Portland State Vanguard, vol. 72, issue 5

PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD

VOLUME 72 • ISSUE 5 • JULY 25, 2017

FASCISM

ON THE RISE

PORTLAND EXTREMISTS REVEAL THEMSELVES NEWS

TRUSTEES REDUCE PLANNED TUITION INCREASE P. 4

INTERNATIONAL

U.S. TOP DIPLOMAT RECEIVES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM OIL INDUSTRY P. 5

ARTS & CULTURE

ANSWERS, COOKIES, GARBAGE & BLONDIE P. 10

OPINION

SHARK BAIT, OOH HA HA! P. 12

ents s e r p d r a u g n te Va Portland Sta Viking Voices is an open platform, rolling submission Op-Ed column open to all students,faculty, and staff of Portland State.

Submit your thoughts, stories, and opinions to opinion@psuvanguard.com Please provide your name and major or affiliation with PSU. No submissions over 600 words.

Submissions are voluntary, unpaid and not guaranteed to be published. All submissions will be reviewed and selected by the Vanguard Opinion Editor.

Accepting submissions now!

CONTENTS COVER DESIGN BY SHANNON KIDD NEWS FROM THE HILL TO THE HALL: PRIDE FLAGS & PETERSON’S

P. 3

ARTS & CULTURE SUMMERTIME READING CATCH-UP: ‘THE ANSWERS’

P. 10

INTERNATIONAL PROFESSOR REFLECTS ON LIFE IN WAR-TORN AFGHANISTAN

P. 5

OPINION CUT OUT COSMETIC CRUELTY

P. 13

FEATURE FASCISM ON THE RISE: PORTLAND EXTREMISTS REVEAL THEMSELVES

P. 7-9

ON & OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS JULY 25–JULY 31

P. 14-15

STAFF

OPINION EDITOR Evan Smiley

EDIT ORI A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Colleen Leary

ONLINE EDITOR Andrew D. Jankowski

MANAGING EDITOR Tim Sullivan NEWS EDITOR Alex-jon Earl ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Alanna Madden INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Chris May ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Matthew Andrews

COPY CHIEF Thomas Spoelhof COPY EDITORS Harlie Hendrickson Nada Sewidan CONTRIBUTORS Gray Bouchat Cassie Duncanson Nada Sewidan Tim Steele Anna Williams

PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Silvia Cardullo PHOTOGRAPHERS Cassie Duncanson Jake Johnson Anna Williams MULTIMEDIA MANAGER Joe W. Shapiro CR E ATI V E DIR EC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Kidd DESIGNERS Lydia Wojack-West Robby Day Georgia Hatchett

Marika Van De Kamp Serghey Chuklanov Grace Giordano Ella Higgins DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGERS Venkata Naga Sai Dilip Daneti Chaitanya Deshpande A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood

To contact Vanguard staff members, visit psuvanguard. com/contact.

To get involved and see current job openings, visit psuvanguard.com/jobs MIS SION S TAT EMEN T The 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 a quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills that are highly valued in today’s job market.

A BOU T The 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

RECAPPING THE WEEK IN POLITICS FROM DC TO PDX: JULY 18­‑24 ALEX-JON EARL

SENATOR FALLS ILL

Senator John McCain (R–AZ) was diagnosed with a fairly aggressive type of brain cancer, a statement relayed on Wednesday, July 19. This cancer has an extremely low survival rate, but the senator is nonetheless seeking treatment. Senator McCain has served in his position since 1987. The senator has stated he will be back to work soon.

ACA REPEAL STUMBLES

With Senators Mike Lee (R–UT) and Jerry Moran (R–KS) coming out against the “repeal and replace” plan, and steadfast opposition to a “repeal and do nothing” plan quickly coalescing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act seemed doomed, however a Tuesday morning vote is planned.

OREGON REPRESENTATIVE TAKEN TO COURT OVER PRIDE FLAG Oregon’s Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D–OR3) was recently notified he was party to a suit alongside Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D–CA47) and Rep. Susan Davis (D–CA53) that alleges pride flags flown in the hallways of House office buildings are a violation of the Constitution’s establishment clause, since homosexuality is akin to a religion, according to the complainant. The complainant previously attempted to sue for the right to marry his computer in order to scuttle pro-marriage equality rulings. For their part, it seems unlikely that these Congress members will remove their flags.

TRUMP HITS SIX-MONTH MARK

President Donald Trump has hit the six-month mark in his presidency.

TRUMP SON, SON-IN-LAW AND CONFIDANT CALLED TO TESTIFY IN FRONT OF SENATE COMMITTEE

Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump’s husband Jared Kushner, and Trump confidant Paul Manafort have all been called before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify on the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia. Committee Chair Grassley (R–IA) has promised a subpoena if any of the called refuse to appear before him.

