On Monday November 10, Turning Point USA had its final stop of a 2025 tour on campus at UC Berkeley. Whilst attendees sat inside Zellerbach Hall, furious students, staff, and community members protested outside, declaring that conservative and instigative media were not welcome on campus. Outraged that the progressive campus would host TPUSA’s “American Comeback […]
Category: Multimedia
David Oppenheimer on the Importance of Diversity & the War on DEI
With the recent suppression of DEI initiatives by the Trump administration and a war on diversity, Berkeley Law professor David Oppenheimer sits down with BPR to detail how his new book, “The Diversity Principle,” traces the long, often-overlooked history of diversity efforts, and reminds us why inclusion remains essential to learning, growth, and democracy itself.
On Happyend, Duty, and Justice
Neo Sora’s 2024 film, Happyend, brings to life a verisimilar portrayal of a country in decline: a right-wing, authoritarian, surveillance state slowly in construction. In a process replicated throughout the world, basic rights — to privacy, to refuge, to anonymity — are stripped away, ostensibly in the name of group-safety. High school students in Sora’s […]
Congressmen Eric Swalwell on the Government Shutdown & Future of Democratic Politics
Isabelle Jacobson and Keira Bixler are joined by Congressman Eric Swalwell to discuss the current government shutdown, its impact on the American public, and the political landscape. He also shares his perspective on the future of the Democratic Party, its challenges, and the path forward in uncertain times.
The Palisades Fires: How Profit and Greed Ignite California’s “Natural” Disasters
California is home to occasional earthquakes, various landslides, longstanding droughts, and most of all, sweeping and devastating wildfires. This past January, the Palisades and Altadena fires, alongside many other smaller flare ups, brought complete destruction and turmoil to L.A. county. Up to 150,000 residents have been displaced, and those who aren’t fortunate enough to have […]
Stopping the Fentanyl Crisis Starts With Better Intelligence
Imagine every two weeks, two packed commercial airplanes hijacked by foreign adversaries were barreled into skyscrapers full of Americans. A 9/11-level attack every two weeks. Allowing an event like this to recur every two weeks should be unacceptable to Americans. Every day, Americans would worry for their safety. Lawsuits would be filed left and right […]
UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Identity Crisis
“Speech is not violence. The Left conflates the two in order to justify its own violent reactions to differing points of view.” Michael Knowles “I go to UC Berkeley…” Usually, when a Berkeley student utters these words to those who aren’t lucky enough to attend our university, they are met with praise about how they […]
In a World With GoodRx & Cost Plus Drugs, Why Prescription Drug Prices Still Suck
Prescription drug prices are one of the biggest financial burdens for Americans and a major point of political contention. The soaring prices of lifesaving medications force many Americans to ration supply, skip dosages, switch to less effective alternatives, or stop their treatment entirely. Although companies like GoodRx, Cost Plus Drugs, Amazon Pharmacy, and others provide […]
The Craft of Political Horror
Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Us (2019) as well as minor spoilers for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Purge: Election Year (2016). You would be pressed to find a Bay Area resident who’s never made their way down to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on a sunny day. The glittering ocean, […]
The Bipartisan Fight for Property Rights
When Patti Peeples approached her investment property home in Jacksonville, Florida, which she was preparing to put on the market, one would expect her to find an barren, yet pristinely clean home. Except that is not what Ms. Peeples uncovered when she approached the front door of her rental home. Instead, she came to her […]
Gen Z’s Military Malaise
This article features commentary from active-duty Marine, Captain Michaela Larson. The views are solely her own and are not intended to represent the official views of the United States Marine Corps A troubling threat is encroaching upon the U.S military, and I’m not talking about the threat of world war. All six branches of the […]
Africa in G20: New Promises for Inclusive Climate Action?
The recent G20 conference, held in India in early September, took an unexpected turn when the African Union (AU), consisting of 55 nations, received an invitation to join the ranks of the world’s most influential economies. As a result, the G20 transformed into the G21, with 19 member nations alongside two political and economic entities […]
For someone who possibly had one of the easiest paths to the presidency set up for him, Ron DeSantis is doing all the things he needed to do right, wrong.
Traditional conservative voters wanted to be excited about Ron DeSantis. Independents and fed-up Democrats wanted him to be tolerable. His recent tack to the hard right is pushing these crucial voters away. With about half the country identifying as Independent voters, the path to victory for any major candidate in a general election must involve […]
The Energy Predicament: an Interview with Author, Activist, and Environmental Lobbyist Jeremiah Cutright
From sweltering heat and seemingly endless fire seasons causing rolling blackouts in California, to intense blizzards in Texas sending it into a state of emergency, to massive hurricanes destroying vital infrastructure in the southeast, it’s increasingly obvious that the current energy infrastructure in America is not capable of sustaining us now, much less in our […]
Chronically Online: The Politics of Kanye West
Before Kanye West started dating Kim Kardashian, he appeared in an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians in relaxed jeans and an untucked white button-down to “make Kim over.” West rifled through the walk-in closet of Kim’s Tuscan-style home, tossing out stilettos and leopard print tunics. He was soft-spoken, bordering on tight-lipped, in a […]
Democracy Pretzel
In January of 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition proposed a series of judicial reforms that would essentially deprive the Israeli Supreme Court of its veto power. Notably, Netanyahu’s move to undermine the authority of the judiciary comes as he is awaiting trial for corruption. The Supreme Court is viewed by […]
America’s Potential Subsidy Race with Europe
“It should be a race against time, not a race against each other. It should be a race to the top, not a race to the bottom.” These were the words uttered by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in response to the American Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). While maintaining diplomatic poise, the E.U. […]
Israeli Election: Netanyahu’s Comeback Attempt, Plus Far-Right Revival
“Elections have consequences:” Israelis will pick winners today in a contest with the potential to dramatically alter long-standing norms. Today, Ehud, an Israeli construction worker from the small city of Hadera, will vote on his country’s future. What kind of future? He hasn’t decided yet. With over 30 parties vying for parliament, Ehud likely won’t […]
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and The Present Global Food Crisis
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought the world to the brink of what Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has described as a potentially “apocalyptic” food crisis. The ongoing conflict has halted agricultural exports from Ukraine, a country long known as the breadbasket of Europe and Russia and the world’s largest exporter of wheat and […]
Standardized Testing Isn’t What’s Wrong with College Admissions
“Standardized testing is a form of eugenics,” declared a classmate in my legal studies class. We had been discussing the legacies of eugenics in the United States and how these harmful, pseudoscientific beliefs permeate our lives today. In response to the statement, other students began pointing to popular criticisms of standardized tests like the SAT […]
Where Does “Where the Crawdads Sing” Come From?
——— History of Things ——— Any decent murder mystery should begin with a dead body in the woods. That’s how this one starts. In 1994, park scouts shot a man dead in the empty woodlands of North Luangwa National Park, a Zambian nature preserve about the size of Delaware. Squadrons wielded their rifles at the man and […]
Vietnam: Potential Ally or Headache?
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam: once a major battleground of the Cold War, it is now better known as a vacation destination for Westerners with cash to burn. In the new era of tension between China and the West, however, Vietnam has become an increasingly important player in the conflict. As one of the few […]
Bosnia’s Separatist Leader, Explained
BPR staff writer Michelle Wang dives into the building tensions in Bosnia built on a complex history of ethnic discrimination in this BPR documentary, featuring exclusive interviews with regional experts, including Professors John Connelly, James Ker-Lindsay, and Richard Koci Hernandez.
