Portland State Vanguard Vol. 72 Issue 34

PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD

VOLUME 72 • ISSUE 34 • JULY 31, 2018

OCCUPY ICE

EVICTED

NEWS ASPSU DEBATES #DISARMPSU P. 5

ARTS & CULTURE MEET THE MELVINS P. 13

INTERNATIONAL HOW THE TRAVEL BAN WILL AFFECT INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS P. 7

CRIME BLOTTER JULY 25–29 Fiona Spring

July 25 Vehicle break-in

Stalking

Helen Gordon Child Development Center

Parking Structure 3

At 1:57 a.m., Campus Public Safety officers interrupted a vehicle break-in in progress. The owner reported the suspect—who was able to get away—had stolen the vehicle’s battery.

At 1:03 p.m., CPSO responded to an ongoing issue involving a nonstudent calling the center to harass staff members.

July 28 Hit and run

Market Center Building July 26 Theft

At 10:18 a.m., CPSO took a report of a vehicle hit and run that occurred between 4 p.m.–10:30 p.m.

At 8:20 a.m., a non-student reported a backpack stolen from the SMSU cafeteria. Portland Police officers later arrested another non-student who admitted to stealing the backpack. The suspect was then excluded from Portland State campus.

Detox

Smith Memorial Student Union

University Place Hotel

An intoxicated non-student found lying on the ground in the parking lot of the hotel at 10:48 p.m. was transferred to a local detox center.

July 29 Trespass

July 27 Trespass arrest

Cramer Hall

Cramer Hall

At 12:21 a.m., CPSO issued a trespassing citation to a non-student with a current PSU exclusion..

CONTENTS

At 2:20 p.m., CPSO discovered a non-student on the third floor of the building, which was closed at the time. The suspect was able to escape before being arrested.

CONTENT WARNING: ARTICLES ON P. 10–11 AND 13 CONTAIN MATERIAL REGARDING VIOLENCE AND SUICIDE.

COVER PHOTO BY BRIAN MCGLOIN, COVER DESIGN BY ROBBY DAY NEWS MEASURE TO REPEAL SANCTUARY STATE LAW APPROVED FOR BALLOT

HILL TO HALL

P. 3

COVER OCCUPY ICE EVICTED

P. 8–9

ARTS & CULTURE PALAHNIUK’S LATEST

PORTLAND’S RESISTANCE RALLIES AGAINST KAVANAUGH

P. 4

P. 12

ASPSU DISCUSSES CAMPUS SHOOTING

P. 5

FIND IT AT 5TH: VARDA & BIRKIN DOUBLE FEATURE

P. 12

VIKING VOICES RESPONSE TO CAMPUS SHOOTING

MEET THE MELVINS!

P. 13

P. 5

INTERNATIONAL PSU WELCOMES FULBRIGHTERS

OPINION RETHINKING VEGANISM

P. 14

P. 6

COMICS

P. 14

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS PREPARE FOR TRAVEL BAN

P. 7

EVENTS CALENDAR

P. 15

THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD

P. 10–11

P. 3

STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Evan Smiley MANAGING EDITOR Nada Sewidan NEWS EDITORS David Gillespie Fiona Spring INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Marena Riggan ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Matthew Andrews OPINION EDITOR Katherine Piwonka ONLINE EDITOR A.M. LaVey

COPY CHIEF Missy Hannen COPY EDITOR Justin Knipper CONTRIBUTORS Adam Bruns C.J. Claringbold Cory Elia Andrew Gaines Shandi Hunt Charles Rose Anamika Vaughan PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Brian McGloin MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Emma Josephson

PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sydney Bardole LEAD DESIGNER Robby Day DESIGNERS Lisa Dorn Lisa Kohn Kailyn Neidetcher Savannah Quarum Margo Smolyanska Jenny Vu DIS T RIBU TION & M A R K E TING DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGER Evan Smiley

T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Damaris Dusciuc Long V. Nguyen Annie Ton A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher

To contact Portland State Vanguard, email info@psuvanguard.com MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print every Tuesday and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

NEWS

MEASURE TO REPEAL SANCTUARY STATE LAW APPROVED FOR NOVEMBER BALLOT ADAM BRUNS

On November 6, 2018, Oregon voters will join the national debate on immigration by voting to decide whether the state should nullify its law prohibiting local law enforcement from collaborating with federal immigration enforcement to prosecute immigrants are in the country illegally.

On July 17, Oregon election officials announced Initiative Petition 22—a measure to repeal Oregon’s sanctuary state policy, more formally known as ORS 181A.820—will appear on the ballot in the upcoming election, OPB reported. The sanctuary state policy has been controversial since it went on the books in 1987, but this is the first time the general public will vote on it. The ballot measure has already attracted heated debate.

The measure’s main sponsor, Oregonians for Immigration Reform, has been categorized as an anti-immigrant hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. OFIR cofounder Jim Ludwick contested this classification. “The Southern Poverty Law Center has never published what they think a hate group is,” he said. However, an article on the SPLC’s website defines a hate group as “an organization that—based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities—has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”

OFIR has on multiple occasions accepted funding from groups that promote white nationalism, most founded by a man named John Tanton.

Tanton, a former ophthalmologist and longtime political activist, has condemned “unsavory characters whose views can easily be characterized as anti-American, anti-Semitic and outright racist.” However, in 1983, he wrote to a friend, “for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that,”

The New York Times reported. The belief that national identity must be formed around a white majority is one of the tenets of white nationalism. In 1979, Tanton founded the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which later provided seed funding for multiple anti-immigration organizations around the country, including OFIR. When asked about OFIR’s relationship with Tanton, Ludwick said he had “never spoken to John Tanton, [and] never met him.” Ludwick framed his support for the initiative in terms of what he calls the rule of law. “When somebody is breaking the law, they should be held accountable,” Ludwick said. “Every nation has a sovereign right to decide its own immigration policies.”

Similar to Tanton, Ludwick blamed immigration for causing overpopulation and generally decreasing the quality of life in the United States. “The quality of life has suffered greatly, and I don’t think we can continue down that path. I think we have to have a different policy on immigration.”

Ludwick also pointed to high-profile crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, including the highly publicized trial of Sergio Martinez, who attacked two Portland women in 2017. Similar arguments are common among anti-immigration advocates, but statistics show undocumented immigrants are significantly less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens.

Ludwick also denied knowledge of misleading signature-gathering by Ballot Access Marketing, LLC, a firm hired by OFIR to collect signatures in support of the ballot measure. Ballot Access Marketing is currently under criminal investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice after a signature gatherer was caught misleading potential signers about the content of the initiative.

LISA DORN Oregonians will vote by mail on the ballot measure in November, as is standard in the state. No polls are currently available assessing the likelihood that the measure will pass, but a coalition that includes Nike, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Portland Business Alliance has already formed to oppose it.

FIONA SPRING

JULY 24: MERKLEY INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO JULY 26: LAWSUIT OVER BAR ONE-ON-ONE TRUMP-PUTIN MEETINGS BATHROOM POLICY

TRANSGENDER

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced a resolution to prohibit President Donald Trump from meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin or any other Russian official without the supervision of another senior U.S. official. The resolution follows Trump’s July 16 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. “President Trump made clear last week in Helsinki and since that Vladimir Putin has him wrapped around his finger,” Merkley said in a statement. “We may not know exactly why Trump is so weak in the face of Putin’s manipulations, but it’s clear that they should not be in a room alone together.

Our nation needs President Trump to act as a watchdog for America, not a lapdog for Putin.”