THIS WEEK AT PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL

Damn the man, save Peterson’s! Wednesday, July 26, 9:30 a.m.

Plans to renovate the SW 10th and Alder Smart Park are finally coming to fruition, which has caused a great deal of panic among the supporters of Peterson’s Convenience Store. The longlived convenience store’s owner is claiming that new rules would cause them to be kicked out, so public testimony will be taken by supporters in yet another effort to get the Portland City Council to reconsider.

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NEWS

BOARD LOWERS TUITION HIKE, BUT STUDENTS WILL STILL FEEL THE PINCH ANNA WILLIAMS

At a special meeting on July 21, the Portland State Board of Trustees approved a resolution to lower the planned tuition increase set for Fall term.

The decision to lower PSU’s tuition increase was catalyzed by the Oregon Senate’s 30–1 approval of Senate Bill 187, adding an additional $70 million to Oregon’s higher education budget. The new BOT increase resolution is set to replace a prior resolution passed by the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission in May 2017 which increased PSU’s tuition by 8.9 percent.

With the revised resolution, full-time students taking 15 credits for each of the Fall, Winter, and Spring terms will pay $383 more in tuition and mandatory fees than they did in the 2016–17 school year.

That is $248 less than pro-

jected from the 8.9 percent increase. This brings total annual tuition and fees to an approximate $8,783.

Vice President for Finance and Administration Kevin Reynolds explained the state expects PSU to keep its next biennium tuition increase at or under 5 percent. As PSU continues to expect enrollment to decline and retirement costs to go up, keeping a balanced budget will be a challenge.

Although tuition cuts have been reduced, the previously planned $9 million in cuts proposed for various academic departments will still go into place.

“We have things set in place at this point, but we will continue to look at how things play out,” said Andria Johnson, director of the Budget Office. Johnson added that the administration will be

CRIME BLOTTER: JULY 3–16 ALANNA MADDEN

JULY 3 Two Car Break-In Ondine Upper Lot Two vehicles were reported to be broken into in the Ondine Residence Hall upper lot. Both vehicle owners reported missing objects, one of which was a United States passport.

JULY 5 Suspected Meth Campus Public Safety Office Officers received a substance found on the Portland State campus suspected to be methamphetamine.

Criminal Damage I Helen Gordon Child Development Center Two double-paned windows were shattered near the corner of SW Market and 13th Ave. CPSO reported the damage was consistent with BB pellets.

JULY 6 Suspicious Person SW 12th Ave & Epler Hall CPSO responded to a report of a man who attempted to a grab a woman near Chipotle. The victim called 911 after seeing the suspect again near Epler Hall. Officers stopped Magikal Kobe, who is already excluded from campus, at SW 12th Ave. and Montgomery. Kobe was not cited or detained due to insufficient evidence of a crime or presence on campus.

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“talking to the new president about strategic direction.”

Dr. Rahmat Shoureshi was chosen as PSU’s next president on May 15. BOT Chairman Pete Nickerson praised Shoureshi for his experience in fundraising, explaining at the May 15 meeting that fundraising was PSU’s “weakest link.” Shoureshi also aspires to reach out to more high school students to drive up enrollment.

Financial aid, as well as non-resident tuition, will not change from 2017–18’s anticipated budget. “We actually increased the [financial aid] budget by $2 million, so that is unchanged,” Johnson explained.

Associated Students of Portland State University President Brent Finkbeiner said he was glad to see the tuition increase drop, as he believes it will “allevi-

Reckless Burning Blumel Hall A dumpster fire ignited near the southeast exterior corner of Blumel Hall where witnesses reported that an alleged “anarchist” threw a firework into the dumpster and walked away. The suspect was described as being in his 20s, male, white, and wearing all black clothing.

ate some of the burden on students.”

“However, we are not out of the woods yet,” Finkbeiner added. “We don’t know what the environment is going to be in the future.”

ASPSU is recruiting students to seat the Student Budget Advisory Council in the fall, which will work with the BOT during the next tuition-setting process.

Jamie Partridge, student leader of PSU’s 15NowPDX, said the group will continue to fight for a $15/hr minimum wage. With housing costs increasing in Portland, Partridge said, students find it “harder and harder to live closer to school.” Partridge added that with these conditions, it is “ever more necessary” to increase students’ minimum wage.

Partridge claimed that even after the majority of students

who voted during ASPSU’s last election campaign supported a $15/hr minimum wage, the BOT did not pursue the initiative.

“We’re pushing forward with our campaign to the [BOT] to cut from the top and build from the bottom,” Partridge added.

Partridge said he feels taxes in Oregon unnecessarily burden the middle class.

Last year’s Measure 97, which would have increased taxes on certain Oregon corporations and helped to fund education, health care, and senior services “was a huge defeat,” Partridge said.

