MTV’s annual Video Music Awards were hosted on Sunday night. Millions tuned in to watch the world’s most prominent artists perform and get awarded for their success in the music industry. The red carpet premiere before the show is filled with drama, fashion statements, and competition. There were plenty of memorable moments from this year’s ceremony but the one that viewers would agree that stood out the most was Taylor Swift’s new album announcement.
Swift won video of the year for her music video “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version),” which was released last November, starring actors Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. In her acceptance speech, she shared that she has a new album coming out on October 21st and would give more information at midnight. This left fans eager to hear the details and the theories began to spiral on social media.
It is not coincident that the album release date is the same day as Kim Kardashian’s birthday. Her former husband, Kanye West, sparked controversy with Taylor 13 years ago, and there has been ongoing drama between them ever since then. At the VMA’s in 2009, Taylor won Best Video by a Female Artist for her music video “You Belong With Me.” During her acceptance speech, West interrupted by taking the microphone out of her hand and expressed that he believed Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” deserved to win. This was an unforgettable moment in pop culture and just the start to over a decade of drama. In 2016, Kanye quoted Taylor in his song Famous, claiming that he made her relevant in reference to the 2009 awards ceremony. As a loyal wife, Kim Kardashian was quick to support her husband, sabotaging her relationship with Taylor. This also caused a division between the army of fans loyal to each celebrity. As Taylor shared the news of her new album at the same awards ceremony where the drama with West began and being released on Kim’s birthday, Swifties are convinced this is all very intentional.
After the awards, at midnight, Taylor shared on social media that the title of her album is “Midnight.” She said it will feature 13 nights that were sleepless throughout her lifetime. Social media has been spiraling with excitement and anticipation for this release. Rumors of an international tour have been flying as well. It will be very telling to see what each song consists of. We will just have to wait until midnight on October 21st.
Recently, the federal government has ended its program offering free at-home COVID-19 testing kits. The COVID Government website states that “ordering through this program will be suspended on Friday, September 2 because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests.”
The administration began this program which shipped rapid tests to Americans by mail in January in response to the recent outbreak of the Omicron variant. However, officials have repeatedly warned that without additional funding from Congress, the administration would have to roll back many of its COVID response efforts including this program.
This decrease in funding does not mean that COVID-19 is drastically less prevalent across the nation. In fact, the US is still averaging up to 100,000 new cases per day. While this is significantly less than the pandemic’s peak near the beginning of the year, it is still a figure to take seriously. It is also worth noting that cases are relatively low because testing is becoming more scarce. Comparatively, COVID tests in the past week have a positivity rate several points higher than January’s peak. Although there are fewer tests being conducted, the proportion of positive cases is actually higher. It is not the number of cases that have significantly decreased, but rather the number of reported cases.
Testing is an inconvenience. More and more, Americans are choosing not to be tested when having symptoms because of the difficulty it presents. With the end of this federal program, yet another obstacle is placed into testing: price. Without insurance, the median cost of a COVID test is around $127, with some of the more expensive tests rising to several hundred dollars. To a minimum wage worker making $7.25/hour, this median equals around 17.5 hours of work. Many Americans simply cannot afford to get tested and—if positive—to miss work for the mandatory quarantine period. As of 2022, 56% of Americans cannot afford a $1,000 emergency expense with their savings, and so the thought of buying a single COVID test, let alone enough tests for an entire household, seems impossible.
Getting tested for COVID is a frustrating experience. Even those willing to pay the upfront fee still have difficulty tracking down a location and remaining isolated for the period while waiting for results. A person does not get tested for themselves but rather for those around them—to minimize spreading to those who are susceptible. However, the abolishment of this program greatly disincentivizes testing and makes it an unlikely endeavor for the average person. Though the country has justifiably lifted many of the isolating restrictions of recent years, the loss of this program presents dangers to immunocompromized members of poor communities who cannot afford to test, cannot afford to miss work, and fear for their own health and safety.