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit against a high school in Dallas, Ore. over a policy allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. Parents and students involved in the lawsuit said the school violated cisgender students’ right to privacy by allowing transgender student Elliot Yoder to use boys’ facilities at school. U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez dismissed this claim in his ruling, writing, “High school students do not have a fundamental privacy right to not share school restrooms, lockers, and showers with transgender students whose biological sex is different than theirs.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects the right of citizens to openly carry firearms in public. The court decided in favor of Hawaii resident George Young, ruling his rights were violated when officials denied him a permit to carry a loaded gun in public.

has qualified for the ballot in the upcoming November 2018 election with 117,799 valid signatures—just 221 signatures over the minimum requirement. Initiative Petition 1, also known as the Stop Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, is sponsored by pro-life organization Oregon Life United.

JULY 27: ABORTION INITIATIVE QUALIFIES FOR JULY 24: APPEALS COURT RULES OPEN CARRY NOVEMBER BALLOT

PROTECTED BY SECOND AMENDMENT An initiative to ban the use of state funds for abortion in Oregon

JULY 22–28

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NEWS NEWS

PORTLAND’S RESISTANCE RALLIES AGAINST TRUMP SUPREME COURT PICK

ACTIVISTS SAY #NOBRETTKAVANAUGH RESISTANCE FLAG IN CHAPMAN SQUARE. FIONA SPRING/PSU VANGUARD

FIONA SPRING On July 9, President Donald Trump announced conservative federal appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his pick to replace Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement earlier this month at age 81. On July 10 and 20, activist group Portland’s Resistance organized two rallies in protest of the nomination.

On both evenings, approximately 20 attendees and organizers gathered at 6 p.m. in the center of Chapman Square across the street from the Edith Green–Wendell Wyatt Federal Building to listen to speeches and fill out form letters addressed to Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urging them and other Senate Democrats to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation in any way possible. Attendees were asked to take selfies with their signed letters and post them on social media with the hashtag #NoBrettKavanaugh.

“Today we [didn’t] expect a big crowd,” said Gregory McKelvey, event organizer and Portland’s Resistance cofounder. “But we want to make sure that Trump’s pick is met with resistance at every single stop.”

When discussing their reasons for opposing the nomination, several attendees raised concerns regarding Kavanaugh’s views on abortion, expressing worry that his confirmation would lead to the dismantling of Roe v. Wade.

At his 2006 confirmation hearing for the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court, Kavanaugh—a Catholic—declined to speak about his personal views on abortion but said he would respect the Supreme Court precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

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However, opponents have criticized Kavanaugh for his October 2017 dissent in a case involving a pregnant immigrant minor placed in federal custody after having unlawfully crossed the U.S.–Mexico border. In the dissent, Kavanaugh argued the minor should not have been allowed to obtain an abortion while residing in an immigration detention facility, but should have been “expeditiously [transferred] to an immigration sponsor before [making] the decision to obtain an abortion,” claiming the government “has permissible interests in favoring fetal life, protecting the best interests of a minor, and refraining from facilitating abortion.”

Trump told reporters he had not discussed the issue of abortion with Kavanaugh, CNN reported.

However, McKelvey said one of his greatest concerns over the nomination is related to Kavanaugh’s views on presidential indictment. Recently, a number of Democrats—perhaps most notably Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a July 10 interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe—have claimed Kavanaugh believes a sitting president should be immune from criminal investigation or indictment.

These claims are based largely upon a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article in which Kavanaugh recommended Congress consider a law exempting the president from criminal prosecution. “The indictment and trial of a sitting President…would cripple the federal government, rendering it unable to function with credibility in either the international or domestic arenas,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Even the lesser burdens of a criminal investigation—including

preparing for questioning by criminal investigators—are time-consuming and distracting.”

Portland’s Resistance organizers claimed Trump may have selected Kavanaugh specifically because of this view in the hopes of avoiding a potential indictment related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.

“It’s unconscionable when we have a president who flaunts our nation’s laws and values that he would also be selecting the judges he would appear in front of should his illegal activity be pursued in court,” organizer James Ofsink wrote in an emailed statement.

In order to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh must receive at least 51 votes in the Senate. Though Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is currently battling cancer in his home state and unable to vote, leaving them one vote short of the threshold. However, Senate procedures could mean Democrats will struggle to defeat the appointment on their own.

This, McKelvey said, is why he and other activists urge Senate Democrats to block the vote until the midterm elections set to take place in November 2018. “I don’t care if Jeff Merkley has to pull the damn fire alarm​,” he said.

“At the end of the day, this is our moment​, and this is our chance to make history,” said speaker Kayse Jama, executive director at the Multnomah County chapter of intercultural advocacy nonprofit group Unite Oregon. “To say no Kavanaugh, but more importantly to say if people organize, we can win.

And we will win.”

NEWS

ASPSU SENATE HOLDS SPECIAL SESSION ON CPSO SHOOTING SHANDI HUNT

At 6 p.m. on July 23, Associated Students of Portland State University President Luis Balderas-Villagrana held a special senate meeting to discuss the recent Campus Public Safety officer-involved shooting of Jason Washington and construct a step-by-step action plan for campus safety.

The senate was unable to meet the required quorum of voting members to pass any official motions, but those who attended stayed for open discussion regarding campus safety. “I think it’s really important that we acknowledge that this happened, and people need to be held accountable,” Balderas-Villagrana said. “And if it means fixing policies, fixing institutions or fixing anything that needs to be done to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

A central topic of discussion was the Disarm PSU campaign.

The PSU Student Union–headed campaign, which aims to reverse the PSU Board of Trustees’ 2014 decision to introduce an armed sworn campus police force, experienced a resurgence since the June 29 shooting.

“I want to make sure this is what the students want, and I will be supportive of it all the way,” Balderas-Villagrana said. “I would really like to know what will come from this discussion.

How can we [assure] we hold those people involved accountable, how can we [assure] this doesn’t happen again?”

“The only concrete thing that can be done to ensure that doesn’t happen again, is to disarm our campus public safety,” Senator Patrick Meadors said. “We can demand that CPSO disarm itself. We can demand the director to do. We can push that.”

A CALL FOR CIVILIAN LED POLICING BRANDEE DUDZIC, PSU STUDENT

Other members had contrasting opinions. “I think better training is the answer,” said Tristan Crum, Student Fee Committee member. “I don’t think disarmament is going to happen. CPSO has the same training as Portland Police Department. If CPSO wasn’t there, PPD would have shown up, and the results could have been the same. If PPD is there, they’re going to have guns.”

PSU students have a history of opposing sworn officers on campus. In 2014, ASPSU surveyed 21,344 students on the topic via email. Roughly 1,200 students responded, and of those, 58 percent opposed armed security. The PSU faculty senate also opposed armed campus police, passing a resolution opposing an armed police force by a margin of 3 to 1. In another survey, the American Association of University Professors, polled its 1,200 PSU members. Of the 400 respondents, 256 opposed and 119 supported the idea of an armed force.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be asking ourselves: Do we delay doing the right thing because [the decision to disarm CPSO] is difficult and we [don’t] want to take a position, or [do] we step out in front of it because we [have] an opportunity to stand up for what we [know is] right?” Senator Camilo Abreu Assad said.

Balderas-Villagrana–who also sits on the University Public Safety Oversight Committee–said he also wanted to hear from students who feel safer with armed campus security. “I want to make sure we listen to those students who do feel safe with CPSO being armed,” he said. “I come from an On Friday morning, June 29, at exactly 3:09 a.m., my phone rang. I sat up like an arrow because I am long past the age where the call meant that my friends were pranking me as they stumble out of a bar. I am of the age where a call at 3:09 a.m. is inauspicious. It was a PSU alert urging me to check my email. I did, and the only information provided was “Police investigation occurring in the area of SW Broadway and SW College. There is no threat to the community at this time.

Please stay away from the area.”