Reynolds said the administration recognizes “there are many other [monetary] demands on the state.” While Oregon universities had asked for $100 million in additional funding for the 2017– 19 biennium, Reynolds said,

JULY 9 Exclusion Broadway Computer Lab Sean Nemeroff was issued a PSU exclusion after CPSO discovered him intoxicated and sleeping inside the computer lab.

Disorderly Conduct II Chipotle Non-student Joseph Pallessi was arrested for disorderly conduct after reportedly causing a disturbance and behaving in an agitated manner around officers.

Probation Violation Detainer Urban Center Building CPSO arrested Ellis Manesse after receiving reports of him harassing students near campus. Manesse’s parole officer issued a detainer after learning he failed to charge his ankle monitor.

Trespass Hoffman Hall Officers arrested Eder Ruiz-Hernandez for loitering with the possession of drug paraphernalia and a glass pipe with suspected meth residue near the brush west of Peter Stott field.

JULY 12 Possession of Controlled Substance University Service Building Joshua Olivas-Prew, a non-student, was excluded from campus and ultimately arrested for reportedly using meth in one of the fire escapes in the USB.

JULY 8 Exclusion Smith Memorial Student Union CPSO received “substantiated” reports of an intoxicated man in SMSU who had taken off his pants and was exposed outside of the bathroom on the second floor of the building. Officers issued an exclusion to Eli Holmes, who had already been contacted for 2–3 alcohol related incidents throughout the week.

Trespass Arrest Miller Library Eli Holmes, a non-student, was cited and arrested by CPSO for criminal trespassing after he was found passed out on the ground in the men’s bathroom.

Resisting Arrest Parking Structure 3 Jeffry Hutton, a non-PSU student, was cited by CPSO for criminal trespassing II and resisting officers. Hutton recently received a campus exclusion for discharging a taser on campus and trespassing.

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Car Break-In & Theft III PS3 A student and staff member’s car was broken into and reported the theft of their U.S. passport, credit cards, and sport equipment.

Bike Theft & Trespass II PSU Bike Hub CPSO responded to a panic alarm where they found Rose Roberts, who is already excluded from the PSU campus. Roberts was in possession of a stolen bicycle and subsequently arrested.

“We are very thankful for the additional $70 million.

It’s not a perfect fit, but we are grateful.”

The Portland State University Faculty Association, PSU’s adjunct faculty union, experienced adjunct layoffs earlier than normal this year, they believe, due to anticipated budget cuts. Some of these cuts laid off adjunct faculty that had taught at PSU for decades. “[PSUFA] wants to emphasize that any increase in tuition at this time is putting a real burden on our students,” said Ariana Jacob, PSUFA’s grievance officer.

“We need our leadership at the board and administrative level, as well as our city and state, to push harder to change how we fund education so that we don’t keep undercutting our students and our future.”

JULY 13 Disturbance PS1 A parking enforcement officer was placing a boot on the wheel of a car in the parking lot when a person in the car drove the car away and got away. The boot fell off the wheel of the car while exiting the garage and the officer reported they were unharmed.

JULY 15 Intoxicated Male University Pointe CPS officers observed an intoxicated male in a white BMW who was “slumped” over behind the wheel. The BMW was “parked” in the cul-de-sac behind UP near SW 5th and Jackson. The driver was able to go home after being picked up by an Uber driver.

Criminal Trespassing II Broadway Computer Lab Sean Nemeroff, a non-student, was arrested for the second time in two days for trespassing and sleeping in the computer lab. Nemeroff was originally cited with an exclusion on July 9 for trespassing and later arrested and brought to detox on July 13 for public intoxication and trespassing at the same computer lab.

JULY 16 Menacing SMSU Officer Higbee issued a campus exclusion to Jane Palmer, a non-student and frequent visitor of SMSU. The exclusion was given after Palmer was observed waiving a three foot wooden cane at two males on campus. Palmer explained that her behavior was due to being upset after Jerome Ptris and Morgan Grisewood reportedly photographed her. Consent for the photo was not documented within the CPSO report.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

DISPATCH FROM AFGHANISTAN: 16 YEARS OF INTERVENTION WITH NOTHING TO SHOW

CHRIS MAY

On July 21 the World Affairs Council of Oregon invited former Lewis and Clark College professor Zaher Wahab to share his perspective on the current state of affairs in Afghanistan. After retiring from a four-decade career as a professor of education, Wahab decided to return to Afghanistan and help rebuild the country where he was born.

Sixteen years and $2.4 trillion after the U.S. invaded the same country where it had previously undertaken one of longest and most expensive covert CIA operations in history to exacerbate “Russia’s Vietnam,” Wahab assessed, “The situation is hellish, to say the least.”