This past week the Biden administration announced a monumental decision to forgive student loan debt to millions of Americans. The responses to this bill have been mixed with some news organizations comparing the President to Jesus, to others claiming the bill is unfair and has the ability to drive the American economy further into recession. This decision will likely cost around $500 billion dollars when it is all said and done. The following statement from Republican senator: Bill Cassidy sums up what seems to be the Republican response to this decision, “This is spending at least $300 billion we do not have which will make inflation worse”. At a time where the US economy by all measures is struggling the suggestion is that this decision could not have happened at a worse time.
The issue many have is that the majority of US taxpayers never went to college but will now be asked to fork over increased tax dollars to support those who did. According to the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, 87 percent of American adults don’t have student loans at all. This statistic speaks volumes, with 87% of Americans holding no student debt at all that suggests either: the person never went to college or said person has already paid off the loans they took out. Another glaring issue with these decisions is that there is no consideration to those families who worked hard to support their children through college, those families who went without and took on the financial hardship so their child could go loan free. These families receive nothing back, nor do the college grads who worked tirelessly in their early professional lives to pay off the loans they had taken out, these people are also excluded from this decision, not only are they excluded they are now being told that ‘you paid off your loans….. Now it’s time to do the same for others’.
Not to say this decision is all bad, it is a decision that in no-doubt will help millions of Americans. There is however no attempt to even address the root of the problem on hand. The problem here is rising educational costs that are being left unchecked by the government. Giving a short-term handout does nothing to curb these costs and as some are predicting, will lead to the problem worsening.
A growing number of young people are opting out of having children specifically because they are worried about what life would be like for their offspring in a hot and chaotic world. Such concerns may be more intense these days, but they are not new, human overpopulation has been a major concern for the environmental movement for decades. And, while population increase does have a part in climate change (it’s called anthropogenic warming for a reason), it’s not as significant as we may think, according to Sigal Samuel’s 2020 Future Perfect piece. Elon Musk recently posted on Twitter “Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming”. Consumption of the resources that cause carbon emissions is more important to climate change than population increase alone, and those resources are mostly utilized by a very small number of rich individuals worldwide. Change those consumption habits, through a combination of increased efficiency and new carbon-free technology, and there will be enough space to continue raising the population without overburdening the earth.
Slower population growth may paradoxically make that shift more difficult. Fewer infants result in aging countries, which slows economic development and inhibits innovation. It can be more difficult to gain support for future-oriented policies in a society with fewer children; just look at the US government, with its 79-year-old president and octogenarian legislative and judicial branches. To shift the current pattern of declining population growth, governments and society must focus on the issues disincentivizing young adults from having children.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
Natalia Bryant is the eldest daughter of late Kobe and widowed Vanessa Bryant. As she approaches her second year at the University of Southern California, how does she manage to be a normal college student? From appearances in Vogue to strutting the runway at the Met Gala, she is anything but ordinary. Her freshman year roommate was Euphoria star, Storm Reid. It is challenging for her to go anywhere without being recognized.
In recent news, Natalia’s mother won a case against Los Angeles County concerning photographs of Kobe and her sister, Gianna, who both tragically passed in January of 2020. The sheriff’s office leaked images of their fatal helicopter accident. Natalia confidently supported her mother at court as she testified about how these images have haunted their family for over two years as they have been trying to grieve and heal. The lawsuit awarded Vanessa $16 million, which she has pledged to donate to the nonprofit, Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation, created in honor of Kobe and Gianna’s passing.
Most college students probably spent their summers working an internship or traveling with friends, while Natalia had to support her mother in such a significant trial. Nothing about her life is normal but attending college and working towards a degree allows her to feel a little more ordinary. She is majoring in Film which may take her career to a new level in the future.
With all the hardships and challenges Natalia has faced, she has continuously presented herself with class while always being watched by the world. At only 19 years old, she has dealt with much more than most people in their entire lifetime. Natalia Bryant is an inspiration to all; at the end of the day, she is just an average college student!
President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that a new student loan relief plan that is aimed to help, as Biden stated, “those who need it the most” . Further into his official statement, there was a breakdown of who would be eligible for this relief, and how it would be allotted.