The next morning, I read that two Portland State University campus police officers, Shawn McKenzie and James Dewey, shot and killed Jason Washington as he tried to break up a fight outside a well-known campus bar, The Cheerful Tortoise—a bar I walk past almost every day at school. Various student and faculty groups have been protesting the armament of campus police since 2012; however, their protests were unsuccessful, and in December of 2014, the school board voted in favor of armament.

Witness to all this was Keyaira Smith, whose video footage of almost two minutes was shown on OPB News. I watched that video three times, and I saw Jason Washington’s gun (which he had a valid concealed carry permit for) the entire time, and at no point did he ever mention his gun or threaten to use it. What I did

LISA KOHN area in Eastern Oregon that’s very conservative, very pro– Second Amendment. I had individuals [pull] a gun on me in spaces where that shouldn’t have happened. The only resource I had was police officers. If it wasn’t for police officers, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

“Someone being killed on campus is very alarming, and it really hurts,” Senator Fatima Preciado said. “PSU has become our second home for many of us, and to think this incident happened, it’s obviously very concerning.”

see was him pushing his friend backward time and time again, in efforts to prevent a fight. I did not see the same from the officers. At no point did I see them actively attempting to break up this fight.

Why? Were they afraid? Do you know what happens when fearful men are given a badge and a gun? They are still fearful, only now they are armed. And do you know what a fearful officer can do?

ANYTHING THEY WANT. That is literally the law. If an officer fears you will take his life, they are legally allowed to take yours first.“There was absolutely no hesitation at all. [The officer] went straight for his gun,” Smith said according to OPB. In an excerpt from the book My Grandmother’s Hands: Radicalized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies, Resmaa Menakem recalls a conversation with his brother, a police officer: Resmaa, so many officers are told, over and over, “Hesitation will get you killed.

The faster you react, the more likely you are to go home alive.” Some cops are trained to let their reptilian brains take over. Back when I was first getting started, I was also told, “Once you draw your gun, empty your clip.” The idea is that if a threat is so big that I have to pull my gun, I’m going to need to annihilate that threat.” He paused. “Resmaa, that—” He

paused again. “— is fucked up.”

It’s such a tired excuse, but I believe Shawn McKenzie and James Dewey were following their training. Tactical training is necessary, but police need so much more than that. “They also need skills to slow themselves down, be present, pay attention and exercise discernment. They need practice in unthawing themselves from a freeze response without going into a fight or annihilate response. They need practices to help their nervous systems settle, so they don’t plunge unnecessarily into a lizard-brain reaction,” reads another excerpt from My Grandmother’s Hands.

Police reform has been a buzzword in the United States, whether it be extra body cams, better methods of community policing, etc. It isn’t working.

Former Baltimore Police Sergeant turned Civilian Led Policing activist Michael Wood Jr. has some incredible ideas for managing law enforcement through a civilian board of directors.

Right now, the police are in charge of civilians, but it should be the other way around. If you are interested in learning more about Civilian Led Policing, please check out Campaign Zero at www.joincampaignzero.org.

Multnomah County medical examiners labeled Washington’s death a homicide.

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INTERNATIONAL

PSU WELCOMES FULBRIGHTERS MARENA RIGGAN

This year, Portland State’s Intensive English Language Program was chosen by the Institute of International Education to train 35 Fulbright scholars in academic expectations, English for advanced studies and cultural integration as they prepare for their graduate and doctoral programs. Meet some of these standout students currently studying at PSU.

PAN BANTAWTOOK UBON RATCHATHANI, THAILAND

Pan Bantawtook received a bachelor’s degree in English and communication at Ubon Ratchathani University in 2009 and a master’s degree in English literature from Chulalongkorn Univer-

MAHDI ALOUANE LA MARSA, TUNIS, TUNISIA

Mahdi Alouane received a bachelor’s degree in computer software engineering from the National Institute of

MAHMOUD ALASHI GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE

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sity in 2012. Between 2014 and 2015, Bantawtook taught Thai to beginner and intermediate students at Northern Illinois University as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant.

Her focus now is language literacy and technology in education, which she will explore in her doctoral program at Washington State University.

While here in the IELP training program, she hopes to explore Portland culture and the infamous Nong’s Khao Man Gai food cart. She aspires to teach English language and literature at the university level, and train teachers how to develop their language skills and use technology in the classroom.

Applied Science and Technology. For the past year, he interned with the nongovernmental organization Democracy International, and he also worked as a developer and project manager for the advertising agency Gdice. For his senior project, he worked with the rising startup Anava, which specializes in IT development. Inspired by how data is misused, he will pursue a master’s degree in data science at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

After he completes his program, he would like to further explore how data science effects global progression.

Mahmoud Alashi began his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering in Gaza. He graduated in telecommunications engineering in 2007 at City University in London after receiving a scholarship from the Olive Tree Trust, a program designed to bring together talented Israelis and Palestinians.

He received his master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Islamic University of Gaza in 2014 with a specializa-

PSU Vanguard • JULY 31, 2018 • psuvanguard.com

HARI SPECIAL REGION OF YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA

Hari graduated in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the oldest university in Indonesia—the Universitas Gadjah Mada—where he

ANITA KIRKOVSKA SKOPJE, MACEDONIA

Anita Kirkovska received her undergraduate degree in computer science at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering

tion in control systems engineering. Alashi will begin his second graduate degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology, specializing in power electronics. He intends to act as an ambassador for Palestine, and he hopes to use his specializations to find solutions for the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.

He will be joined by his wife, Sara, and his two young sons, Zain and Yousef, while obtaining his degree.

now works as a lecturer in the Department of Politics and Government. In 2004, he volunteered as a reporter for the Institute for Research and Empowerment’s The Flamma Review, and in 2006 he become a full-time junior researcher. He studied at the University of Delaware with a scholarship from USAID, where he received a master’s degree in public administration.

This fall, he will begin a doctoral program at the State University of New York where he hopes to gain understanding of how privileged groups take advantage of resources so he may assist disadvantaged populations, activists and nongovernmental organizations in Indonesia.

in 2016. During this time, she also worked with one of the first accelerators in the country and traveled to Silicon Valley for the NASA Space Apps Challenge, working with companies to promote NASA’s open data transparency. In 2017, she worked as a growth hacker for Adeva, a local Macedonian hub for developers.

In 2018, she joined the If When Then startup, a platform that brought her closer to achieving her goal of making lasting change in education. After completing the IELP training program, she will go to the University of Central Florida in Orlando to pursue her master’s in data science.

LUIS (FELIPE) FLORES QUITO, ECUADOR

RAED ASHOUR HEBRON, WEST BANK AND GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE

Though he loves his native Palestine, Raed Ashour describes the U.S. as his second home. In 2015, Ashour had the opportunity to study for two months at

Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in an exchange program with the Global Business Institute.

That same year, Ashour graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, which he was motivated to study after witnessing destruction from the wars between 2008 and 2014 in the Gaza Strip. He will attend Syracuse University for a master’s degree in construction engineering and management. He hopes to continue building positive relationships between Palestinians and U.S. residents. As a long-term goal, he would like to start a consulting firm assisting in management and implementation of development projects.

After growing up in one of the most violent neighborhoods in El Salvador, Karla Castillo received a

bachelor’s degree in economics and business from Escuela Superior de Economia y Negocios in 2015.

Castillo has studied in nine different countries on academic scholarship—including the State Department’s Study of the U.S. Institutes for Scholars program to learn about government systems. Realizing El Salvador needed assistance, she became involved in human rights and worked with the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees.

She will attend Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. for a master’s degree in public administration. Castillo has also expressed an interest in assisting asylum seekers during her time in the United States.

