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McCain Administration- Summer 2015
Summer 2015
"Looks like Obergefell v. Hodges has made it official..."
"Man, did not expect the corruption of FIFA being this deep..."
"On the one hand, it is was legally messed up, but on the other hand..."
The summer of 2015 showed that there were little signs of stopping the train of gay marriage being legalized. After the Irish vote, the Supreme Court would take on the case of Obergefell v. Hodges over the question of gay marriage. The argument being that gay marriage was guaranteed both by the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The case made it up to the Supreme Court due to various plaintaffs filing court cases, all while the past several months saw various marriage bans being struck down by the courts. However, there was also various stalling tactics, perhaps out of fear that the case would be certain given the current stance of the various Supreme Court Justices. At the same time, any plans of leaving it to the states or so on were basically being pummeled and the new blood of the Republicans were more than okay than supporting gay marriage. However, at the end of the day, the ruling rang clear through out the United States of America: that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The ruling of 7-2 requires all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Insular Areas to perform and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of opposite-sex couples, with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities. Even by that point, the District, Guam and thirty-six states have already declared it legal so many saw it as inevitable. Others found it humorous that it would be under a Republican president this would happen. Hard conservatives bemoaned the loss of "morality" while others tried to fight in different ways. President McCain for the most part, merely noted that the Supreme Court made its statement and it was a strong ruling. For many people, June 26, 2015 was a glorious day.
On the morning of June 26, 2015 outside the Supreme Court, the crowd celebrates the Court's decision.
While the Americans celeberated the land-mark ruling along with various other nations, not everything was good news. Starting in early June, there was the news of scandals involving FIFA and deep levels of corruption. In early June, fourteen people were indicted in connection with an investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) into wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. The US Attorney General simultaneously announced the unsealing of the indictments and the prior guilty pleas by four football executives and two corporations. The investigation mostly revolved around collusion between officials of continental football bodies CONMEBOL (South America) and CONCACAF (Caribbean, Central and North America), and sports marketing executives. It turns out that the sports marketing executives were holders of media and marketing rights for high-profile international competitions including the Americas' FIFA World Cup qualifying tournaments, and showpiece tournaments CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa América. Millions of dollars involved in bribes, the unhappiness regarding the public money in stadiums in Brazil and so on. In particular, the Justice department used the RICO act in regards to approach this rather than bribery, the same RICO Act that weakened Big Tobacco and later wounded Exxon-Mobil. The FIFA President would end up resigning and it was growing to be a colossal ordeal that began turning off people more toward soccer, especially as it spread on social media in the backdrop of the latter years of the Great Recession. "Bread and circuses" became a trending term throughout social media.
Hotel Baur au Lac, Zürich, where seven FIFA officials were arrested on June 3, 2015
However, that was not the only scandal going on. In Juy 2015, a group of hackers obtained the user data of thousands of clientale of the infamous dating website, Ashley Madison. What made the site infamous was that it focused on enabling extramarital affairs and thus, the hacker group threatened to leak the data obtained if the site did not shut down. However, the fear came because of the site's policies on maintaining information, including real names and addresses. As such, when the leak occurred it was chaos. Various different people across the world used it and it became a troublesome ordeal for everyone. Massive ethics questions were raised over the issue; while many said this was the result of using a site for affairs and violating marriage, others have noted how the social media aspect of public shaming could lead to psychological damage. It served as a bit of a view of the "lynch mob" aspects of the netizens and their desire to judge something without nuance and with their own discretion. Some hate crimes along with soe suicides soon followed, which made the entire thing feel even more sour. However, the issue then changed regading cybersecurity when the various law suits targeting Ashley Madison and their sister website, Established Men. Beyond the failures of the companies in handling the safeguard of their client's data, there was also the issue of the potential vast usage of bots and how "fake profiles" can use real data. Even President McCain himself, when asked about the entire ordeal and lawsuits, went instead to focus on cybersecurity and instead asked what-if the group attempted extortion or blackmail with the information along with the fact that if chatbots could be used to further fool people, it would mean they could influence social media to dangerous degrees, especially by foreign powers. This was discussed with his digital cabinet and he in fact was advised to host a meeting with the heads of various social media outlets to discuss matters of cybersecurity and the possibility of chatbots and fake profiles.