Where do Tacos Come from? // History of Things (Transcript)
This is a transcript of Bearly Political’s most recent podcast. Listen to the full episode here. Zachary: Like a lot of people during the pandemic, I took up a new hobby: hiking. At the time, I was living in Southern France, near these alpine foothills, and every week or so I’d trek across those Mediterranean mountaintops […]
Cal’s Choice 2022: A Q&A with the ASUC Presidential Candidates Bauer and Tellem
From 12:00 am on April 4th to 11:59 pm on April 6th, UC Berkeley students will have the opportunity to vote in the 2022 ASUC Elections online via Calink and at physical polling stations across campus. This year’s ASUC election is the first since in-person instruction has resumed. As an undecided voter, the author interviewed […]
A Conversation with UC Berkeley’s Homelessness Outreach Coordinator: The Past and The Future of People’s Park
This interview with UC Berkeley’s Homelessness Outreach Coordinator Ari Neulight was conducted before the university announced a comprehensive housing plan for the current People’s Park residents on March 9th. We hope that a conversation with Mr. Neulight will shed light on the homelessness crisis around the campus and the numerous obstacles that unhoused people in […]
China Picks Up Where the West Has Failed
Nobody said democracy was easy, but the concept of a liberal democracy championed by the US and democratic European nations has taken a massive blow in the last year with its two biggest projects. Afghanistan and Myanmar are known as major sources of opium, and now also as failed Western experiments to try and bring […]
China’s War on Big Tech: The Triumph of Regulation?
The recent crackdown on China’s Big Tech has attracted significant international attention. In November 2020, Jack Ma, the founder of China’s prominent Alibaba Group, including its subsidiary the financial technology giant Ant Group, sharply criticized China’s banking regulation at a conference in Shanghai before Ant’s IPO. In his words, the “pawnshop mentality” of Chinese banking […]
Is Impartiality in the Supreme Court Possible?
A few weeks after the Supreme Court was under fire for refusing to block a controversial Texas abortion law that jeopardizes the precedent set by the landmark case Roe v. Wade, Justice Amy Coney Barrett publicly defended the court’s inaction. At a Kentucky conference hosted by Republicans, Barrett argued that the Supreme Court is not […]
Where Do Zombies Come From? // History of Things
Bela Lugosi had a hard time making it in Hollywood. Talkies, new and on the rise, demanded actors enunciate their words in clear Mid-Atlantic accents, not in Lugosi’s indistinct European tongue. Lugosi, born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, grew up in Hungary. He developed his acting chops in the Budapest theatre scene but fled after the […]
A New Era of Hong Kong
“Two-thousand and eighty-five votes in favor, zero against, and one abstention. [The bill is] passed!” On March 11, 2021, nearly 3,000 Chinese lawmakers passed the “decision on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” at the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC). The NPC, according to China’s Constitution, […]
R/Wallstreetbets: Occupying the Virtual Wall Street
Towards the end of January 2021, there came stock market turbulence that caused the largest mass stock sell off since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was months of behind the scenes organizing on a subreddit platform that led to the economic fallout that devastated hedge funds. However, it is not the wins or […]
The Case for D.C. Statehood
On January 6, as violent Trump supporters attacked the Capitol building in an act of insurrection against the results of the recent presidential election, Capitol police quickly became overwhelmed. The rioters, armed with semi-automatic weapons, pipe bombs, and molotov cocktails, held the Capitol and members of Congress hostage for over three hours. The event led […]
South Asians in American Politics
The rise of the right in India follows global trends of conservative influence. On the contrary, there has been a rise in South Asian Americans taking part in American politics, the prime example being Kamala Harris’ ascent to the Vice President of the United States. BPR staff writer Vidhi Prasad sat down to talk with […]
Armchair Classicism, the Politics of the Past, and You
Watching the House impeachment proceedings the week after the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, I found myself baffled by the face mask worn by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14). It read MOLON LABE in blood-red letters, a phrase adapted from the Ancient Greek μολών λαβέ, meaning essentially “come and take [them].” According […]
Why Do Chinese Liberal Intellectuals and Dissidents Support Trump?
If you were watching the Republican National Convention in August last year, you may have spotted something interesting: a blind Chinese dissident named Chen Guangcheng called for American voters to “fight for President Trump for the sake of the world.” Before coming to the U.S., Chen was a self-taught human rights lawyer in China, where […]
I Love America and America Hates Me, Episode #2
Summary: In the second episode of “I Love America and America Hates Me”, Jordan and Patty discuss forms of proportional voting as alternatives to plurality voting and whether they produce electoral results more representative of the people’s will. Transcript & Sources Featured Image: The Hill
What A Biden Presidency Means For U.S.-China Relations
On November 8, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump was welcomed to China by his “good friend” President Xi Jinping, who held an extravagant ceremony at the Forbidden City, home to the Chinese emperors for almost 500 years. Trump showed Xi a video clip of Arabella Kushner, Trump’s granddaughter, singing proverbial children’s songs in Mandarin. At […]
I Love America and America Hates Me, Episode #1
Jordan Murphy and Patty Yao, in the first episode of I Love America and America Hates Me, discuss how the United States’ first-past-the-post, winner-take-all-voting system disadvantages minority groups, exacerbates regionalism and partisanship, and creates “wasted vote” disillusionment with voters. Transcript & Sources Featured Image Source: Brookings Institute
Homeland: Life in the Disputed West Bank
Israeli-Arab diplomatic breakthroughs mean little for West Bank residents August 2020 —A crowd of hundreds marches towards the outskirts of the Palestinian town of Turmus’ayya. They are headed in the direction of an Israeli military checkpoint, located just 500 meters from the edge of their town. The goal of the Palestinian marchers: to pray on […]
Double Standards in the Olympics and Beyond
Marginalized groups are running an entirely different race Utilizing Caster Semenya as an entryway into the discussion, this article aims to understand the correlation between the treatment of marginalized groups in national and international sports and their treatment in the United States. Semenya, a women’s track competitor, has been embroiled in a legal battle against […]
TIK, TOK, BOOM
Tiktok has been a bright spot of care-free entertainment during an otherwise tumultuous year for many young Americans. Whether participating in viral dance challenges, drinking cranberry juice and skating to “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac or creatively fighting the powers that be through protest and civil discourse, this app has exploded in ways few have before. […]
Artificial Intelligence and the Loss of Humanity
The term “artificial intelligence,” or AI, has become a buzzword in recent years. Optimists see AI as the panacea to society’s most fundamental problems, from crime to corruption to inequality, while pessimists fear that AI will overtake human intelligence and crown itself king of the world. Underlying these two seemingly antithetical views is the assumption […]
Technology as a Masculinist Institution
On August 10, 2019, prison guards found a man dead in a jail cell in Manhattan. The way he died stood in sharp contrast with the power and vanity he once wielded in the city, fraught with both splendor and squalor. Jeffrey Epstein, a prominent financier with a keen interest in obtaining immortality through eugenics […]
The Mail Has Always Been Political
Among my peers and on the black hole that is the Twittersphere, I have seen a slew of comments expressing disbelief and confusion over the recent political chaos surrounding the U.S. Postal Service. Since when has the mail been political? Is nothing sacred anymore? For younger people, this reaction seems reasonable—for the duration of my […]
The Politics of The Yeehaw Agenda
Old Town Road was not born into a void. Lil Nas X’s genre-shattering fusion of trap and country influence was just one of the manifestations of the rising use of cowboy imagery and style on the internet and in popular culture outside of its traditional contexts. The name for this movement, coined by a pop […]
Skyrocketing Unemployment Presents Need for a One Fair Wage
As unemployment skyrocketed during the first few months of the Covid-19 lockdown, one group of workers stood at a particular disadvantage. Tipped service workers in 43 states did not get sufficient unemployment benefits because they are paid a subminimum wage. These wages are as low as $2.13 in states such as South Carolina, so most […]
COVID-19 and the Future of UBI: Interview with David Kim
Major crisis events have a way of transforming society. The Black Death, a bacterial plague that led to the deadliest pandemic in history during the 14th century, resulted in massive social upheaval. While the loss of life was horrid, the aftermath saw peasant laborers gain new rights and privileges in society and the decline of […]
The Arctic Thaw is Cooling West-Russian Relations
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” — Winston Churchill, 1946 Churchill’s oration as Westminster College is considered one of the landmark moments announcing the beginning of the Cold War, a half-century global struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union which redefined […]
With or Without Huawei: That is The Question
Meng Wanzhou, Huawei, and 5G Walking out of a villa located in the affluent neighborhood of Shaughnessy, Vancouver, was an elegant, confident lady clad in a Gucci dress and Jimmy Choo heels with a low-key Hermes purse. Had it not been for the electronic monitor right above her ankle, people would have easily thought of […]
The Climate Change We Forgot to Calculate: An Interview With Kristina Hill on Groundwater Rise
In January, after an unusual observation during a routine procedure, West Oakland County officials received a report that a toxic substance may be contaminating the soil below McClymonds High School. McClymonds had been conducting environmental tests on its property where a pool-heating tank had recently been removed, just to be sure that no petroleum leakage […]
Against D.C. Statehood
Anyone who has spent time in Washington (D.C., The District, DMV, etc) has no doubt come across a license plate with the famous words of the American Revolution: No Taxation Without Representation. The slogan is proudly emblazoned on DC license plates on account of the peculiar status of the District as the only entity in […]
Modern Day Indentured Servitude
Lakshmi Senthilnathan has spent most of her adult life working in the country of Oman as the sole breadwinner of her family. While telling her story, she breezes past several accounts of physical and sexual abuse, claiming they are not out of the ordinary. Lakshmi persuades the interviewer that she was fortunate, for some of […]
Bail Reform: The Antidote America Has Been Looking for, or an Instrument of Discrimination?
