The Other Democrats

Hillary Clinton has been the frontrunner for the 2016 Presidential election since about a day after the 2012  Presidential election.  Many believe that the only competitors she has are in the Republican Party, however there are a few Democrats that still stand a small chance.

Martin O’Malley

He is the former Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore.  He is currently polling around 1 percent, 62 points behind Hillary.  He is known in Maryland primarily for his StateStat program that is now the reason Maryland leads the nation in government transparency and accountability.  He is still young for a politician and may not have much of a chance this time but don’t be surprised to see his name pop up every four years when the presidential elections come around.

Bernie Sanders

Nationally, Bernie is trailing Hillary by almost 50 percent, however in New Hampshire he is trailing by just 8 points.  Sanders has been an independent Senator representing Vermont since 2007.  He is a self proclaimed Socialist whose major issues are climate change, income inequality and campaign finance reform.  He is an interesting challenger to the centrist Clinton.

Joe Biden

Biden is currently our VP and is polling at about 13 percent nationally but below ten in both Iowa and New Hampshire.  Biden was selected by President Obama to be his running mate because of his strong background in foreign policy and national security.  However, many of Biden’s accomplishment have been overshadowed by idiotic answers to questions and insensitive remarks. Although Biden has yet to announce that he is running, it looks like he will be one of only a few real challengers to Hillary.

Although none of them will probably win the Democratic nomination, some of them will have an effect on a few issues and one of them will most likely be the VP candidate for the Democratic ticket in 2016.

US Defense Spending

This past Christmas after answering the same questions I get at every family gathering about where I am going to school and what my major is, which is Computer Science, a few of my relatives began talking to me about how they were somewhat nervous that cyber-attackers would be able to break into America’s infrastructure. Their ideas mostly came from movie trailers and were unrealistic but they got me interested in our nations cyber security.

In fiscal year 2015 the US defense budget is 575 billion dollars, of that 5.1 billion dollars went to Cyberspace operations.  That is eight tenths of one percent of the total defense budget.  President Obama is now seeking an additional 14 billion dollars to be added to Cyberspace operations for fiscal year 2016.  He has twelve different objectives with this increase to the Cyberspace budget.

1. Manage the Federal Enterprise Network as a single network enterprise with Trusted Internet Connections.
2. Deploy an intrusion detection system of sensors across the Federal enterprise.
3. Pursue deployment of intrusion prevention systems across the Federal enterprise.
4. Coordinate and redirect research and development (R&D) efforts.
5. Connect current cyber ops centers to enhance situational awareness.
6. Develop and implement a government-wide cyber counterintelligence (CI) plan.
7. Increase the security of our classified networks.
8. Expand cyber education.
9. Define and develop enduring “leap-ahead” technology, strategies, and programs.
10. Define and develop enduring deterrence strategies and programs.
11. Develop a multi-pronged approach for global supply chain risk management.
12. Define the Federal role for extending cybersecurity into critical infrastructure domains.

Many individuals are scared that if the government would have this level of funding and this technology that they are nervous about their privacy online.  However, for the US to continue to have the most powerful Defense of any country in the world it must find a way to protect its citizens and infrastructure in a constantly changing world.

The Exciting Future of Golf

This weekend in the US Open, Tiger Woods finished 150th out of 156 golfers.  For the past fifteen years, fans have tuned in to watch one of the greatest golfers of all time dominate the sport. Now it appear that his golfing career is coming to an end. So what is next for professional golf?

For the fans that have continued watching after Tiger misses cut after cut, they have seen some amazing young golfers.

Jordan Spieth

Many golf fans were excited about what Spieth could do in 2015 after his impressive showing in a 2nd place finish at the Masters last year.  He has more than exceeded expectation this year by winning the Masters and also winning the US Open this weekend.  In the Masters he pulled away from the field in the third day and held his lead through his impressive final round, winning by four strokes.

Rory McIlroy

About three years ago Rory was expected to be the next big thing in professional golf.  It appeared that his coming out party was going to be at the Masters in 2011, until he absolutely collapsed in the final round and finished tied for 15th. Later that year he won the US Open to win his first major.  Since then he has won three majors but has yet to win the Masters.

Golf has a very exciting future but it may never again have an athlete like Tiger Woods.  However, there are many exciting young golfers that appear to be here for a long time.

Cuba and US Relations

The United States and Cuba have not had diplomatic relations since 1961.  Many people believed this would come to an end soon after President Obama was elected in 2008.  This was believed because while campaigning in Florida in 2008, Obama called for engaging with Cuba and claimed that the policies of isolated were a failure.