Logo of the infamous Ashley Madison website
"Looks like Obergefell v. Hodges has made it official..."
"Man, did not expect the corruption of FIFA being this deep..."
"On the one hand, it is was legally messed up, but on the other hand..."
The summer of 2015 showed that there were little signs of stopping the train of gay marriage being legalized. After the Irish vote, the Supreme Court would take on the case of Obergefell v. Hodges over the question of gay marriage. The argument being that gay marriage was guaranteed both by the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The case made it up to the Supreme Court due to various plaintaffs filing court cases, all while the past several months saw various marriage bans being struck down by the courts. However, there was also various stalling tactics, perhaps out of fear that the case would be certain given the current stance of the various Supreme Court Justices. At the same time, any plans of leaving it to the states or so on were basically being pummeled and the new blood of the Republicans were more than okay than supporting gay marriage. However, at the end of the day, the ruling rang clear through out the United States of America: that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The ruling of 7-2 requires all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Insular Areas to perform and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of opposite-sex couples, with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities. Even by that point, the District, Guam and thirty-six states have already declared it legal so many saw it as inevitable. Others found it humorous that it would be under a Republican president this would happen. Hard conservatives bemoaned the loss of "morality" while others tried to fight in different ways. President McCain for the most part, merely noted that the Supreme Court made its statement and it was a strong ruling. For many people, June 26, 2015 was a glorious day.
On the morning of June 26, 2015 outside the Supreme Court, the crowd celebrates the Court's decision.
While the Americans celeberated the land-mark ruling along with various other nations, not everything was good news. Starting in early June, there was the news of scandals involving FIFA and deep levels of corruption. In early June, fourteen people were indicted in connection with an investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) into wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. The US Attorney General simultaneously announced the unsealing of the indictments and the prior guilty pleas by four football executives and two corporations. The investigation mostly revolved around collusion between officials of continental football bodies CONMEBOL (South America) and CONCACAF (Caribbean, Central and North America), and sports marketing executives. It turns out that the sports marketing executives were holders of media and marketing rights for high-profile international competitions including the Americas' FIFA World Cup qualifying tournaments, and showpiece tournaments CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa América. Millions of dollars involved in bribes, the unhappiness regarding the public money in stadiums in Brazil and so on. In particular, the Justice department used the RICO act in regards to approach this rather than bribery, the same RICO Act that weakened Big Tobacco and later wounded Exxon-Mobil. The FIFA President would end up resigning and it was growing to be a colossal ordeal that began turning off people more toward soccer, especially as it spread on social media in the backdrop of the latter years of the Great Recession. "Bread and circuses" became a trending term throughout social media.
Hotel Baur au Lac, Zürich, where seven FIFA officials were arrested on June 3, 2015
However, that was not the only scandal going on. In Juy 2015, a group of hackers obtained the user data of thousands of clientale of the infamous dating website, Ashley Madison. What made the site infamous was that it focused on enabling extramarital affairs and thus, the hacker group threatened to leak the data obtained if the site did not shut down. However, the fear came because of the site's policies on maintaining information, including real names and addresses. As such, when the leak occurred it was chaos. Various different people across the world used it and it became a troublesome ordeal for everyone. Massive ethics questions were raised over the issue; while many said this was the result of using a site for affairs and violating marriage, others have noted how the social media aspect of public shaming could lead to psychological damage. It served as a bit of a view of the "lynch mob" aspects of the netizens and their desire to judge something without nuance and with their own discretion. Some hate crimes along with soe suicides soon followed, which made the entire thing feel even more sour. However, the issue then changed regading cybersecurity when the various law suits targeting Ashley Madison and their sister website, Established Men. Beyond the failures of the companies in handling the safeguard of their client's data, there was also the issue of the potential vast usage of bots and how "fake profiles" can use real data. Even President McCain himself, when asked about the entire ordeal and lawsuits, went instead to focus on cybersecurity and instead asked what-if the group attempted extortion or blackmail with the information along with the fact that if chatbots could be used to further fool people, it would mean they could influence social media to dangerous degrees, especially by foreign powers. This was discussed with his digital cabinet and he in fact was advised to host a meeting with the heads of various social media outlets to discuss matters of cybersecurity and the possibility of chatbots and fake profiles.
Logo of the infamous Ashley Madison website
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