“Crime wave” is the phrase that surrounds the newest set of criminal justice policies passed by New York and California. If you look up “bail reform” on Google, the first page of results reveals a host of articles in which it is a keyword, authoritatively bolded. There are publicly available transcripts of police chiefs in […]
40 Years of U.S.-China Relations: Collaboration, Competition, and Engagement
The long-awaited “phase one” deal is finally done. On January 15, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Xi Jinping’s confidant and chief economist educated in the U.S., signed with President Trump the first-stage trade agreement in the White House, ushering in a temporary de-escalation of the conflict that broke out in March 2018. When Dr. Henry […]
To the Left, To the Left: Mexico’s Return to an Old Foreign Policy Doctrine
Under President López Obrador, Mexico has returned to its traditional foreign policy of non-intervention, threatening to give greater legitimacy to authoritarian regimes in Latin America.
Dangers of Predictive Policing Algorithms
As more and more states are employing algorithms in policing, the dystopian world of The Minority Report might be more of a reality than a sci-fi film. The use of algorithms in policing is not a new topic. Predpol, a for-profit company pioneering predictive policing algorithms, was a largely controversial issue in 2012, sparking criticisms […]
Banning Wildlife Markets is a Good Start, But Not Enough to Prevent the Next Pandemic
Wildlife markets do pose a health risk, and authorities should permanently close them. However, if the world is truly dedicated to stopping future disease outbreaks, it must address larger issues.
No More Picket Fences: How SB50 Could Have Solved the California Housing Crisis
For millions upon millions of Californians across the Golden State — most of whom living in sprawling urban metropolises or the suburbs surrounding them — the nature of housing and the experience of living have vastly changed over the course of these past few decades. Between Redding and San Diego, residents have borne witness to […]
University Accountability and the Alternative to Free Tuition
The 2020 Democratic primaries have made universal higher education a mainstream talking point for progressive politicians. Of the remaining seven candidates, six support some form of tuition-free college according to the candidates’ campaign websites; Buttigieg, Sanders, and Warren support four-year tuition-free college, and Klobuchar, Biden, and Bloomberg support two years of tuition-free college. Regardless of […]
The Polarization of Late Night Comedy
It is 2017, and Former Press Secretary Sean Spicer rolls a podium out onto the bright lights of the Emmys Awards Show stage in the midst of Stephen Colbert’s monologue. Spicer cheekily proclaims “this will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys — period — both in person and around the world.” Colbert looked […]
The Cost of Staying Alive
In 1920, a diagnosis with diabetes was a death sentence. 100 years later, the prognosis for many Americans is only slightly more optimistic. There is a drug on the market that allows patients with Type 1 Diabetes to live relatively normal lives: insulin. However, the skyrocketing prices of the drug cause many Americans to think […]
State Capture: Corruption Personified
Kevin Ramatsi, an 11th grader from South Africa, says corruption takes children away from schooling. “Gangsterism, violence and bullying is prevalent in schools. Kids are not protected. Some of the libraries and computer centres in our schools are not accessible. Now we are being told about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but some of us we […]
What’s Happening with the Uyghurs?
In the Xinjiang region of China, millions of Uyghur Muslims are being forced to denounce their religion and ethnic culture. This is in an attempt to force Uyghurs to assimilate to ‘Chinese’ culture and homogenize the population. Soon enough, this mass discrimination and ethnic supression of millions of Uyghurs will become an actual genocide if […]
Fiscal Education: The Case for Increased German Spending
If Germany, the largest economy in the Eurozone by more than $1 trillion, is the engine of European growth, then it seems that the engine is now beginning to sputter. Similar to much of the rest of the developed world, German economic growth has been negatively affected as tumultuous political and economic events, like Brexit […]
Against the Grain: What Early States Tell Us About Modern Collapse
An archaeologist stumbles home with some friends after a night at the bar celebrating a recently published study. She fumbles for her keys, but soon realizes she must have dropped them sometime after leaving the bar. She rushes from lamp-post to lamp-post, frantically searching the ground on her hands and knees. Bemused, one of her […]
Striking Out: Why Strikes Weaken Union Positions Politically
The GM strike, beginning in September of 2019, is set to be the largest strike of the past 18 years. In fact, 2018 as a whole saw the largest number of strikes in decades and support for labor unions has polled at a 20 year high with candidates like Bernie Sanders highlighting their importance in […]
Family Planning is a Human Right: Why the U.S. Should Restore Funding to the United Nations Population Fund
The United States’ reputation as a pillar of international humanitarian efforts is in danger. Despite its fluctuating political predilections, America has maintained a strong track record of aiding family planning programs in the developing world. While the fraction of USAID dollars allocated to these programs has remained meager, U.S. contributions play an enormous role in […]
Black Death as Spectacle: An American Tradition
On August 7, 1930 in a small Indiana town called Marion, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were lynched in front of hundreds of White spectators. The images of their beaten, hanging bodies were circulated widely throughout the United States via postcard. The triptych above depicts three women who viewed the lynching that night, looking into […]
The Constitutional Dimension of “One Country, Two Systems:” The Interpretation of the Basic Law by Beijing
(This piece is inspired by a podcast episode produced by UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China, where Prof. Johannes Chan from HKU Faculty of Law discusses the rule of law in Hong Kong.) China’s resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong is a historical political experiment, and one challenge is to […]
The U.S. Must End Military Aid to Saudi Arabia
On September 1, 2019, nearly 100 civilians died in Saudi Arabia’s deadliest attack of the year — an overnight offensive on Dhamar, a city in the southwestern region of Yemen. Attacks such as these contribute to regional instability, a hallmark of Saudi Arabia’s continuous commitment to the war in Yemen. The war in Yemen is […]
Corruption: The Gravedigger of Populism?
