You Ruined my Dream Journal With the recent abolition of DACA, many undocumented students are struggling to renew their DACA before the deadline. The imminent doom of deportation already looms over their heads but ICE has taken action and is now “visiting” schools to actively seek out suspects to take into custody. This course of action is […]
Tag: Obama
Afghan War: the Never Ending Struggle
The US war in Afghanistan is now entering its sixteenth year. Countless lives and tax dollars have been spent fighting it. Yet, despite administrative changes at the federal level and fresh vows to bring an end to the war, the US is still embroiled in a painfully long struggle with no exit strategy in sight. […]
Thinking in Color: Disputing Identity Politics
On the 9th of November, 2016, in the wee hours of the morning, the news networks proclaimed Donald J. Trump the president-elect of the United States. From my vantage point, I watched hundreds of Berkeley students on Sproul Plaza collectively react in unmitigated horror as the man whom they reviled so personally claimed the highest […]
Democrats Join the Mad Tea Party: The Contest Begins between Feinstein and De León
The December midnight was drenched in silence. A large crowd stared on from the harbor as the Sons of Liberty crept along the docks in Mohawk Native American costumes. They swept through the streets of Boston with one pursuit in mind: dump the coercive British tea. With the quiet punctuated only by the sound of […]
Running on Empty
The Demise of the American Coal Industry Hidden within the the Appalachian Mountains is a deeply American problem. Dotting the Appalachians are coal mines, and around these mines, coal towns. However, as global energy dependence has shifted away from coal and towards clean energy, the lifeblood of the traditional energy industry was siphoned away, leaving […]
Power Plays
A Tug of War Between the President and the Intelligence Community On January 21, 2017, addressing several hundred key CIA officials, Donald Trump stood before the CIA Memorial Wall and announced, “there is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump”. Despite this declaration of support, his speech received mixed […]
The Challenges of Myanmar’s Fledgling Democracy
For the future of Myanmar’s democracy, the military should be separated from politics in the interest of human rights and stability. Moreover, the United States, a self-styled guardian of democratic sentiments, must not be a bystander while a domestic crisis bordering on genocide unfolds in Myanmar. Since 2011, Myanmar has been in the throes of […]
Donald Trump and the Future of US-India Ties
US-India bilateral relations have been tumultuous since the conception of two nascent nation-states, India and Pakistan, in 1947. A primarily socialist India found a strong ally in communist regimes such as the USSR. Pakistan, toeing the line of Cold War politics, became a traditional ally of the US. 1991 ushered in the collapse of the […]
Terminator in Transition: Should drones be able to think for themselves?
The metal body flies without effort against the sky – searching, synthesizing, processing data at an inhuman speed. A specific face has been imprinted on this machine. Once found, the machine can summarily end that person’s life. This drone responds to no ground operator. It is autonomous – and lethal. This weapon does not come […]
“Leapfrogging”: Can developing countries truly skip over fossil fuel reliance in favor of renewable energies?
There is a popular argument that progress and growth are not possible without reliance on fossil fuel-powered energy. Examples abide to support this claim: almost every industrialized country is (relatively and subjectively) thriving today because of their rampant abuse of coal, oil, and gas. The 1.3 billion people without electricity access are largely concentrated in […]