Felipe Flores received his bachelor’s degree in architecture in 2015 from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. He found his passion at the Universidad Cátolica de Chile, where he explored how to use eco-friendly materials in a course on rammed earth—a construction technique that uses natural materials for floors, walls and foundations.

He learned English in order to communicate about environmental issues concerning the Amazon

rainforest with travelers passing through. For the next two years, he will attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a master’s in architecture with a specialization in materials and fabrication. He also hopes to connect with nongovernmental organizations that might be interested in Ecuadorian issues. He aspires to teach best practices in construction materials in Ecuador and travel South America working with local communities.

KARLA CASTILLO SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR, CENTRAL AMERICA

INTERNATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS PREPARE FOR EFFECTS OF TRAVEL BAN ANAMIKA VAUGHAN On June 26, 2018, the United States Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s travel ban in a 5-4 decision. The ban, originally put forth in 2017, restricts individuals from Iran, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, Venezuela and Syria from entering the U.S..

The decision marked the end of a long journey for the ban, which began as a campaign promise Trump put into action shortly after taking office. The initial version of the ban was shot down by a federal judge in Washington state as quickly as it was put together. A second reformed version faced a similar fate before a team of lawyers eventually managed to draft the version of the law approved by the Supreme Court.

Director of Portland State’s Office of International Student and Scholar Affairs Christina Luther said she was shocked at the decision. “[I was] very surprised because of all the court battles that have been put in place against the travel ban,” she said. “[I] really thought that the Supreme Court would say that it was unconstitutional or that aspects of it were not appropriate.”

In February 2018, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the ban unconstitutional, concluding it was “unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam.” The Supreme Court, however, ruled the six Muslim-majority nations included in the ban were selected based on the information-sharing practices of their governments and potential national security

risks rather than on religion. “[The ban] is expressly premised on legitimate purposes and says nothing about religion,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the Court’s decision.

Luther said there are 48 students currently attending PSU who originate from countries included in the ban: Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Venezuela.

Luther made it clear that the ban will have no immediate impact on any students who currently reside on campus.

The ban only restricts entry into the U.S., so students who are already here will not be immediately affected. “It does, however,” Luther warned, “impact their ability to travel outside the United States and re-enter.”

“Once [they] have entered the United States once, they can’t enter again without applying for a new visa,” Luther said. “If they leave the United States, they will be subjected to heightened security measures, and there is a good chance they will simply not be given visas and will have to abandon their studies.”

Of the 48 PSU students from the affected countries, 17 are graduate students, 12 of whom are doctoral candidates. For them, the implications of the recently passed ban present even more complications.

“Normally, doctoral level students are participating in professional conferences, they’re presenting papers, presenting research, and a lot of those conferences take place outside of

KAILYN NEIDETCHER the United States,” Luther said. “They can’t travel to take part in those conferences, so their ability to engage in academic discourse is impeded by the fact that their travel to and from the United States is made a lot more difficult.”

“I think other students are worried that their countries will be added to this list,” Luther said. “The administration has said that once the seven countries on the list demonstrate to the United States they have taken steps to reduce terrorist activity that they may be removed from the list, but I think the opposite could happen as well—that countries could be added to the list.”

DECONSTRUCTING STEREOTYPES ABOUT IRAN PROFESSOR ROBERT ASAADI PRESENTS ON IRANIAN CINEMA MARENA RIGGAN On July 16, members of the community gathered in the Parsons Gallery for Adjunct Professor Robert Asaadi’s “Beyond Stereotypes: Exploring the Human Experience in Iranian New Wave Cinema,” a lecture in conjunction with the Middle East Studies Center’s 2018 series “Middle East in a Time of Change.”

Asaadi—a specialist in Iranian studies—currently teaches in the Departments of Political Science and International Studies and holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Minnesota.

Asaadi began his lecture describing common portrayals of Iran in Western cinema, such as in Rosewater (2014), Argo (2012), 300 (2006) and Not Without My Daughter (1991). In each of these cases, the films either minimized or misappropriated Iranian society.

Additionally, he gave an overview of the past 40 years of political discourse, specifically the phrases used by former United States presidents, such as “outlaw, rogue state, state of concern, outlier state,” and what he argues is the most damning, “Axis of Evil.”

This evening, however, was not about debunking missteps in U.S. foreign policy but rather to look at Iran outside the commonplace trajectory of global politics.

“Life is more complex than good guys and bad guys, than ‘you’re either with us or against us,’ or you’re a rogue state or a rogue actor,” Asaadi said. “Morality and ethical issues involve a lot more complexity.”

Before delving into the featured movies, Asaadi opened with a poem that relates to these complexities. Though he was unsure of the author, he believes it might have been the ninth century poet Rudaki.

focusing on economic inequalities, public versus private spheres, and emigration.

A Separation also addresses issues of inequalities, publicprivate lives and emigration, while also taking a critical look at the ethics of the characters involved and the role of religion.

An interesting feature of this movie was the opening to the film, which features “In the name of God” in Persian, rather than the more widely used Arabic.

The poem reads: “Oh dead person Who did you kill so that you were killed?

And who will kill the one that killed you?”

Included in this lecture were clips from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), A Separation (2011) and Taste of Cherry (1997), all of which show complexity of Iranian society.

Described by some as the first Iranian vampire western, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night features a girl who is never named riding through the streets of Bad City on a skateboard as her chador flutters behind her like a cape while she doles out justice. One of the major contemporary Iranian issues the movie attempts to address is drug abuse, while also

The last movie featured that evening was Abbas Kiarostami’s film Taste of Cherry, named for the story told toward the end of the film. The film is set in the outskirts of Tehran on a man driving around attempting to find someone to help him commit suicide. Throughout the movie he meets people of various backgrounds in regards to their societal roles, ethics, as well as ethnicity in a multi-ethnic society.

Asaadi ended the lecture by saying, “I think it’s useful to look at what [Iranians are] producing as a culture, and cinema is one of the forms where Iranians both in Iran and abroad are actively engaged. I think it goes a long way to break through the oversimplifications of Iran as a threatening, evil rogue actor.”

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COVER

OCCUPY ICE EVICTED FIVE WEEK PROTEST COMES TO END DAVID GILLESPIE AND CORY ELIA After five weeks of occupying federal land surrounding Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, the Occupy ICE PDX protest came to an end early on the morning of Wednesday, July 25 as dozens of Portland Police Bureau officers stormed the camp and cleared out the dozen or so protestors who remained. In a press briefing, Chief of Portland Police Bureau Danielle Outlaw said the operation went smoothly and without the use of force or any arrests.

On June 17, occupiers planted themselves in front of the entrances of the ICE facility, protesting the Trump administration’s zerotolerance immigration policy. The occupation prevented federal workers from entering and caused the facility to shut down for eight days, beginning June 20. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was vocal during this time about his intention for the PPB to remain handsoff with the occupiers, leaving the issue to be handled by federal authorities.

On June 25, protesters were served with an official notice informing them that blocking the entrances to the federal building was illegal and any campers who chose to remain in front of the entrances would be forcibly removed.

Around 5:30 a.m. on June 28, after more attempts to serve the same notice to campers, federal authorities formed a barricade around the occupiers and forcibly cleared them and their temporary living structures from the entrances. The operation resulted in several arrests and misdemeanor charges for failure to comply with the orders of federal agents.

However, more tents and structures were built, and supporters of the movement continued to join as similar movements across the country followed suit.

The June 28 raid was not the final combative incident associated with the occupation. On July 9, Department of Homeland Security officers arrested two people who allegedly spat at officers and tore down tape put up to separate the camp from the federal building. Members of the occupation had a different account of what happened, however, and claimed DHS had approached the camp for no reason and fired pepper balls at unarmed protesters.

