Month: November 2018

“Pro Not-Dying”

J Elizabeth Mascoli

February 14th, 2018:  Nikolas Cruz kills seventeen people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. May 18th, 2018:  Dimitrios Pagourtzis kills ten and wounds ten in his own high school in Santa Fe, Texas. October 25th, 2018: Gregory Bush kills two black men in a supermarket after being denied access to a predominantly black church in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. October 27th, 2018:  Robert Gregory Bowers kills eleven people in the Tree of Life Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. November 2nd, 2018: Scott Beierle kills two women and wounds…

The Heavy Responsibility of the Safety of Journalists

Samantha Butzen

On October 2nd, 2018, Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.  He entered the building to obtain documents to aid in his upcoming marriage ceremony and never came out.  This matter has been fraught with global outcry and speculation in addition to formal investigations into the killing of Khashoggi.  18 Saudis have been arrested, including a team of 15 operatives, who Saudi officials claimed were sent by General Ahmad Asiri to detain Khashoggi and return him to Saudi Arabia.  The Saudi government changed…

Chasing the Communist Bait: How America Has Spread Itself Too Thin

Ryan Slattery

It was only a few months ago that the leaders of North and South Korea made a historic agreement to formally end the Korean War, thus ending the 65 year-long armistice, and one of the key conflicts within the Cold War. Yet, after all of this time, America’s military has continued to increase its global presence. We continue to send billions in foreign aid to other countries and participate in costly alliances like NATO. I’ve come to see the negative effects of our global presence: not only in our abandonment…

Oil Sanctions, Barter Systems, and the State of U.S.-Europe Relations

Austin Sacker

In May of this year, the Trump administration announced their intent to withdraw from the Obama-era Iran-P5+1 nuclear disarmament deal and plan to re-impose prior sanctions placed on Iran’s oil sector. Earlier this November, these new sanctions began taking effect. It is important to note that Iran, as far as the interested parties are concerned (including Iranian adversary Saudi Arabia), was abiding well within the parameters of the agreement; furthermore, the participation of the US is not essential to the continuation of the agreement. Although there is much speculation as to…

Right-Wing Extremism is the Most Dangerous Threat to American Democracy

Anastasia Lacina

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” – Pastor Martin Niemoller, Holocaust survivor (1955) On October 27th, 11 people were murdered and six were injured in the…

Khashoggi, Trump, and Threats to the Press

Sophia Singh

Few would call President Donald Trump a “friend of the press.” From the advent of the phrase “fake news” to yelling at reporters in press conferences, the president has fostered one of the tensest relationships with the media that America has ever seen. However, this painful association was taken to a new level in the past month with the disappearance and death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a native Saudi, who left his country in 2017 to continue writing in DC and to avoid the suppression of…

Pink, White, and Blue: The Most Recent Transgender Fight

J Elizabeth Mascoli

The LGBT community has made great strides in the past few years with the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, as well as the growing visibility and awareness of LGBT issues.  However, the community does still face discrimination and ignorance, and the latest example of this is the reckless fervor with which the Trump administration is attempting to roll back rights.  The Department of Health and Human Services is currently trying to establish an “explicit and uniform” definition of gender.  According to a memo obtained by the New York Times that…

The Complications of Simple Majorities

Ryan Slattery

“I don’t believe that I can support a cloture resolution providing for cloture by a simple majority vote. The difficulty with any cloture is that it changes the entire character of the debate, and that it is liable to great abuse on the part of a bare majority.” – Robert A. Taft Let’s have a recap of the past two years in the U.S. Senate. Republicans took control of the Senate back in the 2016 election, holding 52 seats. With the help of the Senate Finance Committee, a new tax…