Bill 2 Reflection

One of the main reasons why the South China Sea is a highly contested area with many of the surrounding nations laying economic or territorial claim is due to the area being rich in resources “The Spratly’s, which consist of more than one-hundred small islands or reefs, are about 600 miles from the Chinese coast, and the CIA World Factbook says they are surrounded by rich fishing grounds -- and potentially by gas and oil deposits.” (Sterling) According to

For Gibson Southern’s 2017 Mock Congress assignment I was given bill numbers two and eleven. Bill two was “A Bill to Incentivize a Shift to Green Energy by Increasing Investments in Nuclear Energy”. Bill eleven was “A Resolution to End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions”. I was a member of the Gold Party, therefore, I was for bill eleven and opposing bill two.

Type your response here: I choose Georgia Hiller because she is a woman and she is a representative and it shows that women can have power too.

I found the two days of Mock Congress very informative into the practices and procedures of the U.S Senate. Personally, I am very interested in politics and how it works and is structured. One thing I enjoyed was the freedom to really say whatever I pleased within reason. However, I found it kind of bland in the sense that the parties were colors and there was no real division among votes besides that of those who wanted to spice things up a little bit.

congresswoman who best represents their local district and will take care of the needs and wants of

Istook Jr., changed his vote to present after being told that C.W. bill Young, who was absent due to a death in the family, would have voted yes if he had been present. Then, Republicans Butch Otter and Jo Ann Emerson switched their vote to yes under pressure from the party leadership. The bill passed by one vote, 216-215.

Attending a committee meeting and watching the process unfold right in front of my eyes. The Bill I chose to attend was Bill 5 AN ACT relating to pharmacy benefits in the Medicaid program. It was interesting to see Senates asking tough questions to the pharmaceutical company speaker, whom only responses were, "I don't have the knowledge of that question". Also, the lawyer of Medicaid cabinet, who claimed they have a transparency system, yet, they continue to avoid answering the most important question of the bill, where did most the money go? And why haven't anyone from the cabinet attempted to resolve the issue before the hearing. It was an intense experience, more so than watched it on TV.

Looking back at project 3, I felt very happy with the essay I produced. I am not one to enjoy writing since I usually do not feel very confident in my writing. I felt the work I produced through project 3 was one of my best. I put a lot of effort into this essay and it showed in my final draft. With this being said, after comparing my essay to the rubric I gave myself a 3.64 overall on this project for many reasons. This essay in no means was perfect, but I learned from my strengths and weaknesses.

As of today, China has expanded and built over seven artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2014. The South China Sea has recently come to be a major problem in Asia as issues have risen over who has rights of passage and claims in this area. The Chinese of recent have been making territorial claims in the South China Sea that are in areas of free passage for many other Asian countries and the United States. In October 2015, a U.S. guided missile destroyer encountered one of the artificial islands and China’s response was that it would “take any measure” to maintain its security in “their territory”. The Chinese have been questioned in the Permanent Court of Arbitration by the Philippines after claiming rights to historical locations in the South China Sea, which violates sovereign rights of the Philippines, yet China responded to this outcome with refusal and has continued to advance itself in the territory causing huge disputes with its neighboring countries as freedom of navigation has been compromised through China’s actions.. In order to guarantee resolution and maintain the freedom of navigation aspect of international law there needs to be a foreign policy put in place that puts more United States military in the South China Sea with support from disputing countries like Japan and the Philippines as a way to make the issue multilateral and law abiding.

This reflection paper focuses on student learning outcome number four (current research findings regarding family and caregiver stress) and the chronic illness of bronchiectasis and its effects on the caregiver, including role stress and strain.

riting 101 was the second college course I have taken. Before I started taking college classes, I had not attended any type of academic classes sine I graduated high school in 2012. Going into this course, I thought I was not going to benefit very much from it but I was wrong. I had forgotten the majority of what I learned in high school. This writing course not only helped me to refresh my writing skills, but also taught me new things that I know will be helpful as I continue my education. When I realized I had to take this class I thought it would be easy for me. I soon realized that even though I had taken advanced classes in high school, in many ways I was not prepared for college level writing.

Betty Washington deserves the award because she extends the criteria, and is the best candidate.

The territorial and maritime disputes over the South China Sea (SCS) have been ongoing for decades. The disputes have been considered to be one the fiercest-contested in Asia. The South China Sea is an enclosed sea surrounded by several different states. China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, and Malaysia all surrounded the South China Sea. The main cause of tension in this dispute is because China claims to have “historical sovereignty” over all of the South China Sea. Associations of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have come up with different discussions and suggestions on how to end the disputes with favorable conditions for all contending states. They use the principles of the United Nation Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and form the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). The states surrounding the South China Sea possess 12 nautical miles territorial sea and 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Thus, the South China Sea is not only international waters, instead, it is also overlapping exclusive economic zones. According to UNCLOS, disputes over exclusive economic zones must be resolved through negotiations by the contending states. Many of these contending Southeast Asian states have negotiated their maritime boundaries, however, China fails to comply. China claims that it owns all of the South China Sea, and therefore, has no need to

First, the South China Sea constitutes the eastern approach to the Strait of Malacca, one of the “world's four most important strategic maritime passages,” and therefore contains the vital SLOCs between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.3 Figure 1. provides a visual representation of the SLOCs running through the South China Sea. “About 25% of the global shipping fleet transits through the region each year, underlining the importance of the South China Sea as an extension of the Malacca chokepoint.”4 That 25% traveling these SLOCs includes over half of the world’s shipping for oil and gas every year.5 Considering the volume of traffic passing through the South China Sea, a disruption of traffic along these SLOCs caused by a claims dispute or even armed conflict will rapidly generate negative global effects. Short of military action, challenges such as natural disasters6 or piracy require an international unified action (or at least, de-conflicted action) from multiple if not all South China Sea claimant nations.

The dispute over the South China Sea denotes the process of power rebalancing while China rising as a hegemony in East Asia. China craves for more resources and power and decides to effectuate that by controlling more maritime territory. This act impelled the United State to align with the Philippines to balance with China. In a realism world, U.S. has adequate reason to intervene for fear for China becoming too strong a power.