People to Know #1 Flashcards
an Indian-born British American novelist. In 1988 the 75-year-old penned the novel The Satanic Verses. The controversial novel angered many because of his depiction of the Muslim prophet Muhammed, in fact the leader of Iran at the time issued a fatwa against Rushdie, condemning him to death. He went into hiding for many years and even
survived an assassination attempt in 1989. Last week he was attacked at an event in New York, he was stabbed
multiple times and sustained serious injuries.
Salman Rushdie
Attorney General of the United States. The AG is the chief law enforcement agent in the United States and also heads up the Justice
Department. He was nominated to become a
Supreme Court Justice by President Obama back in
2016 but was denied a vote in the Senate. He was
appointed as AG after Joe Biden took office. Currently
the DOJ is investigating former President Donald
Trump, last week his home in Florida was raided by the
FBI.
Merrick Garland
the Governor of California, he was first
elected to the post in 2018, survived a recall attempt in the Fall of 2021, and will the democratic candidate on the
ballot to stay in office in November of this year. California is faced with many unique challenges including
homelessness and massive droughts, nonetheless
California continues to post record surpluses and the
Governor has notched some major victories and will most
likely be reelected in November
Gavin Newsom
the President of the People’s
Republic of China since 2013. Prior to becoming
president the Chinese Constitution limited the
presidency to a single ten-year term, however in 2018
those term limits were dissolved, effectively making him president for life. His tenure has seen an increase
of censorship and mass surveillance, a deterioration
in human rights including the internment of one million
Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Xin Jinping
resigned from his post as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in July of 2022,
the American-born individual became Prime Minister in 2019. He resigned after a
series of controversies, most notably “Partygate” in which him and other government officials attended social gatherings at the height of COVID, violating the very
policies he was articulating. He will remain in his role as Prime Minister until his
conservative party elects a new party leader, who will then likely become PM.
Boris Johnson
the Vice President of the United States of America. She is the first female, first African American and first
Indian American vice president. Prior to being elected as VP, she represented the people of California as Attorney General and then as Senator. Her role as President of the
Senate has been greatly consequential these past two years; she serves as a crucial tie breaker in the evenly split Senate.
Kamala Harris
Senate Minority Leader, the 80-year-old Kentuckian has served in the Senate for nearly 40 years. He has had a very successful career in the Senate when
it comes to pushing a conservative agenda. He hopes to see
Republicans win back the Senate in the midterms, however he recently cast doubt on that prospect citing a lack of quality republican candidates in key states.
Mitch McConnell
elected as the sixth and current President of Ukraine back in 2019. He entered
politics as an outsider, his most notable claim to fame prior to being elected was being a successful Ukrainian actor and comedian. He has gained immense global
popularity since Russia invaded Ukraine last February. Ukraine has surprised much of the world by resisting the
Russian aggression and preventing the nation from
collapsing.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
the President of Russia, he was initially elected back in 2000, after term limits forced him out of office in 2008, a puppet government that followed changed the Russian Constitution which allowed him to return to office four years later. He has grown increasingly erratic in recent years, the most significant evidence of this is the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February of 2022. There is some compelling evidence that Putin might be suffering from a severe illness, but that has not been confirmed
Vladimir Putin
the leader of the Catholic
Church and Pope since 2013. The 85-year-old
Argentinian is the first Pope from South America. In his
time as Pope, he has taken a kinder stance on a
variety of issues that most of his predecessors. He has
also been stuck dealing with years of sexual misconduct
that had been covered up by the church for decades.
Recently he has discussed the prospect of
retirement, a highly unusual step for a Pope.
Pope Francis
an associate justice of the
United States Supreme Court. The 74-year-old
justice was appointed to the bench back in 1991
by George H.W. Bush. At the time he replaced the
only other black Supreme Court justice ever, Thurgood Marshall. He is one of the most conservative Supreme Court Justices serving.
This summer in the concurring opinion issued
with the reversal of Roe v. Wade, he suggested revisiting and reversing several other major court cases dealing with both gay and reproductive rights.
Clarence Thomas
the current governor of Florida and seems to be planning to seek the
republican nomination for the presidency in 2024 if he holds on to the governorship in 2022 (which is almost a certainty). He eked out
the tiniest victory back in 2018 but is quite popular in the Sunshine State now. He has made a name for himself with an aggressive
style and his willingness to push an extreme conservative agenda. If he runs in 2024, he will likely face off against the man who he as styled himself after early on, Donald Trump
Ron DeSantis
the Supreme Leader of North Korea, he became leader in 2011 when his father passed away. Their family have controlled NK since the
end of WWII. North Koreans do not enjoy a great deal
of freedom, they are expected to have religious-like devotion to this family. North Korea is also one of
the few countries that has developed nuclear
weapons, he frequently threatens to use those
weapons to get desired results.
Kim Jong Un
the current Secretary of Transportation,
he is also the first openly gay cabinet secretary ever.
He impressed many when he ran for the democratic
nomination for the presidency back in 2016. He served as mayor of South Bend Indiana, is a Rhodes scholar, and also served in the military. At 40, Buttigieg has been impressive as SoT, and clearly has a bright future in
democratic politics.
Pete Buttigieg
an associate
justice on the United States Supreme Court in
July of 2022. She is the first female African American Supreme Court Justice ever, and she is just the third African American justice. She
replaced Justice Stephen Breyer, and the Harvard-educated judge so far has aligned herself with the liberal minority of the court
Ketanji Brown Jackson
