If you find, whilst perusing your local bookstore, a copy of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five,” I’d strongly suggest picking it up. Within the hallowed confines of those antiquated things old-timers like me call “pages,” you’ll find the story of a man caught in the nightmare of having to perpetually live his life from every point in his personal history, as time in the novel is not linear, but horrifyingly cyclical. While this in itself seems appropriate given the current political climate, there is a mantra embedded throughout the text that seems all the more poignant now that the inauguration of President Donald Trump has come to pass. So it goes…
Should you stumble across our current commander-in-chief’s Twitter page, you may be confronted with some very shocking statements about the state of affairs in the Philadelphia region and its ever-increasing murder rates. Apparently the rising death tolls numbers shock the most powerful man in the world.
If he’d spend even the slightest amount of time researching the matter, he’d learn that in the past eight years, the number has dropped almost 30 percent (from 391 in 2007 to 281 in 2015—currently 277 in 2016, according to the Associated Press). We live in a post-fact world, where the concept of evidence has all but lost its definition. So it goes…
Thanks in part to Trump, we’ve adopted a Mad Dog, and he lives in the Pentagon. To soldiers such as myself, Secretary James Mattis (a four-star Marine general) is a living legend, and a saint of sorts who will undo the red tape that has been imposed upon my brothers-in-arms across the globe.
There’s no sarcasm here, ladies and gents. The selection of the former “Mad Dog” Mattis is going to be one of Trump’s best decisions as far as appointees go, but to pacifists, terrorists and opposition forces, he’ll be an absolute nightmare. There will be no mercy or respite, at least not for any of the aforementioned groups. So it goes…
Looking through history can be a harrowing experience, and if you should find yourself reading about the year 1933, you’d see similar behavior between a burgeoning chancellor in Europe and our own esteemed president. The actions I’m referring to are the startling level of comfort with the use of the executive power known as an executive order.
In the last two weeks, Trump has signed executive orders that will reopen talks for the Dakota Access Pipeline, repeal Obamacare (a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act) and start the process of building the border wall, among many others. The major underlying problem here is that due to constitutional ambiguities, it’s questionable whether or not any of these acts can be deemed supportable by the Constitution. This disregard for our most basic of political documents is something we should all be horrified by. Oh, and that European chancellor? His name was Adolf Hitler. So it goes…
If there is one group of individuals who love a boom in nationalistic behavior, it’s the financial gurus on Wall Street. There’s been a steady increase in the markets over the last couple of years, but with the confirmation of Trump as president, it seemed to skyrocket, opening at a record 20,032 points on Jan. 25, something that’s never happened in the history of the market.
This could have any number of implications for our society, and is more than likely a reflection of the impending border wall, but as we all know, what is good for Wall Street is not necessarily what is good for the people of the United States, or the world; only time will tell. So it goes…
Speaking of the market, I’m sure there may be a fair cross section of our campus (staff mainly, but there’ll be a few students) who are screaming about the executive order disposing of the tax cut associated with federal mortgage insurance premiums, essentially “robbing” homeowners of about $500 a year.
While this may seem like a horrible way to start a presidency, it was actually a very smart albeit unpopular move. The purpose of federal mortgage insurance is to cover down on people who could afford the entire down payment on their mortgage. This is a safety net for the economy; should another housing bubble rear its ugly head, especially given the realities of the 2008 housing bubble, I think that’s a nightmare we’d like to avoid repeating. So it goes…
There’s a proverbial elephant not only in the room, but in the country, and I’m remiss in my duties to speak about it. I’m talking about the 90-day order banning all immigrants from countries such as Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, until they can be thoroughly vetted so as to prevent further “terroristic activities” from occurring on American soil.
This in itself would be fine; former President Barack Obama instituted a similar ban on Iraqi immigrants in 2011, only his ban was in effect for six months. As a global community there have been a startling number of crimes committed by individuals associated with Islamic states, so it’s not unprecedented that Trump suspends immigration from such countries until such a time as they’re no longer deemed a threat. In fact, of all his executive orders, this is the most constitutionally founded.
The underlying problem with Trump’s ban is that it doesn’t touch countries. Clearly this has been a massive oversight on the part of the Trump administration, or even worse, a massive conflict of interest.
I implore you, students and faculty of West Chester University, whether you support Trump or not, keep a weathered eye on the actions of this administration, and do not hesitate to be critical of it. We cannot afford to repeat the failures of the past. So it goes…
Ryan Wasser is a fifth-year student majoring in English writings track. He can be reached at RW851045@wcupa.edu.