Two days later, on July 11, DHS officers made eight more arrests after occupiers locked arms and blocked the parking lot of the ICE facility in an attempt to prevent a bus from leaving the facility. According to the sources within the movement, the bus was transporting a detainee to a detention facility in Tacoma, Wash.

Federal Protective Service Spokesperson Robert Sperling said the protestors had previously been warned to clear the driveway and eventually forced DHS officers to take physical action after protesters threw sev-

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DEMONSTRATORS GATHER IN FRONT OF OCCUPY ICE PROTEST CAMP. BRIAN MCGLOIN/PSU VANGUARD eral objects in the direction of police, including a board with protruding nails. Sperling claimed the occupiers had agreed to not block the driveway under any circumstances.

Occupation organizers refuted this claim.

At a July 23 press conference, Wheeler warned occupiers to vacate the camp or be disbanded by police. “It’s time to move on to the second phase of this,” Wheeler said. “To a more sustainable front that focuses on immigration policy over the next months and years.”

By the evening of July 23, notices of exclusion had been posted throughout the camp, citing crimes including criminal trespassing, erecting a structure in a public right of way, and camping in a public right of way. City officials did not specify when police would sweep the campers from the area, but some protesters speculated it would be around midnight on July 24.

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In response to the eviction notice, Occupy ICE organizers tweeted, “Camp consensus: We don’t move until ICE is out of Portland and abolished.”

Around 4:30 a.m. on July 25, PPB officers moved in on the camp and began evicting campers.

“They came in really quick this morning around 4:15 a.m. from the south side of camp by the Tesla dealership,” said an occupier who identified himself as John. “There was still about a dozen of us camped in, and they went from tent to tent telling us it was time to go.”

“PPB determined the conditions down here were no longer sustainable for a few reasons,” Outlaw said. “We received over a period of time 76 calls of service. Of those, about 41 were dispatch calls [meaning an officer was sent to the scene]...We also received 13 online complaints associated with the camp about behaviors of individuals that

have impacted the safety of people [in] the South Waterfront area.”

“I agree with the idea that no child should be separated from their parents, but the members of this protest group lost their way a while ago,” said local resident Mark Gerard.

“They have not been civil with the local residents and businesses. At this point I’m not sorry to see them go.”

By 8 a.m., the camp was mostly vacant, with only a few occupiers remaining. An occupier who identified himself as Sammich— “like a PB&J,” he quipped—or Sam for short, said he was able to step away from his work and briefly reflect on his time with the occupation movement.

“It’s been quite astonishing, the level of community we’ve been able to build here despite the many varying degrees on the spectrum of which political views are represented within this camp,” Sam said. “We’ve been able

COVER to come together with [a] pretty high level of coalescence and make a lot of really incredible things happen.”

Sam was quick to acknowledge, however, that the occupation had its various twists and turns.

On July 20, for instance, the camp came faceto-face with United States Senate candidate Joey Gibson and his right-wing protest group Patriot Prayer. The group has frequently made its presence known in Portland, most recently during its June 30 Freedom and Courage Rally, which quickly devolved into violence before being declared a riot.

When Gibson and his crew arrived, they attracted attention from the PPB as well as local anti-fascist groups. “That was such a spectacle,” Sam said. “I tried to stay a little hands-off with it because I’m not always the most diplomatic of individuals in those types of situations, but it seemed like [Gibson] was just overly trying to convince everyone on this side of the barricade that they stood in solidarity with our causes and our purposes.”

“I don’t take any personal political standpoint or direct affiliation,” Sam said, “but the racist tendencies of what I know Patriot Prayer to be...that just doesn’t sit well with anyone back here. Especially considering the reason for which [the occupation], as a whole, exists. When individuals like that try to come into the mix, a lot of them just come in to cause trouble, just to cause dissension within the encampment, just to cause it to break down on its own.”

In a live video on his Facebook account, Gibson said his reasons for visiting the camp were nonviolent. He said he was interested

in civil disobedience as a form of protest and wanted to see it firsthand.

When PPB posted the notices ordering the camp to vacate, Sam said the occupiers had a “very loose, impromptu, short-lived group discussion that basically, all in all, said ‘hey, this is what’s happening, PPB isn’t gonna mess around with us, and it’s up to each and every individual.’” He said many of the occupiers decided at that juncture to leave ahead of the forthcoming police intervention, but that it was a welcomed and understood choice within the camp.

“There are women with children here, youngsters. I’ve seen one as young as two months old,” Sam said. “So people like that, people who are to a degree physically disabled, some of our elderly have left; the immediate concern is mostly what it’s been and that makes perfect sense.”

As of Tuesday morning, though, Sam said he was ready to stay put and accept the consequences. “I’ve been here this long,” Sam said. “I can’t say I’m quite committed to being dragged out of here in chains—that’s never a pleasant experience—but, nevertheless, that’s not something too harsh to suffer for the cause.”

Sam said he was confident the desired outcome of the movement had not changed and would not change. “Ideally, if I had it my way, we’d stay until not just this building was permanently shut down, but until the entire branch of the government [ICE] were shut down,” Sam said. “We’ve all come here and been here with the understanding that this is temporary. If it’s time, it’s time.”

PROTESTERS DECAPITATE A PINATA EFFIGY OF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP. BRIAN MCGLOIN/PSU VANGUARD

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FORM A LINE BLOCKING SW BANCROFT STREET. BRIAN MCGLOIN/PSU VANGUARD

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ARTS NEWS INTERNATIONAL NEWS& CULTURE July 24, 28

Afghanistan

July 23

Sweden Swedish student activist Elin Ersson successfully impeded the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker when she refused to sit down until he was removed from the plane. Ersson, a student at Gothenburg University, originally bought a ticket for the flight with fellow activists when they learned of the deportation. Sweden’s government has been deporting Afghan asylum seekers en masse after determining the country is safe despite the continued attacks by groups like the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

Seperately in an ongoing situation, more than 50 fires are raging throughout the country amid heatwaves and drought. The fires have burned through approximately 62,000 acres of forest so far, and thousands have been evacuated from their homes in Gävleborg, Jämtland and Dalarna. In response to a plea for international assistance, Italy, France, Germany, Lithuania, Denmark, Portugal, Poland and Austria have responded, offering planes, helicopters, vehicles and firefighting staff.

According to the Afghan media TOLO News, some five or six explosions hit the capital city of Kabul via rocket fire in the early afternoon of July 24.

At least one rocket landed on a house with civilians inside while the others hit the slope of a nearby mountain.

Some speculate they were aiming for the local Police Academy. At least seven people were injured with three hospitalized from serious injuries.

July 23

Germany German football star Mesut Özil resigned from the international arena, stating he will no longer play for Germany due to feelings of racism and disrespect. Özil, who is thirdgeneration Turkish German, received backlash from German politicians who questioned his loyalty to German democracy after being photographed with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in May 2018. Özil said he received hate mail and was blamed for Germany’s defeat in the recent 2018 World Cup, stating, “I am a German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.”

In a separate incident on July 28, gunmen raided a medical training facility for midwives after multiple explosions hit the city of Jalalabad.

Afghan special forces were deployed and a six-hour battle over the facility began, after which all assailants were confirmed dead. At least two people were killed and eight wounded, including five civilians. The facility at the time had 69 people inside, 57 of whom were able to escape during the battle with aid from special forces. The Taliban has denied involvement in the attack, and no other group or individual has claimed responsibility yet.

July 24

Israel; Syria The Israeli military shot down a Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet after monitoring its movements around the occupied Golan Heights. An Israeli military spokesman said the jet breached the Golan Heights at a relatively high speed when it was shot down. It is not confirmed if the breach was intentional. The Syrian state media claim the jet was still inside Syrian airspace at the time while conducting raids against the Islamic State group in Syria’s southern region.