The surge in the success of right-wing populists has been one of the biggest political developments of this decade, as leaders like Viktor Orbán, Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump have all demonstrated the power of appealing to social divisions within society to gain power. Recently, however, another surprising trend has arisen: the implication of right-wing […]
Political Reform and Dialogue: Hong Kong Government’s Only Way Out of Its Legitimacy Crisis
The civil unrest that burst on June 9, when over one million people took to the streets, has been scourging Hong Kong for four months, and there is no indication that the strife is likely to subside within the foreseeable future. The ongoing turbulence is Hong Kong’s people’s direct response to a controversial fugitive bill, […]
Smart Nation, Smarter Nation Building
When mentioned, Singapore conjures up the image of the perfect city. Unbelievably clean and safe, the tiny island nation is known as the Little Red Dot to all those who hold it close to their hearts. With subsidized housing, free education, and great social security, it is no surprise that Singaporeans are fiercely patriotic and […]
Indonesia’s Rainforests: Smothered by Fire and Indifference
While the Amazon forest fires take center stage in environmental reporting, the fires that annually engulf the Southeast Asian rainforest have drawn little attention. As of mid-September this year, more than 320,000 hectares burned primarily in the Kalimantan region of Indonesia. The fires will continue until the wet season, beginning between late October and mid-November. […]
Plea to Prison Pipeline: Assessing the Feasibility of Mass Plea Refusal
In the American criminal justice system, more than 90 percent of all criminal charges are resolved through plea bargains. A plea bargain is an agreement wherein the defendant pleads guilty to a crime, usually a lesser crime than the original charge, and as a result, waives his or her right to a jury trial. What […]
Schooled: Could North Korea Learn from Vietnam’s Higher Education Reforms?
Going to college has never been as popular in Vietnam as it is now. The number of students in higher education has skyrocketed from 133,000 students in 1987 to 2.12 million students in 2015—nearly a sixteen-fold increase over less than thirty years. This increase in education has provided the human capital necessary for Vietnam to […]
Is China Trying to Conquer the World?
BPR writers Marcus Tan & Abdullah Khan discuss the Belt and Road, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and China’s growing capabilities and ambitions in the Indian ocean.
Are Democrats Dumping Charters?
Leila Hooshyar and Tara Madhav Discuss the Changing Debate Around Charter Schools within the Democratic Party
The Malacca Dilemma: A hindrance to Chinese Ambitions in the 21st Century
“This man may look intelligent but in fact is stupid.” As evident from the quote above, Deng Xiaoping had a rather low opinion of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the USSR. Xiaoping did not believe in imitating the western model of success. While Gorbachev had tried to reform the USSR through westernized political reform […]
No Exit? A Complicated Situation for the EU in Mali
Four hundred European and Malian troops were sleeping or standing guard at the Koulikoro training center at three in the morning when the two pickup trucks drove up. The driver of the first truck got stuck on a bump outside the camp, but the second truck made it all the way to the entrance and […]
Is the End in Sight? Seeking an Exit from Afghanistan
U.S. Marines departing from Helmand province from Camp Bastion, October 27, 2014. – Image released by the US Marine Corps, Wikimedia Commons. “We will not waver. We will not tire. We will not falter. And we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.” – Former President George W. Bush announcing the beginning of the […]
Growing Pains: The Evolution of Influencer Marketing
Double tap. Click subscribe. Retweet. In 2010 Instagram was established. With it emerged the influencer. Influencers are public figures that exert influence on the habits and commercial choices of their followers through their social media platforms. They do so by publicizing their purchasing choices, recommendations and opinions on these accounts. Users have come to look […]
Whither Vietnam? A Q&A with Professor T.J. Pempel
In light of Donald Trump’s recent Hanoi summit with Kim Jong Un, Caleb Groen asks Professor T.J. Pempel how the Vietnamese communist party liberalized the economy while retaining its hold on power.
Anarchy in the UK: What is going wrong in the Labour party?
Theresa May has been forced into a last minute gamble to save her Brexit deal—talking to the opposition. The Prime Minister is meeting with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to try and find a deal that could pass a vote in the increasingly chaotic House of Commons. In response, she faced attacks from prominent members of her […]
Student Housing: The Rise and Potential of Mini-Dorms
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Mini-Dorms. No, it’s not some DIY sculpture of a room. It’s a developing housing issue facing students in college towns all around the nation. If you aren’t lucky enough or can’t afford the housing near your university, chances are, you’ve considered living in a mini-dorm. Basically, a mini-dorm is a privately owned home that has […]
Is Jean Claude Juncker Important Yet?
In 2010, Herman von Rompuy, President of the European Council, sat on the floor of the European Parliament as Nigel Farage accused him of being “the assassin of European democracy, and of the European nation-states,” and a laughable match for global leaders like President Obama. “We were told that when we had a president, we’d […]
Frank Ocean Decal Makes Waves Nationally , But Not For Berkeley’s Black Students
UC Berkeley is tough for everyone. From challenging academics to pricey housing and groceries, the stressors here are enough to wear any person out. Professors give students all the coursework they can handle while the closest Safeway is a 20 minute bus ride from campus. Most things in Berkeley are a little bit less convenient […]
BPR Talks: What’s the Deal with Rent Control?
Our very own Hyung il Shim sits down with Nick Stabile, writer for the California section, for a conversation on Costa Hawkins, rent control, and how Proposition 10 will affect you. Read more about the ballot initiatives Californians will be voting on from BPR’s California Editor Christian Fong. [vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]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[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Clinton Defeats Trump: Polling Failure or Media Failure?
November 2, Election Day, 1948. Despite the best efforts of then-President Harry Truman, all major polls had long called the race for his challenger, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey. Hobbled by a printer’s strike, the Chicago Daily Tribune took a chance that would immortalize their paper in the annals of American politics, printing the morning […]
Adpocalypse: How YouTube Demonetization Imperils the Future of Free Speech
For millions of YouTube content creators, a simple yellow dollar sign––signaling demonetization––portends the destruction of their entire career, and perhaps––if enough creators leave––the end of YouTube itself. This issue of demonetization was taken to new heights after a recent shooting at YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California, when it was revealed that the shooter had […]
Mobile Voting: The Next Step in Expanding Democracy
On July 4th, 1776, the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia to draft the Declaration of Independence, separating the colonies from the oppressive British monarchy on the principle that a government that didn’t represent the interests of the people had no right to govern. Upon later establishing a representative democracy, the power of voting and the […]
Community or Funding: How American Universities Are Failing Black Students
It’s a warm and sunny day in late March, a time when senioritis has fully set in for most students awaiting their graduation. Your college application results come out tonight and you know that you will either go to sleep tonight feeling absolutely triumphant or rejected. You fidget through math and history class and hardly […]
How Much Does Feminism Cost? High Fashion and the Commercialization of #MeToo
Sheathed in black cloth and armed with badges pinned to lapels, they marched across a battlefield rolled out in red. The seasoned and the newly inducted alike faced off against swarming barrels of cameras and brandished microphones. Shoulder to shoulder they descended on a different kind of combat zone: the Golden Globes. It is not […]
Gassed up: Standoffs, Strikes, and Tension in West Virginia
A couple weeks ago, Lissa Lucas, a Democratic political candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates, was physically dragged off the House Chambers floor during a Judiciary Committee hearing. Prior to this, Lucas had taken to the podium at the hearing and listed donations that Congresspeople, primarily Republicans, had received from the oil and […]
Misstepping in a Multi-Polarizing World: Trump Stumbles in Pivot to Asia
Following President Trump’s visit to China in his 2017 Asia-Pacific tour, both Xinhua News, the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China, and Trump himself touted his rapport with President Xi Jinping. Yet no sooner had Xi and Trump waxed their platitudes than they were advocating opposing stances on regional trade and leadership […]
Dear Mr. Sanders: Tuition-Free Education is a Handout to the Rich
As an eye-catching, sloganeering, vote-winning policy, tuition-free public university is certainly a crowd pleaser. It was for Bernie Sanders, and his left-wing doppelganger in Britain, Jeremy Corbyn, is discovering the same thing. It’s the kind of policy that sounds big, bold, and revolutionary — especially to their young, usually middle-class college student supporters. However, as […]
Nambian President to Tump: Don’t Forget the Small States
On September 20th, the people of Nambia were thrilled to hear the president of the United States, Donald Tump, recognize our nation for the inroads we have made against the scourge of infectious diseases. While I am pleasantly surprised President Tump demonstrated awareness of the affairs of smaller states like our own, as President of […]
The Catalan Catch-22
If he negotiates, he loses. If he uses force, he loses. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has dug himself a into a hole where the only remaining options are to give something up– either relinquish control over an ever-more powerful Catalonia, or risk the consequences of losing democratic legitimacy. Since the referendum on October 1st, […]
Aung San Suu Kyi and The Politics of Power in Burma
Power, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Aung San Suu Kyi was once the world’s most famous political prisoner. From her first period of house arrest which was due to her establishing the pro-democracy National League for Democracy to her last day of house arrest in November 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi was under […]
China’s Debt Conundrum
President Xi Jinping and the standing committee. Analyzing China’s perilous macroeconomic position. As Martin Wolf of the Financial Times recently wrote, to understand the Chinese economy Stein’s law must be kept in mind. The economic law, named after Herbert Stein, Chairman of the Council of Economic advisors under President Nixon simply states that if something […]
Stranded
This piece introduces a series addressing several issues I saw during my time at a refugee camp in Samos from June-August 2017, including mental health, children in the camp, criminal justice, the asylum process, and more. For anyone interested in supporting the refugees and Samos Volunteers, the situation on the island is getting worse every […]
Electoral Breakthrough or Electoral Persistence? Forecasting AfD’s Future in the German Parliament
The Western world breathed a sigh of relief after the triumph of the young independent centrist Emmanuel Macron over Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Front, in the French presidential election. His victory was hailed as a sign that the emerging tidal wave of populism that had culminated in the Brexit Vote and […]
Divisive Indivisible: Will Democrats Decide to Divorce?