Since 2002 Wahab has made annual trips to Afghanistan, most recently returning for good to work at the American University of Afghanistan, the country’s first private, nonprofit institution of higher education.

Despite having met with both former and current Afghan presidents on multiple occasions and cooper-

ating with initiatives with the Ministry of Education, Wahab said he would never work for the government.

“Nothing gets done,” Wahab said. “In fact, if you’re in Afghanistan, you have no sense that there really is a functioning government, providing the goods and services that you would expect from a government.”

The current government was effectively stitched together by former Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014 when an election dispute between the country’s two presidential frontrunners threatened to instigate civil war.

The U.S. currently spends over $28 billion annually on military operations in Afghanistan. The country currently relies on foreign assistance for approximately 75 percent of its government budget.

According to Afghan Security and Defense departments, over 20 different terrorist groups are fighting the central government.

“There is no place in Afghanistan where you can

feel safe or secure,” Wahab said. “You don’t feel safe in the classroom, in the lecture halls, in restaurants, on the road, or in places of worship…anywhere.”

Wahab described the school where he works, which has “embassy-level” security and includes 18-foot blast walls reminiscent of the West Bank, watch towers with snipers on duty 24/7, guards with police dogs, and a campus-wide system of alarms and cameras.

JULY 16

NETHERLANDS

JULY 17

WASHINGTON, D.C.

JULY 18

WASHINGTON, D.C.

“I can’t leave the campus now,” Wahab explained. “I can’t go places, period. The barber comes to campus.

The dry cleaner comes to the campus.”

Massive trade deficits, 50 percent unemployment, and a lack of safe drinking water and electricity for half the population haven’t prevented the appearance of advertisements for cosmetic surgery in Kabul, the country’s capital city.

ROBBY DAY

“What really bothers me is sort of the complete criminalization and gangsterization of the culture,” Wahab said.

Afghanistan ranks as one of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International.

In response to a question about the recent announcement of nearly 4,000 new U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan and the international community’s responsibility to stabilize the conflict, Wahab questioned the logic of continuing to pursue military solutions.

“Maybe from 2009 to 2013 there were 100,000 American/NATO troops, plus 100,000 3rd country contractors, then about a quarter million Afghans,” Wahab said. “Around 2013 there were half a million foreign and domestic security forces, but they couldn’t stabilize the country.”

According to Wahab, many Afghans question whether stabilization has ever actually been the goal.

But despite concerns over the logic of national

and global military-industrial-intelligence complexes perpetuating endless war, Wahab insists a continued foreign presence is necessary to stabilize the country.

Instead of spending $2 million per soldier per year, Wahab suggests altering the terms of foreign involvement and investing that money in schools, hospitals, literacy centers, and other infrastructure that would p r o mote the growth of civil society and good governance.

To Wahab’s mind, China’s increased economic and military involvement in the country seems the most likely catalyst for stability. Afghanistan’s geographic position makes it an important part of China’s One Belt One Road global economic plan, which seeks to develop infrastructure connecting China to the rest of the world.

“They really want stability in that part of the world for economic reasons,” Wahab said. “It’s not about ideology.”

The Royal Dutch Medical Association rejected proposed legislation that would ease the process for individuals to kill themselves, saying such efforts would pressure people to end their lives prematurely. In 2000 the Netherlands became the first country to legalize voluntary euthanasia, but there remains no societal consensus on how to reconcile improved medical technology with calls for legal assistance from people who feel their quality of life is insufficient to justify their continued existence.

The White House announced “Made in America Week,” showcasing American manufacturing by highlighting companies that produce luxury cowboy hats, survive on contracts with the military, and whose continued existence is threatened by one of the most efficient producers of “Made in America” goods–prison labor. Trump family brands were absent from the showcase, while a recent investigation in Indonesia has uncovered extensive workplace abuse and abject labor conditions for workers manufacturing Ivanka Trump brand shoes.

July 15–22 Chris May

The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to all members of the U.S. Senate urging them not to support a bill that would effectively criminalize free speech in the U.S. by making it a felony to support the international boycott of Israel. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which has enjoyed support across political and ideological lines—including as a co-sponsor Oregon Senator Ron Wyden—would impose a $250,000 fine and up to 20 years in prison. The international community is in near unanimous agreement that Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territory are illegal.

JULY 20 WASHINGTON, D.C. The U.S. Treasury Department issued Exxon Mobil a $2 million slap on the wrist for violating 2014 sanctions imposed against Russia after its annexation of Crimea. Current U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was at the helm of the global energy giant at the time of the violation, and earlier this month after wrapping up climate change discussions at the G20 summit, the top U.S. diplomat made a pit-stop at the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul to receive a lifetime achievement award for his work as Exxon Mobil’s CEO.

