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McCain Administration- Winter 2015
Winter 2015
"Least the winter storm wasn't as bad as it could be..."
"What is going on in Yemen?!"
"Well, well, this is an interesting turn of events in the Supreme Court..."
As 2015 starts, the political turmoil from the previous year served as a warning sign for the years up ahead. While the economy has improved gradually since the start of the Recession in 2010, the pace of it along with the caveats of said recovery (which included corporate bailouts, a lack of certain individuals avoiding jailtime and so on) made the entire situation reek of unpleasant circumstances. Bittersweet was too generous a term for it. And the year started off with a rough winter storm though fortunately, it was not as bad as some experts initially predicted or feared to be, mainly thanks to new data. Originating from a disturbance just off the coast of the Northwestern United States on January 23, it initially produced a light swath of snow as it traveled southeastwards into the Midwest as an Alberta clipper on January 24–25. It gradually weakened as it moved eastwards towards the Atlantic Ocean, however, a new dominant low formed off the East Coast of the United States late on January 26, and rapidly deepened as it moved northeastwards towards southeastern New England, producing pronounced blizzard conditions. The winter storm then gradually weakened as it moved away into Canada. Also colloquially known as Blizzard of 2015, and Winter Storm Juno. While the storm came and went, little else happened with it outside of the federal government's reluctance to try and help out with some wondering if they could've done more.
Snowfall from Winter Storm Juno in Providence, Rhode Island | January 27
However, there was still plenty of action going on in the world. The US continued to assist the UK and Nigerian forces against Boko Haram over in Nigeria near Biga which saw growing heavy casualities against the terrorist group, especially when they attempted to overwhelm a military base. The latest news over in the war against terrorism emerged over in Yemen. After the Yemeni Revolution led to the ousting of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had led Yemen for thirty-three years. After Saleh left office in early 2012 as part of a mediated agreement between the Yemeni government and opposition groups, the government led by Saleh's former vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, struggled to unite the fractious political landscape of the country and fend off threats mainly from Houthi militants that had been waging a protracted insurgency in the north for years. In 2014, Houthi fighters swept into the capital of Sana'a and forced Hadi to negotiate a "unity government" with other political factions. The big picture came that when the Houthis would attempt to mount an attack over on the capital of Yemen with the attempt to do a coup. Unsurprisingly, the notion was extensively unpopular in the area, due to fears of this spreading. Various members of the Arab League along with Israel and Iran proposed resolving the matter rather than have the Americans involved and indeed, a coalition force of the various armies would be sent in to deal with the Houthi militants. American troops present in the area would act as potential reinforcements. It did seem to show that the new Middle East would be looking to improve its own matters and not rely on American intervention though aid through funding, information sharing and other means were still accepted. The fighting would come to go on into late winter, but it would see the Houthis being beaten back considerably though President Hadi would be encouraged to resign with the intentions of putting a new election to elect a new leader within the year while the Houthis were dealt with.
Interim President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi
There was one large bit of surprising news near the beginning of the year however. Namely, the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia. According to news reports, Scalia had been desiring to retire for a while now and decided that he would do so near the beginning of the year to enjoy the last years of his life in peace and quiet. However, other more political sources believed he did so to ensure that President McCain could try and pick his successor within the Supreme Court while there was a Republican president, especially with the losses of the GOP in the Senate and House. Of course, even now it would be clear that the pick would more than likely be a moderate and the Dems were willing to leverage their position of dominance to try gain some influence there. There were more than a few people on the shortlist though not many would be likely to try and pass through the Democrats or even a couple of the GOP, who were now more centralist than previously. Several other names were floated around, including the rumor that former Vice President Joe Lieberman was considered for the role. Ultimately, the position would end up falling to Consuelo Callahan, a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that was voted in way back during the Gore Administration. She had broad bipartisan support and unsurpirsingly, she would end up being brought in to take Scalia's vacancy. Some have speculated that this would lead to further retirements when a new president would be elected very soon. As of her promotion, the Supreme Court would consist of Callahan, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Merrick Garland, Stephen Breyer, Clarance Thomas, Brian Sandoval and Anthony Kennedy with Ruth Bader Ginsburg being Chief Justice.
