Politics

KRAVITZ’S KORNER | Trump Was Right To End DACA

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President Donald Trump is in many ways the antithesis of former President Barack Obama. In the beginning months of his presidency, Trump has attempted to do away with many of Obama’s signature policies, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Paris Climate Accord, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Trump’s recent decision to end DACA has come under fire for endangering childhood illegal immigrants. Much of this criticism, however, is misguided, since the termination of DACA restores the limiting of Constitutional powers while motivating Congress to pass robust immigration reform. DACA was introduced by Obama after the Senate failed to pass the DREAM Act—legislation that would have provided a pathway to citizenship for alien minors.

Politics

EMEM ELEMENT | Psyche and the Presidency

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There is something to be said about people-watching; something to be said about sitting in Olin Library staring out at the people playing Frisbee in the Arts Quad, or perhaps walking down Ho Plaza figuring out how to dodge the quarter card mania properly (NOT me though, I love all of your quarter cards… STAY #woke). From an outsider looking in it’s interesting to ponder, even for a millisecond, the thought processes that encapsulate another person’s mind. As humans, we love to analyze, we love to group, we love to categorize. It’s a basic human process that we do consistently—consciously, or even subconsciously. Through analyzation, the basis of our human psyche strives to delve into the psyche of others for clarity, confirmation, and/or understanding.

Politics

NOBODY’S OPINIONS | The Death of a Dream

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Since Trump rescinded the DREAM Act a few days ago, a number of articles have appeared on the internet citing the extreme cruelty of his decision. Many of these articles make their point by showing a Hispanic male in their early 20s doing something admirable—graduating as Valedictorian from high school, saving people’s lives during Hurricane Harvey, researching a cure for cancer—and juxtaposing it with the inevitable fate Trump has forced upon them just to gain a few political points: being deported to a country they have never known. While all DREAMers are skilled workers with no criminal record who have little memory of their country of origin, in many respects this picture is highly inaccurate. It exemplifies the tendency of our media to make its readers complacent by not painting an issue with stark, clear strokes, but rather a blurry impressionism that elicits emotion rather than a logical response. In this article, I will explain why Trump’s rescission of the DREAM Act is significantly more damaging to the soul of this nation than the media would have you believe, by repudiating these headlines piece by piece.

Politics

CULTURALLY SHOOK | How the Trump White House Is Turning Children into Political Puppets

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Last week, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new White House Press Secretary, read a 9-year-old boy’s letter to President Trump during a press briefing. This lucky 9-year-old boy is Dylan Harbin, also known by the nickname Pickle. Pickle is only in the 3rd grade, but he doesn’t know “why people don’t like” Donald Trump—he likes Trump so much he even had a Trump-themed birthday party!  

I don’t need to tell you that Pickle’s childlike fascination with the rude, noisy NSFW animation that is Donald Trump—while troubling—is clearly not rooted in any nuanced understanding of Trump’s domestic and international policy decisions. Liberals, leftists and anyone else who grows nauseated by the mere mention of our traffic cone-tinted Commander-in-Chief traipsing through the White House with all the grace of a tactless Neanderthal can agree that Pickle’s object of obsession is, to say the least, unfortunate.

Politics

OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | 5 New Executive Orders, Graded by Me

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In the first weeks of his term, Trump issued a great many executive orders that have caused a lot of outcry and hurt a lot of people. He tried to ban Muslims from coming to the United States, raised border security and cut down financial regulations. Of course, the media grew disinterested, but the parade of executive orders continued.  For your convenience, I have selected five executive orders you probably never heard about and graded them according to my own imaginary criteria. Executive Order 1: Providing an Order of Succession within the Department of Justice
Date issued: January 24th
Description: This executive order focuses on so-called “Transnational Criminal Organizations,” which are basically cartels or violent groups similar to them.

Entertainment

AKABAS | Bracketology: Who/What Is Winning 2017?

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There are many things that literally everyone on Earth hates, such as airplane seats without flaps to rest your head, Hayden Christensen’s performance in the Star Wars prequels and those stairs leading to the footbridge at Cornell that are the worst possible length – it’s uncomfortable to go one step per stair and it’s even more uncomfortable to go two steps per stair. There aren’t many things that literally everyone on Earth loves, but one of those things is March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. A single-elimination bracket – the concept that you need to win every single game to stay in it – is ingenious. Since March Madness ended earlier this week, let’s start a new bracket to determine who or what has had the best 2017 so far. The competitors were determined subjectively by me, and the seeds, listed below, were determined primarily by number of Twitter followers (credit to former Grantland-writer Rembert Browne for this idea).

Life

SAVING FACE | Remembering Executive Order 9066

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On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt infamously signed and issued Executive Order 9066. For the unaware, Executive Order 9066 was the authorization for the Secretary of War to create military zones and exclude certain people from these zones after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Although the order does not explicitly mention people of Japanese descent, it cleared the way to allow subsequent military orders that led to the eviction and internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans (which came out to every Japanese American in California, Washington, and Utah). For comparison, only 3000 Italians were rounded up. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066.