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FEATURE NEWS

FASCISM ON THE RISE PORTLAND EXTREMISTS REVEAL THEMSELVES ANNA WILLIAMS

JOHN “BASED SPARTAN” TURANO AT JOEY GIBSON’S JUNE 4 RALLY. JAKE JOHNSON/PSU VANGUARD In recent years, droves of new residents have flocked to Portland, many under the guise of a Portlandia-branded utopian liberal oasis: an easy-going city open to people of all ages, shapes, sizes, persuasions, colors and backgrounds. This perception is, quite simply, false.

Recent public displays of hate, racism, white pride and violence in the name of nationalism have solicited public response of shock and dismay. Surely this couldn’t be happening in our happy, safe and inclusive Portland.

In reality, this is nothing new to Portland, a city whose history has been mired in racism and discrimination from day one. In 1859, the state of Oregon established itself as white-only, an exclusion that officially ended in 1922. At the time, the state touted the largest per capita membership of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1988, three racist skinheads attacked a 27-year-old Ethiopian named Mulugeta Seraw. One skinhead bludgeoned him to death. Until the early 2000s, Oregon legislation maintained language excluding people of color from owning or leasing property.

The recent displays of hate, racism and violence in Portland highlight a longstanding crisis, one that has apparently attracted the attention of an up-and-coming, outspoken generation of extremists whose views reflect an unfortunately familiar Portland tradition.

So who is leading the charge? What do they really think? Why do they believe what they believe? How did they land on their views? What’s their intended outcome? The Vanguard’s Anna Williams spoke with some of Portland’s most well-known characters in these overlapping movements and consulted academic experts who helped shed light on how this type of ideology attracts its proponents.

[Note from Vanguard Editor-in-Chief, Colleen Leary]

On a sunny Friday afternoon in Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park, a sea of leather-vested Warriors for Freedom bikers, American flags, filming iPhones, and news reporters surrounded a calm and quiet man everyone seemed to recognize but no one seemed to know.

A skinhead.

Raul Gonzales, who Trump-supporters and antifa, or anti-fascist, counter-protesters recognized from social media, arrived to participate in the June 30 “March for Freedom” organized by Washington native and libertarian vlogger Joey Gibson.

Gonzales’ identity was unmistakable: His distinct black polo branded by 1950s tennis champion Fred Perry, Levi’s tucked into his boots, and white suspenders are all garb traditional British working-class skinheads in the 1960s adopted as their signature style. A “skinhead” tattoo tagged Gonzales’ right forearm.

Gibson’s popularly-dubbed “patriot movement” publicly denounces white supremacist groups. Gibson includes groups and fraternities like Nazis, skinheads, Ku Klux Klan, and Identity Evropa in this classification.

The night before Gibson’s second visit to Portland on June 4, he announced such groups would be denied entrance into his “Trump free speech rally” held in downtown Portland’s Terry Schrunk Plaza.

However, Identity Evropa, Gonzales himself, and the Oregon National Socialist Movement, deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, all profess to having joined in on the protest. They offered cheers, zealous speeches, and insult-hurling tossed at the antifa, union groups, and “antihate” liberals counter-protesting to the north, east, and west of Gibson’s rally.

Since Gibson brought the patriot movement to Portland, groups aligning with Gibson who call themselves western nationalists, national socialists, western identitarians, white identitarians, and chauvinists, neo-Nazis and traditional skin-

heads have popped up in the press, leaving Portlanders to question whether their city will retreat back to its deadly “skinhead capitol of the country” roots.

Highlighting this fear is the fact that Jeremy Christian, an alt-right, self-professed libertarian, participated in a Gibson rally last April. A few weeks later, Christian antagonized two women of color on a MAX train then stabbed three men that tried to intervene, killing two.

Christian has been unapologetic in the courtroom, calling himself a “patriot,” a title he shares with Gibson’s movement.

Gonzales told Gibson he wanted to march to support free speech. “If you supported us, you wouldn’t be here,” Gibson responded. “Because you give us a bad name.”

NOT YOUR TYPICAL SKINHEAD

Gonzales does not look like the typical white, bare-shaven skinhead portrayed in the movies. As his namesake implies, Gonzales is half-Mexican on his father’s side. Though his dark eyes and hair belie European heritage, Gonzales considers himself “a very tan white person.”

Calm and unphased, though a little awkward, Gonzales eagerly engaged in conversation about his day, his five-monthold daughter, his relationship successes and failures, and his favorite television shows.

However, Gonzales’ past proves to be anything but easy going.

Just 24 years old, Gonzales spent the majority of his life in and out of foster care in Hillsboro, Oregon. Beginning at five years old, Gonzales said he resided in 15 foster homes and six group homes, each of which were “physically, emotionally, and sexually” abusive. Gonzales’ father, he said, was entrenched in drug dealing.