What steps do students need to take in order to receive this debt forgiveness? According to a Senior Administration Official, the application will be available by this October. After a borrower completes the application, they can then expect the student loan relief within four to six weeks, the official also said. Additionally, the FSA reported that 8 million borrowers may be eligible, due to the Department of Educations access to individual income information.
The Biden Administration also plans to propose a rule to create a new income-driven repayment plan. This repayment plan essentially enables borrowers to pay no more than 5% of their monthly income on their undergraduate loans. IDR plans generally allow borrowers to avoid loan default by lowering their monthly payments based on the size of their families and their overall income. These plans, and others being considered, have great potential to allow student borrowers to have ample time to breathe post-graduation.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
Going to go fetch balls, having a sensitive tummy if they eat the wrong food, and crying if their owner leaves their side. Dogs are some of the greatest companions that someone can have and they come in so many different shapes and sizes from giant Great Danes to the tiny Chihuahua, and yet they all are members of the same species.This is because dogs all come from the same common ancestor, the wolf. But how exactly did this happen and how is it that now there are so many different breeds of dogs with their own special quirks that distinguish them from other breeds.
Many of these specific traits began to lead to the creation of separate breeds of dogs, dogs were created for specific reasons to help humans in whatever way they found fit be it hunting or after the agricultural revolution for herding. After the breeding began we begin to say several fundamental differences develop between wolves and dogs. For example the trait that makes dogs such good companions for humans is the fact that now they have an over reliance on humans. In a 2008 study done at an Austrian zoo comparing a the behaviors of a pack of dogs and a pack of wolves “Despite having lived and worked with the scientists for seven years, the wolves retain an independence of mind and behavior that is most undoglike.” Wolves no matter how they are treated or raised will always be independent and what to do what they want. A dog on the other hand if trained will try to do whatever it can to please its’ master. This reliance can also be seen with the fact that if you were to put a dog in the middle of the forest by itself, it will most likely die. Dogs more so than most breeds have actually lost this natural hunting instinct and need to have a humans to feed them.
In terms of physical differences one feature that differentiates wolves and dogs is simple their ears. Several if not most species of dogs have large floppy ears as opposed to the straight pointed ears of wolves. Surprisingly there is much debate on this feature of dogs but two possible explanations that have come out is that the floppy ears were bred in several species of dogs to assist them in smelling much clearer, by having these type of ears they would be closer to the ground and any smell from the ground would go directly to their noise. Another possible reason is due to what some scientist call domestication syndrome dogs have different neural crest cells than wolves which over several thousands of years affect the way in which dogs have different features form their original ancestor.These cells actually stop cartilage from going to dogs ears’ thus causing their ears to be droopy. Obviously there are other prominent physical differences including the size with most wolves being larger than most dogs, the different tails that dogs have(such as curled tails which may be used by certain dogs to help remain warm in colder climates or to protect their tail from becoming trapped in sleds) and even the types of fur that dogs have(some have sleek fur for swimming faster, others have rough fur to protect them from bushes and twigs for hunting in the forest/swamps, and some are hypoallergenic for humans who have allergies ).
An example of this specific breeding can be seen with the creation of the doberman pinscher. Being a tax collector was not the glitz and glam that one would assume it to be, , it was a dangerous job walking around with large amounts of money and having to tell people to pay their taxes. Due to this constant danger a dog was created with the specific purpose of being able to protect these tax collector. German tax collector Karl Friedrich Louis Doberman wanted to create a breed that had “the guts and drive to stand up to anything that dared challenge it”. Although it is not specifically known which breeds Doberman used to create his guard dog, it is theorized that he used several including german shepherds, rottweilers, and possibly the weimaraner. After creating this perfect guard dog and walking around with a pack of them no one messed with ol’ Karl anymore.
Doberman Pinscher
Dogs are some of the best companions that one can have. Personally I have a golden doodle puppy who cannot be without his mother and who just wants to be scratched and given undivided attention all day. But we dog owners can never forget the fact that man’s best friend came from the violent and carnivorous wolf. It was only due to human interference and selective breeding that these goofballs came to exist.