Marriages are messy. Every couple shares some common ground that forms the basis of their relationship, but, humans being humans, each will have disagreements that create tension. Sometimes, the spouses come together and talk about these differences like adults. But if they come to view the other as detrimental to their wellbeing and fail to […]
“Perquè és el Meu Dret”: The Catalan Referendum
Protesters have taken to the famous landmarks in Barcelona to show their desire for a ‘Sí’ vote on the referendum for Catalan independence, scheduled for October 1st. The national government in Madrid seems to be doing all in its power to prevent the vote from occurring. Reports show that forces have been sent to […]
AIIB – To Join, or Not To Join?
This summer, I had the privilege of interning in Washington, D.C. with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (CA-19). While the current administration and Senate healthcare bill have certainly dominated national headlines, working on the Hill has also deepened my understanding of often-overlooked policy issue areas, including the U.S.-ASEAN relationship and potential U.S. membership in the Asian Infrastructure […]
Medication Abortion at Tang: the Power of Student Activism
The women of SURJ at UC Berkeley In a matter of weeks, the University of California, Berkeley, may become the first university in the country to provide medication abortion at an on-campus health center, once again putting the school at the forefront of progressive activism. A student-run campaign to bring medication abortion access through the […]
El Salvador’s Mining Ban: Land Rights, Development, and Democracy in Latin America
The landmark decision in El Salvador to ban all metal mining came as a surprise to many. It passed with multiple parties’ support, with none opposing, and is considered a huge win for environmental activism in the region. El Salvador’s water sources are especially vulnerable to pollution by practices of the mining industry, and existing […]
Venezuela Crisis: Political and Economic Conflict Lead to Nationwide Discontent
President Nicolás Maduro has faced sustained protests in the last few weeks because of both economic and political turmoil. Venezuela has been embroiled in political and economic turmoil over the past year. This situation was heightened by a recent decision by the Venezuelan Supreme Court to effectively nullify the National Assembly and take on the […]
Uncle Sam Wants Your Rubles
Good morning, Americans. Or shall I say, доброе утро! Doesn’t it make you feel warm and fuzzy inside to know that since Donald Trump was elected President on November 8, five dozen Russian billionaires have seen their net worths skyrocket by a total of 27 billion dollars? One of these billionaires, an aluminum tycoon […]
What Are We To Make of Trump’s Airstrike?
“No child of God should ever suffer such horror” said a sober Donald Trump, justifying his decision to launch a targeted airstrike just hours ago. But what are we to make of this action? After all, it wasn’t all that long ago that the now Commander-in-Chief masqueraded as an isolationist – keen on criticizing both […]
Free Speech is not the Free Speech Movement
I was walking past People’s Park when I heard an elderly resident remarked remarked at my tie-dye shirt I was wearing, “You know, it takes more than a tie dye shirt to be a hippie.” This decidedly Berkeley take on the whole being greater than the sum of its parts is as relevant a political […]
The Refugee Opportunity
As President Trump’s revised travel ban (EO 13780) sits in limbo after being blocked by federal courts, human rights and refugee aid groups point to the particularly bad timing of the order’s 120-day suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program, which is the largest refugee resettlement program in the world. The refugee crisis is at […]
Stuck in Limbo: Asylum Seekers in Nauru Unsure of Their Fate Under President Trump
Nauru, the world’s smallest republic which lies about 1800 miles off the coast of Australia, has recently been in the spotlight because of President Donald Trump’s and Australian Prime Minister’s Malcolm Turnbull’s well-publicized phone call. The week after Trump issued his executive order, which banned travel by non-citizens from 7 Muslim majority countries and all […]
My, No!: A Firsthand Account of Milo Yiannopoulos’s Visit to Berkeley and the Ensuing Chaos
Cover Photo: The author on Buzzfeed Live. (Source: Buzzfeed Live) This article is part of a series examining the anti-Milo Yiannopoulos protests and their aftermath — a campus event that has since pierced and provoked people nationwide — from various different perspectives. Several of these pieces include first person testimonies and narratives that illuminate facts […]
Protecting the Perverts
This article is part of a series examining the anti-Milo Yiannopoulos protests and their aftermath — a campus event that has since pierced and provoked people nationwide — from various different perspectives. Several of these pieces include first person testimonies and narratives that illuminate facts of the protests not necessarily highlighted in mainstream media coverage. […]
Megaphone to the Bypassed Masses
This article is part of a series examining the anti-Milo Yiannopoulos protests and their aftermath — a campus event that has since pierced and provoked people nationwide — from various different perspectives. Several of these pieces include first person testimonies and narratives that illuminate facts of the protests not necessarily highlighted in mainstream media coverage. […]
Aftermath: The Milo protests and where Berkeley went wrong
This article is part of a series examining the anti-Milo Yiannopoulos protests and their aftermath — a campus event that has since pierced and provoked people nationwide — from various different perspectives. Several of these pieces include first person testimonies and narratives that illuminate facts of the protests not necessarily highlighted in mainstream media coverage. […]
The Myths of Far-Right Populism: Orbán’s Fence and Trump’s Wall
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has been characterized as one of the many ‘Strong Man’, right-wing populist politicians who has recently gained power (sound familiar?). While hindsight is twenty-twenty, there is a lot to be learned from modern economic history in light of the recent rise of far-right populist groups across the globe. The rise of populism […]
Trump on Immigration – A Preview of the New Administration
Keeping with his campaign promise to restrict immigration from the Arab world, President Trump on January 27th began his program of “extreme vetting” with an executive order barring the acceptance of new refugees and restricting all travel to the United States by citizens of several Middle Eastern countries. The order quickly drew widespread criticism, with […]
The New Resistance
La Resistenza, or the Resistance, were a loose coalition of self-described Italian freedom fighters during late World War II. They fought the occupying Nazi army and the remainder of Mussolini’s Fascists in any way possible. This ragtag group—rogue journalists who published dissenting articles, partisans conducting guerilla ambushes, and communists who spoke out openly, just to […]
A Disunified Party in Power: Republicans off to a shaky start with ACA Repeal
January 9, 2016 — On the floor of the Senate, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) stands in front of a large posterboard emblazoned with a neon yellow “$9.7 trillion” — the amount of money he claims national spending will be increased by, were the current budget reconciliation plan to pass. Paul is arguing that the current […]