July 25

Pakistan Amid a surge in violence and suicide attacks targeting political rallies, voting in Pakistan’s general election began at 8 a.m. local time with some 800,000 security personnel protecting the country’s 85,000 polling stations.

Despite the security deployment, at least 31 were killed and more than 40 wounded near a polling station in Quetta after a suicide explosion targeted a police convoy.

Of the 106 million registered voters, Pakistan Today reported 51.8 percent voter turnout. The election decided 272 contestable seats with three main parties and a number of independents.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party led by Imran Khan was the decided victor at 116 seats, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz with 63 seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party with 43 seats.

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July 28

India

A bus carrying employees of the Dapoli Agriculture University fell into a gorge while driving on the mountain road of Ambenali Ghat. The bus was en route to a scenic area in Mahabaleshwar where the university employees were planning to have a picnic. Out of the 34 passengers, only one survived, which the district administrator called miraculous.

INTERNATIONAL Ongoing

Japan

Japan enters its second week of continued heatwaves as the government declares a natural disaster. At least 65 people have died in the past week from heat stroke, 80 since the heatwave began, and over 22,000 have been hospitalized. According to Kyodo News, at least 13 people died on July 23 alone. The Japan Meteorological Agency warns the heatwave will extend into early August.

July 23

Toronto, Canada

July 29

Cambodia Over 80 percent of registered voters turned out for Cambodia’s general election despite both national and international criticisms of it being a sham. The ruling party—Cambodian People’s Party—won 80 percent of the 125 parliamentary seats, and Hun Sen was re-elected as prime minister. However, rights groups have denounced the election due to voter intimidation and the lack of real opposition since the disbandment of the Cambodia National Rescue Party.

July 26

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Bangsamoro Organic Law giving autonomy to the Moro minority group—around 11 percent of the population—after almost five decades of conflict in the region. The Moros are Muslim communities living mainly on the islands of Mindanao, Palawan and Solo. With the new law, the Moros will be able to form a government for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, which will have a judicial system and parliament independent from the national government.

A mass shooting left two dead and 13 injured in the Greektown neighborhood. According to The Toronto Star, the assailant calmly walked down a street, firing into restaurants and reloading intermittently. After exchanging fire with police, he fled and was found dead with a gunshot wound.

Witnesses described hearing 20–30 shots fired, with one victim shot two to three times. The deceased victims were aged 10 and 18, and another child is in critical condition.

July 28

Managua, Nicaragua Thousands demonstrated in the capital in support of the country’s Catholic bishops after President Daniel Ortega accused them of attempting a coup to overthrow him. Bishops in the country have been mediating discussions to help bring peaceful solutions between government and opposition in the country. In response, Ortega made accusations they were assisting terrorists and coup-mongers.

Saturday’s demonstrations brought together people of multiple religious backgrounds.

July 29

Lombok, Indonesia Fourteen people are reported dead after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the island of Lombok early in the morning with over a hundred tremors recorded in its wake. Thousands of homes were damaged and 162 people injured, while electricity went out in the region of Sembalun. Additionally, hundreds of climbers were evacuated from the Rinjani National Park on the popular tourist island.

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ARTS & CULTURE

A JUDGEMENT DAY PALAHNIUK’S LATEST CAUTION: SPOILERS MATTHEW ANDREWS The scariest thing about Chuck Palahniuk’s Adjustment Day is that it’s not as scary as real life. Don’t get me wrong: It’s terrifying. It’s blood-curdlingly, bone-shakingly, soul-shatteringly horrifying on every level. It’s a fucking Palahniuk book, and it makes things worse that I live and work in Portland where most of the action occurs.

But as an analysis of What’s Wrong with America, the book almost made me wish we lived in Palahniuk’s world instead of ours: He puts his finger right on the deep veins of bitterness and anger that have driven so much of our culture this last decade or two, and it’s the raw goddamn truth. The naked lunch at the end of your fork. Our Great War is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives.

Adjustment Day is a fable about a mass-assassination plot. The first half details the buildup to the big day, when a network of angry men who’ve bonded over their resentment and rage get together to kill everyone on their shit list and take over the government. It’s Fight Club’s Project Mayhem re-imagined by Steve Bannon.

The second half, where the book gets really compelling, details the aftermath. Everyone has to deal with What Happened, one way or another, and Palahniuk’s genius is showing you exactly why his characters make the decisions they do, and how their original motivations lead to how they deal with the consequences. There’s also plenty of grand surrealist sequences. The Pacific Northwest turns into a horrific Society for Creative Anachronism nightmare when white nationalists outlaw STEM and start a chain of feudal victory gardens in the Columbia Gorge.

Closeted heterosexual couples meet surreptitiously in a mandatorily queer California. There’s a bunch of totally unexpected Afro-Futurism in Blacktopia (I swear I’m not making this up) and plenty of all the crazy absurdist shit Palahniuk does so well.

The book ends on an ambiguous but hopeful note, which might have felt forced and false coming from any other writer, but Palahniuk makes the landing. In a way, it’s the ending that scares me the most: He loops backstory into the aftermath, showing us via flashbacks the inexorable planning of Adjustment Day at the same time he’s showing us the first tendrils of resistance nearly two years later. Ultimately, I think he might be more optimistic than he seems at first glance.

MARGO SMOLYANSKA To update those of you who dropped off after Fight Club: Palahniuk has been getting better and better these last 20 years. He was already an engaging writer and insightful social critic, but over the course of his last several novels, he’s matured into a serious satirist with surprising emotional depth hiding behind all the patented Generation X cynicism. If you’ve followed him past Choke and Lullaby up through Beautiful You, the Damned Trilogy and the Fight Club 2 comics (which were awesome, and you can fight me about it), then Adjustment Day will feel like the culmination of a literary trajectory now entering its third decade. The book is important, funny and good—a rare trifecta. It’s also a delicious page-burning thriller, a one-day binge worthy of Stephen King (who has also improved with age, but that’s a story for a different book review), and reaches levels of cutting psychological satire and endearing humanism which put Palahniuk in the same league as Ballard and Ellis, maybe even Vonnegut.

Not too bad for a former diesel mechanic.

VARDA & BIRKIN DOUBLE FEATURE

FIND IT AT

‘JANE B. PAR AGNÈS V.’ AND ‘KUNG-FU MASTER’ ANDREW GAINES ‘JANE B PAR AGNES V.’ COURTESY OF ARBELOS FILMS

‘KUNG-FU MASTER.’ COURTESY OF ARBELOS FILMS

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This weekend, 5th Avenue Cinema continues its run of double features with two 1988 films from director Agnès Varda and actor Jane Birkin. The first, Jane B. Par Agnès V., is a sort of documentary chronicling Jane Birkin’s career so far, discussing roles she aspires to fill (then acting them out within the documentary), and ruminating on her life at age 40.

While the documentary was being filmed, Birkin and Varda came up with the idea for the double feature’s second film, Kung-Fu Master. The film is not a French martial arts film, sadly, but is still quite interesting. An examination of a highly inappropriate romance between a bored housewife and a 14-year-old arcade enthusiast, the film views Birkin’s character as a subject of condemnation, but also tragedy—healthy, well-adjusted people don’t date 14-year-olds, after all.

If you’re looking for an air-conditioned way to digest some European arthouse cinema, there are far worse ways you could do it than spending an afternoon at 5th Avenue Cinema.

ARTS & CULTURE

THE MELVINS: 30 YEARS WITHOUT A JOB AN INTERVIEW WITH KING BUZZO OSBORNE AND HIS BRACE OF BASSISTS

C.J. CLARINGBOLD My friend Jerry Wilkins was first in line Friday, July 20 outside Wonder Ballroom, for his 38th time seeing the iconic, weird and wildly influential heavy-metal-inspired and grungeinspiring Melvins.