Early on, Gonzales doubted his mother’s liberal worldview.

“My mom’s liberal beliefs made her think everything was OK,” he recalled. At a Boys and Girls Club owned by Beaverton police, Gonzales said he “was always getting into fights because there were gang members that wanted me to join [them].”

(Continued on p. 8)

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FEATURE (Continued from p. 7) Gonzales recalled seeing the Columbine High School massacre on the news when he was five years old. Even at that point, Gonzales said he realized, “It’s not just me having problems, it’s the whole world. Something is going wrong. My mom’s beliefs cannot be accurate.”

IDEOLOGICAL OVERHAUL

As Gonzales grew older, he learned about Nazi WWII from his veteran grandfather. Gonzales’ Croatian ancestors helped build German U-boats for the war. He recalled his great-aunt had harbored anti-Serbian sentiments “because she thought [Serbians] treated [Croatians] like shit.”

The Ustase regime in the Independent State of Croatia exterminated what the United States Holocaust Museum estimates to be almost 350,000 ethnic Serbs between 1941 and 1945. Perhaps 200,000 more were forcefully converted to Catholicism. Having heard his aunts’ beliefs, however, Gonzales thought, “Maybe some of us really were the good guys on the Axis side of things.”

BECOMING A NEO-NAZI

When Gonzales was 12 years old, he bonded with a man everyone called “J.C.,” an ironic namesake, as he claimed to be a Satanist.

“When you’re 12 years old and got nobody to look up to and you’re getting picked on, someone’s going to come along and bring their values with them and sell you the pitch,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said J.C. often carried around a copy of Adolf Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf.

At the same time, Gonzales developed a taste for anti-communist, white nationalist bands such as ¡Oi! and Skrewdriver.

A foster brother stick-and-poked an “SS” tattoo onto Gonzales’ right wrist. “SS” represents a coalition of the German Nazi Party, the Schutzstaffel, some factions of which were responsible for running Jewish concentration camps during WWII. Though Gonzales claimed at the June 30 march he was not a neo-Nazi, he later told the Vanguard, “I’m definitely a nationalist. I guess I could be labelled as a neo-Nazi and I’d be fine with that.”

Gonzales wears a swastika tattoo on his right shoulder.

The SPLC defines white nationalists as those espousing “white supremacist or white separatist” ideals. Neo-Nazis, sometimes described as national socialists, the SPLC states, “share a hatred for Jews and a love of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.”

Though Gonzales espouses nonviolence, he both doubts the validity of the Holocaust and believes whites are oppressed in America.

Gonzales echoed a sentiment common among followers of Gibson’s rallies: White freedom of speech is under attack.

DEMYSTIFYING IDENTITY EVROPA

During Gibson’s June 4 rally, guest speaker and alt-right celebrity Tim “Baked Alaska” Gionet livestreamed a video with Oregon Identity Evropa Regional Coordinator Jake Von Ott. Originating on social media and “deep internet” forums and meme pages, the alt-right is a rabbit hole of racist and nationalist opinions cloaked in humor. Gionet, who worked alongside far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, has been criticized for past anti-semitic language.

In the livestream, Gionet asks Von Ott to recite the “14 words.” Smiling into the camera, Von Ott said, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The 14 words are arguably derived from a passage in Mein Kampf, which advocates for securing the future of the Aryan race.

The American 14 words were coined by David Lane, a former member of the Pacific Northwest terrorist organization The Order. In 1984, The Order assassinated a Jewish talk show host. Lane died in prison in 2007 while serving a 190year sentence for crimes he committed as an Order member.

Von Ott, a tall, freshly turned-20-year-old with a long, confident stride, arrived at the June 4 rally with about 40 other IE members marching in formation. Gibson said IE was not allowed into the plaza, which Von Ott contends. Von Ott said some of his friends were present at the June 30 march, apparently unknown to Gibson.

In a YouTube video recently taken down by the far-right “Right Source Media” channel, Von Ott claimed a close relationship with IE founder Nathan Damigo.

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Damigo, a 30-year-old former U.S. Marine Corporal, founded IE in March 2016. Damigo told the LA Times that IE comprises “‘a generation of awakened Europeans’ who ‘oppose those who would defame our history and rich cultural heritage.’”

When Damigo first presented the notion of “white identitarianism,” he was widely criticized by students of the Cal State Stanislaus ethnic studies class, where he had been invited to speak for his complex, circumspect explanation.

Von Ott told the Vanguard identitarianism simply means “being proud of your European heritage.” According to the SPLC, the phrase was coined in the early 2000s by Generation Identitaire, an anti-immigrant group in France that “mockingly” served soup containing pork in majority Muslim neighborhoods.