A model golden doodle
This is a CIMA Law Group blog entry. CIMA Law Group is located in Arizona and specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations. If you live in Arizona and need legal assistance CIMA Law Group can help.
Andrew Tate, an influencer and former professional kickboxer known for his misogynistic remarks, has been banned from Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, confirmed to NPR that Tate had been banned from its platforms for violating its policies regarding dangerous individuals and organizations and hate speech. Tate, 35, had garnered 4.7 million followers on Instagram before Meta took down his official account.
Tate’s online content, in which he describes using violence against women and refers to them as property, has soared in popularity in recent months. Videos with the #AndrewTate hashtag on TikTok has been viewed billions of times. He reportedly had 4.7 million followers on Instagram before being banned, and according to The Guardian, people searched Tate’s name on Google more than Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian in July.
Supporters of Tate have been implying that this ban is unfair in its nature. The ban shows a dangerous trend that anyone using social media platforms to present a message that goes against the companies narrative that they will have that platform taken away. Arguments go as far as stating that this is a breach of Tates first amendment rights. In the years since the banning of former President Donald Trump the space surrounding this topic has become far more hostile.
Andrew Tate has since apologized for many of the comments that he made, he has said that the comments made were him acting as a character in order to gain notoriety on social media and to grow his platform. Whether or not this response was genuine or not is up to the reader to decide.
James Madison proposes two solutions to the danger of factions: “the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects”. His first proposal to stop factions from forming was a terrible idea because it would necessarily destroy liberty. To destroy liberty in the service of controlling factions is worse than having factions in the first place. The other way to remove the causes of factions is to make sure that every citizen has the same opinion on everything, but we know this is not possible. “As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed”. His second proposal to control the effects of factions is only possible through a republican government, as opposed to a pure democracy. The effectiveness of the republic in controlling factions depends on the size and diversity of the nation. As the nation grows in population, a greater variety of ideologies and interests begin to take shape, making it less likely for a majority to have a common interest that would drive them to discover their power and work together to impose their interests on the rest. The influence of that is plain: “the influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular states but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other states”. Certainly, Madison’s first approach would undermine the purpose of the new republic. On the other hand, his second approach provides a sound solution to the danger factions represent. As more people are added to the nation, more and more factions will necessarily form, and that has two effects. First, the power of the factions will be diluted by the large population; and second, because they are all in competition with one another, they will be forced to compromise their interests to pass legislation that considers the common good of society and not merely the interests of one group. Does solving the problem of factions with countless voices and opinions bring up new problems? Can the lack of compromise or inability to identify a middle ground among the numerous opinions and ideas halt the progress of our nation?
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
The concession call is a hallmark of our elections process— a demonstration of our political leaders’ commitment to peaceful transitions of power; something former President Trump refused to do and something Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) made it a point to do.
Cheney, vice chair of the Jan. 6th Committee as well as one of only ten Republican members who voted to impeach Trump, lost the Wyoming GOP primary in a landslide to Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman. Although some may not agree with her politics, her concession speech was a powerful display of the pillars our democracy was originally built upon.
In it, Cheney says, “A few years ago, I won this primary with 73 percent of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path I could not and would not take.”
She goes on to say, “No House seat, no office in this land is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect, and I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty. Our republic relies upon the goodwill of all candidates for office to accept honorably the outcome of elections. And tonight, Harriet Hageman has received the most votes in this primary. She won. I called her to concede the race. This primary election is over but now the real work begins.”
That “real work” she mentioned is a quest to defeat Donald Trump, which will likely be anything but simple. If anything, this primary season has reinforced Trump’s control over the Republican Party. As Cheney will continue with the Jan. 6th hearings this fall, she will also use The Great Task, a PAC formed immediately following her loss, to educate the American people about the ongoing threat to our Republic, and to mobilize a unified effort to oppose any Donald Trump campaign for president. Speaking of a campaign for president, rumors have surfaced that Cheney may even be considering a run in 2024.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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