The prolific Melvins are touring their new album Pinkus Abortion Technician–a riff on the 1987 Butthole Surfers album Locust Abortion Technician–featuring Butthole Surfers bassist Jeff Pinkus, two Butthole Surfers covers, and a distorted slowed-down cover of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

The Melvins brought their powerfully groovy, hard-rocking, doom-town sound and their ‘70s rockstar vibe to an all-ages Portland crowd electrified by the wiry-haired presence of lead singer and guitarist Buzz Osborne, wearing one of his trademark eyeball-emblazoned sci-fi slickers and commanding the scene while dueling bass players Pinkus and Steven McDonald tore up the stage on either side.

Portland State Vanguard huddled in a noisy backstage booth with Osborne and Pinkus before the show.

MAKING MONEY AS MUSICIANS

Buzz Osborne: I’m always planning something. I spend 70 percent of my waking hours trying to figure out how to hustle a living out of this. So far, so good. I haven’t had a job since 1988. So, success. There’s nobody underwriting what I’m doing. The thing is, what happens with a lot of this kind of stuff is people think you’re either fabulously wealthy or you have nothing at all. They don’t look at it like it’s possible to make a living playing music.

WHAT MOTIVATES THEM AFTER 35 YEARS

Osborne: Not every day is good, but they never would be. You look at people like Chris Cornell, who was fabulously wealthy, lots of success, wife and kids at home—kills himself. That’s a story that happens every day. I don’t know what the answer is.

Jeff Pinkus: I’m happy, I love my life, I love doing what we do.

Like Willie Nelson says: For him, what’s retirement? He quits playing golf, smoking weed and playing music. I doubt that’s going to happen.

SPORTS

Osborne: I love playing golf. When I’m at home I play every day, as much as I can. I’ve always loved sports; I’ve just always hated the people who play sports.

Pinkus: I’ve been fancying tennis lately, myself.

COVERING BUTTHOLE SURFERS SONGS

Osborne: It was easy.

Pinkus: I’ve always wanted to play ‘em.

Osborne: It seemed like the right thing to do.

Pinkus: I wanted to play “Florida” with someone who could remember the lyrics.

Osborne: I saw [Butthole Surfers] in probably ‘82 or ‘83. I was a big fan, I thought it was really good. I really liked their attitude and the fact that they were very musical and they were different.

DUELING BASS PLAYERS

Pinkus: [McDonald] is very California-esque and I have to explain my bad, off-color jokes to him sometimes. He can be so innocent and pure. He hates it when I say that.

Osborne: They’re both acid casualties from a young age. Once you have that in perspective, it’s easier to deal with.

Pinkus: [Osborne] saw we both have different styles. When he

MELVINS DEMOLISH WONDER BALLLROOM. C.E. CLARE/PSU VANGUARD asked me about doing recordings with Steven, he said, “Yeah, Steven’s a great musician and a really nice guy, and you’re a fucking weirdo!”

Osborne: Steven is one of the most badass bass players I’ve ever played with. He’s a really good player. He’s very underrated.

We’ve never had a band with two bass players. It’s an odd combo, but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work. I like it a lot.

Pinkus: Our sounds are completely different. I’m into more like a Grand Funk tone, and he plays with a pick and has more like a Beatles kind of tone. We both get to use toys, so one of us can go low while the other one can go high. There’s a lot of different textures. [Buzz] just stands there and does performance art.

Osborne: I don’t even play anymore! I don’t have to change a lot of strings. I bought two sets for the tour, that’s it. Two guitars, two sets of strings.

FAVORITE PORTLAND BANDS

Smegma, The Wipers, Poison Idea, Iommi Stubbs

ADVICE FOR NEW BANDS

Osborne: Be as peculiar as possible.

Pinkus: Make the hard stuff look easy and the easy stuff look hard.

Osborne: Don’t go to college.

Steven McDonald, poking his head in: Get a tuner. Make sure your tuners are calibrated to one another.

WHO’S THE BETTER BASSIST?

McDonald: We have a plan. There’s a duel that’s gonna be happening at the end of the tour—pistols at dawn. We will never know about the bass player, but we will know who’s better at pistols.

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED!

A good chunk of my friends are Melvins fans, so I reached out to ask, “What would you ask the Melvins?”

Bryan Donald White: I would ask Pinkus to recall the very first time he took LSD. Pinkus: That’s easy. It was Orange Sunshine. I saw all the bones in my hand.

Adrienne Shaffer: Do they still nail down their drum set?

Osborne: We have a carpet for that.

Pinkus: We nail the drummer down instead. They tried to do that to me with the bass, but it wouldn’t work.

Jason Frazier: Is punk dead?

Osborne: No, but it just sucks now.

Pinkus: I missed it. I’m 50. I was in Georgia, so I was part of it, but we didn’t have much of it there. When I started playing with the Butthole Surfers, I thought we were already post-punk.

Harry Gadd: Angles—obtuse or acute?

Osborne: Obtuse.

Kristin Urbana Weigert: What exactly is a night goat?

Osborne: I think it’s clear. How much clearer do we have to say it?

Sean Farrell: Is Joan Osborne your secret daughter?

Osborne: I thought she looked familiar!

Lindsey Burdett: How do you make that chipmunk voice?

Osborne: Helium.

Brendan Mack Hagin: Why haven’t Melvins recorded “Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings”?

Osborne: Well, it would be hard to improve on it. But we could.

We certainly could.

Jerry Wilkins: Ask Buzz why he runs the other way every time he sees me. All I want is to shake his hand and a pic.

Osborne: It’s not that I’m afraid. I’m a germophobe.

My friend Jerry finally has closure, and maybe someday he’ll get that pic. No matter what, he will be there next time, first in line.

My name is C.J. and this is my new column where I will share interviews, reviews, events, opinions, and musings on the local music scene. Check out my radio show “The House of Sarcasm” on KPSU, Fridays at 11 am.

Welcome to C.J. Claringbold’s new column The Psychedelic Sub-Basement a place to find interviews, reviews, events, opinions and musings on the local music scene. Check out C.J.’s radio show The House of Sarcasm at 11 a.m. Fridays on KPSU.

PSU Vanguard • JULY 31, 2018 • psuvanguard.com

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OPINION

IT’S TIME TO RETHINK VEGANISM KATHARINE PIWONKA For a movement that’s entire purpose is ending systematic oppression by welcoming empathy, it’s unfortunate how exclusionary the mainstream vegan community has become.

Current attitudes surrounding contemporary veganism encourage the ranking of certain vegan lifestyles over others, creating a hierarchy based on classist, white-washed and capitalistic principles.

It’s time to rethink veganism.

In May, The Guardian reported on a U.K. vegan blogger, Zara-Anne Borrelli, who was berated by other vegans on Twitter. The attack was instigated by another vegan, Anthony Dagher, who took offense to the blogger buying a crying child ice cream containing dairy. The blogger was accused of not being vegan alongside having her ethics scrutinized by strangers.

The argument against Borrelli is based on the idea that true vegans cannot monetarily support animal agriculture. Therefore, buying non-vegan ice cream put Borrelli at fault.

For those who believe anyone who purchases or consumes non-vegan products any kind should not call themselves vegan, please consider this: Being vegan goes far beyond refusing to buy or consume animal products.

The recent spat on Twitter shines light on the problematic vegan police mindset. Policing the vegan label excludes those who don’t have the financial agency to choose what they eat, such as houseless people, children and teens financially dependent on their parents and individuals recovering from eating disorders who have discussed recovery plans with medical professionals. By enforcing misplaced vegan rules and ranking one vegan’s activism over another’s, we endorse toxic, classist and exclusionary discussions in the name of animal liberation and living a healthy lifestyle.