Beginning in 2007, Damigo served one year in county jail and four years in prison for holding a La Mesa, California cab driver, who Damigo thought was Iranian, at gunpoint and robbing him of $43. This came one month after Damigo finished his second tour of duty in Iraq. According to court records, the LA Times reported Damigo suffered from severe post traumatic stress disorder, drug and alcohol abuse, paranoia and flashbacks.

Damigo, however, took the opportunity in prison to study race and identity. Damigo was inspired by Lane’s book My Awakening, as well as by racial provocateur Jean-Philippe Rushton and science writer Nicholas Wade.

Damigo came out of prison believing that different races were separated by genetic predispositions.

Von Ott agreed. “The Africans” [are] “scientifically proven to have lower IQ’s and less impulse control” than people of European, or white, origin, he claimed. “[Black Lives Matter] only proves our point in terms of low impulse control,” Von Ott said.

BLM formed in 2012 after George Zimmerman was acquitted for his murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. BLM, like antifa, protests police corruption and racism, and has been at the center of controversy for some demonstrations turning violent. BLM, however, also organizes vigils, participates on panels around the country, and lobbies for police reform.

Researchers from Stanford University who study genetic differences between races condemn Wade’s “speculation that recent natural selection has led to worldwide differences in IQ test results, political institutions and economic development.”

Adding to a commitment to back up its views with “scientific evidence” rather than “feeling and emotion,” Von Ott said, IE believes the “liberal” concept of multiculturalism is “toxic” to America. “A multiracial society is a multi-racist society,” Von Ott added.

Von Ott referenced a controversial study by Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam, which found that in newly diverse populations fewer people vote, volunteer, or donate to charities. Some people view that as a strong case against diversity, but Putnam has publicly decried that view.

In a March 2017 letter to the Wall Street Journal, Putnam wrote, “Ethnic diversity is, on balance, an important social asset, as the history of the U.S. demonstrates. In the short to medium run, however, immigration and ethnic diversity challenge social solidarity and inhibit social capital. In the medium to long run, on the other hand, successful immigrant societies like the U.S. create new forms of social solidarity and dampen the negative effects of diversity by constructing new, more encompassing identities.”

Von Ott said he fears, however, that as more immigrants come to the U.S., white European identity will disappear.

Von Ott calls himself a “strong Christian,” while adding, “Christianity is not a warrior religion by any means,” but he believes every race has the right to “conquer another.”

He said he isn’t advocating violence against any other race, but as non-white births exceed white births in America, IE sees sole reproduction with members of the Aryan race to be paramount.

Von Ott compared white people’s possible “plight” to that of Native Americans. “[Native Americans] are the most likely to interracially marry and have interracial children,” Von Ott said. “Their culture and [their] children have been obliterated from the face of the earth. They no longer have any relevance here at all. None.”

RAUL GONZALES. ALANNA MADDEN/PSU VANGUARD

ISLAMOPHOBIA AND XENOPHOBIA

Additionally, Von Ott argued that allowing refugees of Islamic origin into America will inevitably bring a culture of violence across the border. “In the Muslim world, at age 6 [children are] given an [AK-47] and told to go fight, go kill,” Von Ott claimed. “Well, you have two cultures colliding, a European and Muslim culture. At the end of the day, who’s going to win a one-on-one fight?”

In contrast, the Council on American-Islamic Relations says 2017 is set to become “one of the worst years ever for anti-Muslim hate crimes.” Most incidents documented by CAIR are of non-violent harassment, but the second most common are hate crimes that involve physical violence or property destruction.

According to researchers at the University of Buffalo and the University of Alabama, on the other hand, over two decades of research have consistently shown areas of high immigration statistics to have lower crime rates than those with minimal immigrant populations.

I’M NOT A NEO-NAZI, BUT…

Though self-proclaimed libertarian, “American-loving” people like Von Ott and Damigo deny being neo-Nazis or fascists, the roots of IE’s ideology are undeniable.

Von Ott said he admires George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of neo-Nazism in America. Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party in 1959, which was formerly known, in more convoluted language, as the World Union of Free Enterprise and National Socialists. Rockwell, a well-documented racist, was ousted from the Navy and assassinated in a shopping mall parking lot in 1967.

Von Ott said he denounces Rockwell’s violent rhetoric and behaviors. However, Von Ott qualified, “I admire his willingness and how American he was.” Von Ott paused. “By how American, I mean the fact that against everybody he still stood for what he believed in.”

Rockwell believed former U.S. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman were “traitors” that should be “hanged.”

Former Portland State professor, author, and white supremacist expert Randy Blazak explained that groups ranging from “white identitarian” to “white supremacist” operate under different language, but the same ideology.

“Hate groups don’t call themselves hate groups,” Blazak said. “They call themselves white civil rights organizations.