Finally, last December the Obama administration has announced plans for diplomatic relations with Cuba. The administration has many plans to expand relations with Cuba.

Expansions:

• Reopen an embassy
• Adjusting regulations
• Travel
• Exports of goods and services
• Imports of goods
• Access to communications

If the administration’s expansions do happen, the two that will have an effect on the general population that does not have family members in Cuba are travel and the importing of goods. A US citizen would be able to travel to Cuba if their trip falls into one of the twelve categories.

1. Family Visits
2. Official business of the US government
3. Journalism
4. Professional research or meetings
5. Educational activities
6. Religious activities
7. Public performances
8. Support of the Cuban people
9. Humanitarian projects
10. Activities of private foundations, research or educational institutions
11. Exportation, importation or transmission of information or information materials
12. Certain export transactions

It seems that almost anyone that would want to make a trip would be able to fall into one of these categories if they tried.

The importing of goods would allow the importation of up to $400 worth of goods, where no more than $100 can be alcohol or tobacco combined.

This is an exciting time for both US and Cuban citizens.

Fixing the MLB Draft

I am two days into watching the College World Series and seeing the best amateur players in the country.  When the top players are up to bat or are on the mound it is normal for the scoreboard to display which team they were selected by and in which round.  This made me begin to think about the setup of the MLB draft compared to the other three major professional sports in the US.

This past week only 300,000 tuned in for it.  This stat alone shows that there is a major problem with the draft considering how successful the other drafts are.  The MLB draft is currently 40 rounds, which is almost 6 times larger than the next major professional sport.  Players can be drafted is they are from the US, Canada or any US owned territory, attend a community or junior college, attend a 4 year university and are at least in their junior season, are a high school graduate that has not began attending a 4 year university and has never signed a major or minor league contract.  No player needs to enter for the draft so a huge number of players are selected every year that have no desire to go directly to professional baseball.

My idea for a way to improve the MLB draft would be two simple changes.  The first would be to allow players for other countries to be involved in the draft instead of them being signed through free agency.  A larger number of these players would actually play for the team they are drafted by and each year more and more players are being signed from countries that are not included in the draft.  The next improvement would be to move to the NHL draft system where players are drafted to a team but if they are not signed by that team within two years they are able to reenter the draft.  Also, the players would still be able to player collegiate baseball during that time.

The Money in College Baseball

I am currently on my way to Omaha, NE to watch the College World Series for the next week so I thought today I would talk a little about the money involved in amateur collegiate baseball.

Prior to the opening of TD Ameritrade park in, the Men’s College World Series was played in Johnny Rosenblatt stadium in south Omaha for 60 years.  In the last few years Rosenblatt stadium was used it began turning a few million dollar per year profit.  Once the NCAA and the city of Omaha realized they could make more money if they were closer to downtown and had a new stadium, they began building a fancy new downtown stadium that was expandable to accommodate 35,000 fans compared to the 24,000 that Rosenblatt could hold.  Many people and businesses from south Omaha greatly benefited from the location of the stadium and were very against the move to a downtown ballpark. However, the firs year in the stadium the revenue for the College World Series jumped by about fifty percent. The event has become much more corporate advertising and less about the locals but overall most of the locals, even the ones that hated the idea of a new stadium at first, have jumped on board with the flashy, new downtown stadium.

Having attended both Rosenblatt and TD Ameritrade Park, I miss the nostalgic baseball atmosphere of Rosenblatt but I am loving the amenities of the new park and the ability to experience wonderful downtown Omaha.

Fifa and Sepp Blatter

For my first post I thought I would write about something that affects both the political world and the sporting world, the corruption at Fifa.

Sepp Blatter has been the president of Fifa since 1998 and now it is finally coming to an end with his resignation this last week.  During his time as the president, Fifa has become known worldwide as an incredibly corrupt organization, as many people have learned in the last few weeks.  Blatter appeared to be getting away with a large amount of corruption until him and the board at Fifa made their biggest mistake, awarding Qatar the 2022 world cup.

To put this into perspective for most non-soccer fans in america, Qatar receiving the world cup is like the super bowl being played in Death Valley.  The temperatures are incredibly too hot for the summer time when the World Cup is played so they were possibly going to move the games to winter which would interrupt all of the major european soccer leagues.  A move like this shows how Fifa believes they are superior to everything and this is backed up by a quote from Sepp Blatter a few days before his resignation when he declared himself, “the president of everybody”.

Hopefully now with Blatter gone, Fifa will be able to become a more transparent organization that will make major decision based on common sense instead of which country is willing to pay the members of the board the largest sum of money.

Thanks for reading!