António Guterres: Profile of the Next U.N. Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres, the U.N. Secretary General starting in 2017. Think applying for jobs right out of college is challenging? Try applying to lead the world’s 7 billion people into the future. Over the past year, the U.N. held an election to fill the coveted title of Secretary-General since Ban Ki-Moon is terming out in December. […]
Kashmir: One of the World’s Longest Ongoing Conflicts Re-Ignited in 2016
Since July, tensions between India and Pakistan have flared up over the disputed region of Kashmir. While tensions never fully go away, given that there have been three wars over the region, this bout has lasted longer and been more deadly than other recent incidents. The most recent clash saw 7 Pakistani soldiers killed, the […]
Colombia’s Conundrum: An Elusive Peace
When the Colombian government’s peace agreement with the Farc (The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), to end the 52-year war was rejected, many were shocked. After all, it was turned down by an incredibly thin margin, about 0.2%. However, that thin margin highlights what a fragile peace it would have been. For half of voters […]
An Open Letter to President-Elect Donald Trump
Dear President-Elect Trump, I’d like to start this off by offering my congratulations on a well-fought campaign. While you did not have my support before the election, I recognize that you are now my President, and I refuse to protest the will of the people. You have clearly pinpointed a strong source of anger and […]
CETA and the fate of free trade: Why the EU and Canada’s new deal changes how trade agreements are negotiated for good
After a tumultuous few months, the European Union and Canada finally signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) last Sunday. CETA is the first agreement of its kind that the EU has signed with a G7 country. The agreement required the approval of all 42 national and regional governments in the EU, which is […]
FDT: How One Compton Rapper Influenced the Presidential Election
Cover Photo: The album cover of Still Brazy by YG, on which the track “FDT” appears. “Just when I thought it wouldn’t get no sicker, woke up one morning and heard this weird ass mothaf***a talkin’ out the side of his neck. Me and all my peoples, we always thought he was straight. Influential mothaf***a […]
Constitutional Reform in Japan: An Overblown Threat to East Asian Security
Shinzo Abe speaking out in opposition to Japan’s pacifist constitution before the election. Featured image source: NBC News. With all the drama and coverage surrounding the 2016 United States presidential election, it is easy to overlook the fact that other nations are also catching election fever. All around the world, citizens are making their voices […]
We Need to Talk About Sovereign Debt
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, a key figure in sovereign debt restructuring. Featured image source: World Economic Forum. A brief summary of sovereign debt crises. Sovereign debt crises occur regularly and often violently. Take the example of the latest prominent debt crisis in Greece. Major markets in the US and in Europe were […]
France’s Burkini War: Conflating Islam and Terrorism
On July 28, the French Riviera town of Cannes implemented a new law that would quickly become a trend: they banned the wearing of the “burkini”, a full-body covering swimsuit that allows conservative Muslim women to cover up while at the beach. A number of coastal French towns soon followed suit, leading to incidents such […]
“Buyer’s Remorse”: Will Congress Regret Overriding President Obama’s Veto on Saudi Arabia Bill?
On Wednesday, Congress overrode President Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JUSTA), the first veto override of Obama’s presidency. The vote in the Senate was 97-1 in favor (with only retiring Minority Leader Harry Reid voting against it) and 348-77 in favor in the House, well surpassing the ⅔ votes needed. […]
One Person, One Vote: Ambiguous Law of the Land
On April 4, 2016, the United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 in the case of Evenwel v. Abbott that states are to draw legislative district lines on the basis of total population. This decision is considered to uphold the long standing bedrock principle of our constitution that there should be “one person, one […]
The State of Affairs in Congress: In the Era of Hyperpolarization, Embrace Bipartisanship or Fail
As the 2016 US primary season nears its end, so too does the current session of Congress. Both houses will be off for half of July for the Democratic and Republican conventions, as well as for most of August and October. A RealClearPolitics average of congressional approval polls from the last month shows only 14.5% of […]
India, South Asia, and Hindutva: What’s Going On With California Textbooks?
A decade after the notorious 2005 California controversy over representation of Hinduism in state textbooks, it looks like a similar issue has come back to bite the California Department of Education. Previously, the Vedic Foundation and the American Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) complained to the California’s Curriculum Commission about an alleged misrepresentation of Indian Hinduism, […]
Criminal Justice Reform: A Rare Area of Bipartisan Consensus
In the past few years, there has been a repudiation of the tough-on-crime era of the 1990s by both sides of the aisle. There is a belief that too many low-level offenders, particularly drug offenders, have been locked up for too long, and the government is literally paying the price for it. In 2010, the […]
The Legality of Obama’s Executive Orders (And Why You Should Care)
During the recent in-the-gutter name calling of the Presidential campaign, the Republican presidential candidates repeatedly and loudly have proclaimed that the moment they step into the Oval office, they will immediately undue the flagrantly illegal Executive Orders that President Obama has issued. They assert that the Executive Orders are illegal because Obama is using them to make […]
The Truth on ObamaCare
Throughout the Obama administration, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has undoubtedly sparked controversy between both sides of the political aisle, becoming arguably the most contentious piece of legislation in recent history. Liberals tout its overwhelming success in lowering the uninsured rate in America, while conservatives disdainfully dismisses the act on ideological grounds, balking at the […]
The Indian Farce of Free Speech: JNU Students Arrested Over Alleged Anti-India Comments
At UC Berkeley, if you plan to take Political Science 1, also known as Intro to American Politics, at any point, then you will likely hear Professor Citrin rant at least once about the increasing erosion of free speech at Berkeley. He will bemoan the tarring of our legacy as the location of the Free […]
Scalia: The Absurdity and Folly of the Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died peacefully two weeks ago, but two hours later discord erupted among the GOP, the election campaigns and the Senate over his replacement. Republican leaders on the campaign trail and in the Senate have said the next president should appoint his replacement, or have called for delays or obstruction of […]
Overcoming the Collective Action Problem: Can the Sanders Strategy Work?