Gatekeeping the vegan label risks denying a person’s potential to do radical vegan activism in ways that mean more than eating. It is ludicrous to say someone isn’t vegan when they could be marching in vegan rallies, participating in protests and educating themselves and others on the negative effects of animal agriculture when they may have to eat meat and dairy due to extenuating circumstances.

Don’t get me wrong; this is not a free pass to eat animal products. This means we need to allow others to decide what their activism looks like.

WE NEED TO ABOLISH MISPLACED JUDGMENT

This kind of internal, trivial debate in the vegan community distracts from the real problems veganism is suppose to tackle such as standing against meat and dairy corporations that induce animal oppression and environmental havoc.

Voting with your dollar to end animal oppression doesn’t work in a capitalistic context. Dairy and meat corporations have tapped into the thriving plant-based food market made successful by vegans.

Dairy brand Danone and meat production company Tyson Foods have both invested big money in plant-based brands aimed at the vegan market, including Silk, Vega and Beyond Meat. Boycotting animal products doesn’t translate to animals liberation by itself. In order to end this cycle, we need to inspire radical reformation in how we interact with capitalistic and neoliberalist systems driving the economy.

Of course, not all vegans are on the same page as Dagher. “That’s the most annoying tweet I’ve read all year, and I follow Kanye,” one person responded on Twitter. Others

JENNY VU

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reached out to Borrelli, emphasizing, “veganism is about love, kindness and compassion.”

It is this kind of support and understanding the entire vegan community should be striving for.

SAVANNAH QUARUM

Charles Rose

JULY 3–6 COMMUNITY

FILM & THEATER

MUSIC

ART

DOWN BY LAW (1986) HOLLYWOOD THEATRE 7:30 P.M . • $9 w/ PSU ID Jim Jarmusch’s neo-noir comedy features Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni attempting to break out of jail.

HUMAN OTTOMAN DOUG FIR LOUNGE 9 P.M. • $10 • 21+ The Portland trio consists of cello, vibraphone and drums, an unusual but kind of awesome collection of instruments. With Long Hallways and Volcanic Pinnacles.

NOONTIME SHOWCASE: VANPORT JAZZ MAIN STREET NOON • FREE VanPort Jazz plays classic big-band charts and jazz favorites.

48 HOUR FILM PROJECT SCREENING HOLLYWOOD THEATER 7 P.M. & 9:30 P.M. • $9 W/ PSU ID Witness the premieres of over 40 short films, made in only 48 hours.

Limitation breeds creativity!

SOUNDS ET AL HOLOCENE 8:30 P.M. • $8 • 21+ Patricia Wolf, Felisha Ledesma and Chloe Alexandra perform electronic music sets with live visuals.

Any fan of noise, modular synths and live sound editing should have a great time.

MOURN & CHASTITY BUNK BAR 9 P.M. • $12 ADV / $14 DOOR • 21+ Catalonian post-punk band Mourn is full of “youthful energy” and “maturity in songcraft,” according to Pitchfork, the place I get all of my opinions about music.

“NOW WE ARE FIVE” OPENING UPFOR 6 P.M.–8 P.M. • FREE Opening night for Upfor’s latest group exhibition, which they call an “invigorating selection of new and familiar work from the last five years.”

OBJECT STORIES COMMUNITY OPENING PORTLAND ART MUSEUM 6:30 P.M.–8 P.M. • FREE You should go and show solidarity with the houseless of Portland, and maybe donate time and/or money to a shelter while you’re at it.

BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER (1999) PSU PARKING STRUCTURE 2 7 P.M. • FREE The second rooftop film showing of Top Down is Jamie Babbit’s romantic comedy about lesbian conversion therapy. Must-see queer cinema.

SCI PUB PORTLAND: HANFORD NUCLEAR SITE

FRI AUG 3

$5 AFTER 5 PORTLAND ART MUSEUM 5 P.M.–8 P.M. • $5 • ALL AGES A more relaxed, interactive Art Museum experience, including food and alcohol. Ever wanted to shotgun a PBR in front of a Monet? This is your opportunity. (Actually don’t; that’s a terrible idea.)

BLACK PANTHER (2018) PIONEER COURTHOUSE SQUARE 7 P.M. • FREE If you haven’t seen it yet please take the opportunity to. It’s an important piece of film history and incredibly enjoyable as well.

DIOR WORTHY HOLLYWOOD THEATER 8 P.M. • $10 ADV / $12 DOOR • ALL AGES A wild Soundcloud rapper appears!

He’s got bars, and can also pull of the Young Thug sing-rap thing pretty well. You should definitely check him out.

ROOTS FT. DJ FLAVE PARIS THEATER 9 P.M. • $5 COVER • 18+ DJ Flave is one of the hottest DJs from Seattle.

SAT AUG 4

PORTLAND HOT SAUCE EXPO OMSI 10 A.M.–6 P.M. • $7 Over 40 vendors out in the sun to show off who’s got the sauce.

I don’t have much else to say, so watch the PBS Idea Channel video about hot sauce labels and American cultural attitudes.

IRANIAN FESTIVAL PSU PARK BLOCKS 11 A.M.–4 P.M. • FREE Live music, dance and food in celebration of Iranian culture, featuring renowned musician Rahim Shahryari.

ROCK AGAINST FASCISM CIDER RIOT 7 P.M. • $5 Portland punk and hip-hop artists will be raising money for antifascist prisoners. Hosted by RASH (Red and Anarchist Skinheads).

ORFEO ED EURIDICE NEWMARK THEATER 7:30 P.M. • $35 Chas Rader-Shieber’s Portland Opera production of Gluck’s opera modernizes the Greek tale of Orpheus’ journey into the underworld to save his dead wife. Sung in Italian, with English subtitles.

TUES JULY 31

DIVERSE VOICES OF VANCOUVER B.C. ELIZABETH LEACH GALLERY 10:30 A.M.–5:30 P.M. • FREE The Pearl District art gallery continues its exhibition of visual artists from the Pacific Northwest

WED AUG 1 THU AUG 2 SUN AUG 5 MON AUG 6

MRS. HYDE (2017) WHITSELL AUDITORIUM 4:30 P.M. & 7 P.M. • $5–9 Serge Bozon’s French language adaptation of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Also screens Friday and Saturday.

RUSTY TROMBONE BINGO NIGHT FUNHOUSE LOUNGE 5:30 P.M–7 P.M. • $5 Fake seniors, but the clowns, trombones and bingo are real. Admission includes five bingo cards; extra cards a buck each.

SINCERITY IS GROSS JADE LOUNGE 7:30 P.M. • FREE Weekly happy hour comedy show.

MAE.SUN DOUG FIR LOUNGE 2 P.M. • $12 • 21+ A unique blend of contemporary jazz and neo-funk, fronted by saxophonist Hailey Niswanger.

LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC AND MYTHS HOLLYWOOD LIBRARY 2:30 P.M.–3:30 P.M. • FREE • ALL AGES Local Andean music specialists Inka Jam Band bring their song-anddance show to the library.

3 WOMEN (1977) CIDER RIOT 7 P.M. • $5 It’s a Robert Altman movie starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Janice Rule.

MCMENAMINS MISSION THEATER 7 P.M.–9 P.M. • $5 ADVANCE Ken Niles and Jeff Burright lecture on the clean-up operation at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington. As part of the Manhattan Project, the site amassed millions of gallons of waste in need of disposal.

LEMURIA HOLOCENE 8 P.M. • $15 • ALL AGES Buffalo Indie Rock band touring their new album Recreational Hole.

MARGO SMOLYANSKA

PSU Vanguard • JULY 31, 2018 • psuvanguard.com

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