interesting piece of rhetoric that is easy to miss is the license plate of the car which says “4GET OIL” (obviously meaning “forget oil”). This message appeals further to customers concerned about the environment. The “4GET IL” can be seen as hopeful thinking that humans’ dependency on a limited resource for transportation may soon be ending. It may also perhaps be viewed as condescending, someone driving a Tesla can ride smugly over those whose lives are at the mercy of gasoline.

Other subtle forms of rhetoric include the young boy looking out the window at a pump jack with a look of curiosity. The pump jack, a machine used to suck oil out of the ground, may never be a significant part of the boy’s life. It certainly doesn’t mean much to him at the time. Overall, the rhetoric conveys an optimistic attitude. In addition to selling the revolutionary car, the commercial induces a new sense of hopefulness and motivation to fix the environment that I believe is the true goal of Tesla.