As the weather begins to warm, America is “Feeling the Bern.” Widely dismissed as a fringe candidate at the beginning of his campaign, Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) rise to a strong contender in the 2016 presidential race points to his platform’s potential appeal with the U.S. population. The self proclaimed democratic socialist wants to “create […]
The Race to Turn the Senate Blue: The Top Senate Contests in the 2016 Election
Though the presidential race has taken up much of the electoral coverage thus far, there are also many close U.S. Senate seats up for grabs that could tilt the Senate in the Democrats favor. Democrats are even hoping the House of Representatives comes into play if there is backlash against Trump and the Republican Party, […]
Disinvestment, Political Motives Mar the University of California
Late last year, the UC Regents passed a budget deal which provided the system with an injection of $119.5 million in new funds, in addition to $25 million from the state in return for enrolling 10,000 new California undergraduates over the next three years, starting with 6,500 this fall. The budget deal also called […]
Common Core Revisited
“Like it or not, life is full of measuring sticks,” narrates an upbeat female voice. A marker-wielding hand draws a scene of cartoon people happily interacting with measuring sticks in their day to day lives, including curiously enough, a boy on a stool holding a ruler and a paintbrush up against a canvas. “How smart […]
The Indonesia Experiment
Analyzing the tension between political popularity and economic growth in Indonesia. Indonesia, as some scholars such as Professor Steven Fish of UC Berkeley and Professor Danielle Lussier of Grinell College have said, should never have been a democracy. After the fall of the country’s dictator Suharto in 1998 following a severe economic crisis, Indonesia was the last […]
Macho or Bust: Today’s Voters Still Want a Machismo President
Marco Rubio, a Republican candidate seeking to gain traction in the race for becoming the next U.S. president, recently has been seen brandishing guns during his campaign photo ops, along with peppering his speeches and his so-called off-the-cuff remarks with plentiful references to football. This is not by happenstance nor by an already existent personality […]
#OscarsSoWhite: The Call for Racial Diversity in Hollywood
Lack of racial diversity in Hollywood made headlines last year when the 2015 Academy Awards (AKA the Oscars) featured nominations for twenty white actors and zero minority actors in its acting categories. The outrage caught on social media fire with a blunt and catchy Twitter hashtag : #OscarsSoWhite. The #OscarsSoWhite people received backlash, too, mostly […]
Barriers to Improving Our Crumbling Infrastructure
Amidst the political issues of gun control, immigration policy, and economic crises consistently dominating national headlines, the topic of fixing America’s broken infrastructure continues to be crowded out by the media’s agenda, ignoring an important problem that should be addressed more persistently. Unlike many other debatable issues, fixing our crumbling infrastructure should not be and […]
Your Smartphone Might be Powered by the Backs of Children
While many await the arrival of the coveted iPhone 7, questions surrounding the device’s specifications, headphone jack, and storage size are rampant in the mainstream media. We eagerly await these technological advances, but we don’t often think about the indirect ramifications these technologies have that worsen the lives of others. Most of us are familiar […]
Why the Paris Climate Pact is a Big Deal
And why the hype should be contained. Global politics in general tends to stick to the same issues, whether it is economics or security. However in recent years, a new issue has taken place in the round table of important international issues: climate change. Climate change as an issue started to gain prominence in the […]
The Reformation Conundrum
Why Ayaan Hirsi Ali is wrong. Islam does not need a reformation. The rise of ISIS has created a number of question about the nature of Islam, ranging from the state of the religion today to fundamental theological questions that arise from the justification given by individuals or groups who use the religion of Islam to […]
Funding the Future of America’s Military
Defense research has bore many fruits. From the internet to digital photography, American society has been crafted by the ever present need to destroy other countries. However, in an era when conventional warfare seems increasingly remote, are such investments still worthwhile? A Laser By Any Other Name Two clear means of project valuation arise from […]
The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Why Trump Fever Is Here to Stay
The man is all over national airwaves, newspapers, and internet memes. He is a presidential candidate, yes. But perhaps more than that, Donald Trump is a social phenomenon: a real-life hashtag, national trend, and constant re-tweet. Mr. Trump’s popularity has been repeatedly taken apart and examined under the social microscope. The conclusions are as varied […]
The Precarious Position of Planned Parenthood
2015 has been a year full of debate, controversy and headlines regarding Planned Parenthood (PP), but the nation was stunned on November 27th when a gunman attacked a PP clinic, killing three people and injuring nine others. A standoff between the shooter and police lasted five hours at the Colorado Springs clinic, ending with the […]
The Critical Need to Enact Gun Control
This is one part of the larger debate on gun control in the U.S. The opposing article can be found here. Infuriating political stalemate aside, Congress must act to bring about gun control legislation. The current trajectory of federal inaction in the wake of a record number of gun-related massacres suggests the likelihood that it […]
In Defense of the Firearm
This is one part of the larger debate on gun control in the U.S. The opposing article can be found here. When discussing an issue that carries the gravity of loss of human life, it is critical not to mince words. Guns are tools with a very specific utility. They are machines designed to kill […]
The Greg Hardy Case: A Symptom of a Bigger Problem in Macho Culture
Greg Hardy, the embattled defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys, has become another glaring symbol of the National Football League’s (NFL) failures to effectively combat domestic violence by its own players. Originally, Hardy was convicted of domestic violence against his ex-girlfriend, Nicole Holder, but he appealed the decision, and the case was dropped after Holder did […]
Hindu Nationalist Violence Increasing in India
In India, there has been a rise in violence against Muslims who have been accused of eating and selling beef. Some Hindus are saying that it is their duty to defend their religious values which state that cows are sacred. Hindus comprise 79.8% of the total population of 1.25 billion Indians while Muslims make up […]
Canada’s Consolation Prize
On October 19, 2015, Canada voted and handed their government’s leadership, previously under the Conservative Party for almost a decade, to the Liberal Party and its charismatic leader. But can this hyped-up heir with floppy hair deliver on his campaign promise of “real change”?” Let’s take a look at the facts. Trudeau, son of wildly […]
To Discuss or to Protest? That is the Question
Berkeley’s campus atmosphere is ripe with tension from protests. Numerous campus events have been interrupted by the likes of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) and Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists who seek to convey their platforms through upheaval and disruption. While their message is certainly conveyed, it comes at the cost of an educational dialogue, […]
The Perpetual Funding Crisis
Funding for state universities and colleges in California has become an increasingly prevalent issue, especially throughout the University of California system. Over the past few decades, costs have risen due to inflation while aid and funding from the state have diminished. Throughout the UC system, money continues to prevail as an issue of utmost concern, […]
The Adverse Effects of the Western Fixation on India’s “Rape Problem”
In the past few years, India has been making international headlines not so much for its new Prime Minister or his new environmental and space programs, but for something a lot less bureaucratic — and a lot more threatening to its status as a developing nation to root for. The 2012 Delhi rape case, also […]
Carly Fiorina’s tenure at HP, in Perspective
“A problem solver, with the track record to prove it” reads one of the sections of Carly Fiorina’s official 2016 campaign website, the latter clause bolded, as if subliminally aware of the eyebrows being raised in response. The section’s side panel attempts to defend this assertion, postulating that, under Fiorina, HP had “doubled revenues,” “more […]
Singapore’s Challenge to Democracy
Henry Kissinger, the great American statesman of the 70’s, once wrote, “One of the asymmetries of history, is the lack of correspondence between the abilities of some leaders and the power of their countries.” But whom was Kissinger bestowing this rather grandiose compliment to? It was Lee Kuan Yew, a close confidant and friend of […]
Courting Controversy
The California State Legislature took its interim study recess on September 11 and will reconvene on January 4. The first year of this session was full of drama, much of which will play out in the next couple of weeks, as the deadline for Governor Jerry Brown to sign or veto bills on his desk […]
Feminism’s Glass Ceiling
Women: they’re everywhere! Mothers, actresses, professors, Presidents – you name it, and a woman will be it. This development, however, is recent. It is only in the last 100 years that society has recognized that women are also human beings, with the capacity to deserve human rights. It is for this reason that today, society […]
Too Close to Call: The 2015 UK Election
The UK general election will be held on May 7, and the race is on between the ruling Conservative Party led by Prime Minister David Cameron, and the opposition Labour Party led by Ed Miliband. The latest polls show the two parties virtually tied, meaning it is likely a coalition with other parties will be […]
Northwest Passage
With the relentless pace at which global climate change has marched forward, the northern bastions of ice have been reduced to mere skeletons, the ice melt rapidly accelerating since the 1970s.These extensive topological shifts in the Arctic have fueled a renewed political debate over the resource rich lands and potential trade routes of the North. […]
A Beefed Up Industry
Petaluma, California once boasted the title of Egg Capital of the World, and every spring the residents flock into downtown to celebrate the main event of the year: the Butter and Eggs parade. While I do appreciate tractor processions and cow-pie tossing contests, the festivities were never for me. But being a Sonoma County resident […]
Angelina Jolie and Being Transgender: Why Your Body Does Not Define You
Angelina Jolie is one of the most famous women in the world. She’s an accomplished actress and producer, as well as a well-known philanthropist and a beauty icon. Along with news about her most recent film, she most recently graced the headlines of popular media due to her decision to undergo preventative surgery and have […]
Yemen on the Brink of Civil War
Yemen is on the brink of civil war, after the Houthis, a well-organized group of Shia rebels, put current interim President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi under house arrest, leading to his resignation. Hadi fled the capital city Sana’a in late January and settled in his hometown of Aden, where he claimed the legitimate government resided. He […]
The Deal of the Decade
Many thought this day would never come. In an interesting turn of events, negotiations between the United States and Iran over a developing nuclear deal are currently underway. Secretary of State John Kerry has led negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over a deal in which sanctions on Iran would be lifted on […]
The Controversy Around Hillary
Hillary Rodham Clinton. One would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t know the name. Hillary—spelled with two l’s—Clinton made a name for herself first at Wellesley College where she became the first student to deliver a commencement address in 1969. The speech was so great, it received a standing ovation and was reprinted in […]
Learning to Listen: Napolitano and UC Tuition Protests
“We don’t have to listen to this crap,” Janet Napolitano was caught on video saying at a recent UC regents meeting. The “crap” she was referring to was a student demonstration that occurred during public comment when about 30 students stripped off their clothing to reveal their undergarments and threw fake money at the regents, […]
What’s Up Their Sleeves?