New Supreme Court Justice Consuelo Callahan
"Least the winter storm wasn't as bad as it could be..."
"What is going on in Yemen?!"
"Well, well, this is an interesting turn of events in the Supreme Court..."
As 2015 starts, the political turmoil from the previous year served as a warning sign for the years up ahead. While the economy has improved gradually since the start of the Recession in 2010, the pace of it along with the caveats of said recovery (which included corporate bailouts, a lack of certain individuals avoiding jailtime and so on) made the entire situation reek of unpleasant circumstances. Bittersweet was too generous a term for it. And the year started off with a rough winter storm though fortunately, it was not as bad as some experts initially predicted or feared to be, mainly thanks to new data. Originating from a disturbance just off the coast of the Northwestern United States on January 23, it initially produced a light swath of snow as it traveled southeastwards into the Midwest as an Alberta clipper on January 24–25. It gradually weakened as it moved eastwards towards the Atlantic Ocean, however, a new dominant low formed off the East Coast of the United States late on January 26, and rapidly deepened as it moved northeastwards towards southeastern New England, producing pronounced blizzard conditions. The winter storm then gradually weakened as it moved away into Canada. Also colloquially known as Blizzard of 2015, and Winter Storm Juno. While the storm came and went, little else happened with it outside of the federal government's reluctance to try and help out with some wondering if they could've done more.
Snowfall from Winter Storm Juno in Providence, Rhode Island | January 27
However, there was still plenty of action going on in the world. The US continued to assist the UK and Nigerian forces against Boko Haram over in Nigeria near Biga which saw growing heavy casualities against the terrorist group, especially when they attempted to overwhelm a military base. The latest news over in the war against terrorism emerged over in Yemen. After the Yemeni Revolution led to the ousting of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had led Yemen for thirty-three years. After Saleh left office in early 2012 as part of a mediated agreement between the Yemeni government and opposition groups, the government led by Saleh's former vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, struggled to unite the fractious political landscape of the country and fend off threats mainly from Houthi militants that had been waging a protracted insurgency in the north for years. In 2014, Houthi fighters swept into the capital of Sana'a and forced Hadi to negotiate a "unity government" with other political factions. The big picture came that when the Houthis would attempt to mount an attack over on the capital of Yemen with the attempt to do a coup. Unsurprisingly, the notion was extensively unpopular in the area, due to fears of this spreading. Various members of the Arab League along with Israel and Iran proposed resolving the matter rather than have the Americans involved and indeed, a coalition force of the various armies would be sent in to deal with the Houthi militants. American troops present in the area would act as potential reinforcements. It did seem to show that the new Middle East would be looking to improve its own matters and not rely on American intervention though aid through funding, information sharing and other means were still accepted. The fighting would come to go on into late winter, but it would see the Houthis being beaten back considerably though President Hadi would be encouraged to resign with the intentions of putting a new election to elect a new leader within the year while the Houthis were dealt with.
Interim President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi
There was one large bit of surprising news near the beginning of the year however. Namely, the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia. According to news reports, Scalia had been desiring to retire for a while now and decided that he would do so near the beginning of the year to enjoy the last years of his life in peace and quiet. However, other more political sources believed he did so to ensure that President McCain could try and pick his successor within the Supreme Court while there was a Republican president, especially with the losses of the GOP in the Senate and House. Of course, even now it would be clear that the pick would more than likely be a moderate and the Dems were willing to leverage their position of dominance to try gain some influence there. There were more than a few people on the shortlist though not many would be likely to try and pass through the Democrats or even a couple of the GOP, who were now more centralist than previously. Several other names were floated around, including the rumor that former Vice President Joe Lieberman was considered for the role. Ultimately, the position would end up falling to Consuelo Callahan, a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that was voted in way back during the Gore Administration. She had broad bipartisan support and unsurpirsingly, she would end up being brought in to take Scalia's vacancy. Some have speculated that this would lead to further retirements when a new president would be elected very soon. As of her promotion, the Supreme Court would consist of Callahan, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Merrick Garland, Stephen Breyer, Clarance Thomas, Brian Sandoval and Anthony Kennedy with Ruth Bader Ginsburg being Chief Justice.
New Supreme Court Justice Consuelo Callahan
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