There was a recent New York article written by Vanessa Friedman discussing Michelle Obama’s fashion choices when she toured Asia to promote the “Let Girls Learn” education campaign. In the article, Friedman expresses her surprise that the First Lady chose to wear more traditionally feminine outfits such as a bright yellow patterned dress unlike the […]
The Road to Indiana
Governor Mike Pence of Indiana recently signed into law a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which shares a near identical title to twenty other states’ acts and one federal law signed in 1993 under the Clinton administration. Taken on face value, it seems to be a rather unremarkable event with plenty of precedence; however, critics exploded […]
A Bunch of Spam?
The last time an email caused this much of a political storm was, well, never. It’s unlikely anyone with even the slightest modicum of interest in politics would have missed the coverage of Hilary Clinton’s newest “scandal.” From Politico to the New York Times, which first broke the story, the internet is alight with commentary […]
The Empty Ballot
On House of Cards, Frank Underwood quipped, “Politicians can’t resist making promises they can’t keep.”[1] As the ASUC elections dawn upon Berkeley, our fledgling politicians await unknowing freshmen on Sproul Plaza, hoping to sell overambitious platforms and promises they won’t be able to fulfill. Those who have survived this rite of passage in previous years avoid […]
Ebola Ethics
Sporadically emerging from its natural reservoirs, the Ebola virus has recently captured global attention. Looming over West Africa, the Ebola pandemic has been transmitted and transported over national boundaries, now finding itself on U.S. soil. But the Ebola virus is not new; this disease was first noted in Zaire, the predecessor of the Democratic Republic […]
The Murder of Avijit Roy
On February 26, Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy was murdered in the street by religious extremists in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Roy was an avid advocate for secularism and spoke out constantly against religious extremism. Because of his blog posts and books, he was repeatedly threatened online, including by his suspected assailant, and told that he would be […]
Jon Stewart: The End of an Era
Almost sixteen years ago, Jon Stewart replaced Craig Kilborn on The Daily Show, while Kilborn stole his way onto The Late Late Show. Yet that failure seems to have been his last, for there is no doubt that Jon Stewart is the founder of the late night fake news show genre, and that his show’s […]
Fighting Off the Bias
“Mo’ money, mo’ problems” is a refrain uttered by the hip-hop loving, Notorious B.I.G. obsessed 11-year old Eddie Huang, star of ABC’s new hit television show Fresh Off the Boat. There are two very interesting things about the previous sentence. The first is the phrase, “fresh off the boat.” The second is Eddie’s last name, […]
Twilight for Late Night’s Old Stars
The late night TV show industry has progressed in its short history from the likes of Johnny Carson and David Letterman to the more sharp-tongued and politically focused Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. In fact, many of these late night comedy shows have become news sources capable of rivaling traditional shows on FOX or MSNBC. […]
Liberty and Protest
There is a consistent tension between the “sovereign’s” First Amendment Rights to free speech and assembly and the state’s chronic apprehensiveness about the creation of a dynamic and potentially unstable security situation. In the aftermath of the Berkeley Black Live Matter Protests, I personally was drawn to the interesting phenomenon of violent crowd dispersal and […]
Delhi Elections Have Ramifications for All of India
On February 10, the highly anticipated results of the Delhi State Assembly elections in India were announced. It was a rousing victory for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by Arvind Kejriwal, as they won 67 of the 70 assembly seats. Though Delhi is the capital of India and its elections are always closely watched, […]
Paris, Baga, and Peshawar
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] World leaders gather at the unity rally in Paris, France on January 11th to show solidarity for survivors of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. On January 9th, African militant group Boko Haram carried out a violent attack in the northeastern Nigerian town of Baga, killing an estimated 2,000 people and causing the mass flight of […]
Governor Brown’s New Budget Outlines His Vision for the Future
Last week, California governor Jerry Brown unveiled his budget for the new fiscal year. As specified by the passage of Proposition 2 on the November ballot, Brown put $1.2 billion into a rainy day fund while paying down the same amount of the state debt and addressing other obligations that Brown says the state needs […]
A Freshman’s Perspective on the Recent Police Brutality Protest
I grew up in Redmond, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. “Home” to me meant verdant parks. Quiet streets. Quieter nights. The calm darkness of those nights was unbroken except for the occasional passing taillight of our city cops’ fancy Dodge Chargers. When I was three or four, my parents told me what to do in […]
The Ferguson Verdict
On November 24th, a St. Louis County grand jury of twelve came to the decision that white Police Officer Darren Wilson acted lawfully. He was on trial for shooting unarmed black teen Michael Brown six times, ending his life on August 9th 2014. Only 11 days after the death of Brown, the St. Louis grand jury […]
2014 Midterms Recap: What You Need to Know
Though one of the biggest stories from the midterm election results on Tuesday was the Republicans gaining control of the Senate, there were other significant stories as well. Not only were pollsters incorrect in predicting how close certain Senate races would be, many of the gubernatorial races went the way of the Republicans as well […]
Ending the War on Drugs: A Bipartisan Issue
While the recent media buzz has focused on the Republicans’ takeover of Congress in the 2014 elections, community leaders and criminal justice advocates alike are celebrating the victories in efforts to end the war on drugs, specifically regarding the legalization of marijuana. In Alaska, Oregon, New Mexico, and Washington D.C., measures concerning the legalization of […]
Underestimation Nation
On October 15th Fox News presented a poll that found 58% of Americans felt “things in the world are ‘going to hell in a handbasket.” [1] These findings tell us two things. First, we should probably question the quality of Fox News polls when a question legitimately uses the term “Hell in a handbasket” to […]
SCOTUS Sneak Peak: A Look at the Supreme Court’s 2014-2015 Term
Though the current Supreme Court term only started on October 6, the court has already issued orders on two controversial issues and started hearing oral arguments for many other important cases. Though the court struck down Wisconsin’s voter ID law for the upcoming midterm elections, they handed down emergency orders that upheld North Carolina’s and […]
2014 Nobel Peace Prize Winners Fight to Give Children a Voice and an Education
Last Friday, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi were named the co-winners of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that the two shared the prize for “their struggle against the suppression of children and for the right of all children to an education.” Yousafzai is a 17-year old Pakistani education activist, who […]
24 States Now Recognize Same-Sex Marriage
Will the Supreme Court one day rule on same-sex marriage nationwide? Suddenly the answer is looking to be no. In a surprise move, the Supreme Court today announced they “let stand appeals court rulings allowing such unions in five states.” Via The New York Times: The decision to let the appeals court rulings stand, which […]