It’s public relations. It’s a new title of an old song.”

FEATURE Many such groups deny Nazi sympathy but cling to symbolism like the 14 words and “sieg heil” gestures. “Logically, they would just abandon all that to bring [new members] in,” Blazak explained.

“But the reality is, that’s their roots. They feel connected to it.”

Gibson said on June 30 he was aware Gionet and Von Ott had hailed the 14 words at his June 4 rally, to his disapproval.

“We’re looking into it,” Gibson said. “If a statement needs to be made, it will be made.”

Over a month later, Gibson has not issued any statements.

HOW DO I LOOK?

Von Ott wears a neatly-clipped haircut identical to Damigo’s.

Damigo’s Twitter handle, in fact, is @fashyhaircut, a play on fascism. Gonzales said he believes this “all-American teenager” image attracts young people into movements like IE and skinheads “a lot more” than “a guy wearing a band t-shirt and waving a swastika flag.”

Recently, Rose City Antifa leaked a series of overtly violent and racist statements Von Ott posted on a white nationalist Facebook page. In one of these posts Von Ott said his brother, who was dating a half-Asian woman, had “yellow fever.” Tagged to his complaint, Von Ott posted a photo of Hitler and his associates looking up with disgust, with the word “degenerate” written underneath.

In another post, Von Ott asked group members what the punishment would be if “his friend” stabbed refugees in Germany.

His post was met with humor and encouragement from the group, which included his own mother. In another screenshot, Von Ott’s mother posted a sketched image of a white family, the father wearing a swastika armband, with a caption that read, “We are rising! Unite!”

Von Ott confirmed these posts were his own and his mother’s. Von Ott said he regrets his posts, claiming he has “matured” in the four months since, and they were merely “locker room talk.” This is the same justification Donald Trump offered after he was caught saying his celebrity status allowed him to grab women by the genitals.

Von Ott explained that he posted about stabbing refugees after his cousin, allegedly, was sexually assaulted by three refugees in Europe. Neither Von Ott nor his mother mentioned any incident like this in his post.

Von Ott added that because white voices are so “silenced” in America, people like him are “forced” into online “echo chambers” where hateful statements turned to humor are a “release” for those who fear losing their jobs because of their views.

Von Ott said since creating another white nationalist group on Facebook, he deletes any posts encouraging violence.

“Hate groups don’t call themselves hate groups.

They call themselves white civil rights organizations.

It’s public relations. It’s a new title of an old song.”

— RANDY BLAZAK, FORMER PSU PROFESSOR

JAKE VON OTT, REGIONAL COORDINATOR OF IDENTITY EVROPA. ANNA WILLIAMS/PSU VANGUARD However, he admits there may be some people that actually espouse violence in online “echo chambers.” Von Ott reasons such posts should be removed because they are unproductive and “we need to be professionals.”

SPARTAN SPEAKS

John “Based Spartan” Turano showed up to Gibson’s April 27 Berkeley, California rally and June 4 rally in Portland cosplaying as a Trojan soldier, sporting a plastic helmet and chest armor atop his American flag board shorts. When Turano got riled up at counter-protesters, he ripped his armor and helmet off, then flexed his arm and chest muscles at the crowd and cursed them out.

At the Berkeley protest, Turano called antifa protesters “cowards” and declared, “I’ll smash on them until I can’t breathe.” Turano could be seen on video screaming and chucking back projectiles antifa threw at the “patriot” crowd.

On June 11, however, just one week after his appearance in Portland, Turano showed up to another “free speech” vs. antifa demonstration in San Bernardino to counter-protest the same “patriot” crowd he hailed from. Turano held a sign that read, “Resist hate, love only.”

Gibson’s followers were quick to call Turano a traitor.

Turano is a single father from La Puente, California.

Turano’s Facebook is devoid of any Based Spartan pictures, featuring only photos of him and his kids in clothing sprinkled with marijuana leaves.

Turano said he’s never been a political person. He has only voted once in his life, and that was for President Trump.

Turano said he disagrees with the president on immigration and women’s rights issues.

Turano said he used to think all antifa “hated our guts” and intended to protest violently. When Turano came to Portland on June 4, however, he said a petite Jewish counter-protester came up to him and asked, “Does my life matter?”

“It just made me feel bad,” Turano said. “I hadn’t really been paying attention; I just thought we were surrounded by all these people who hated us. But I met some people that seemed so nice.”

Turano added that in his state of mind when he attended the Berkeley protest, he thought “these [antifa] people hate America.”

Turano said as a single, working father, he did not have time to sit behind a computer screen and follow the alt-right. When Turano began to see swastikas at these protests and racial slurs on the internet, however, he came to understand how the “other side” saw “patriots.”

“Racist ain’t too far from the truth,” Turano declared.

Being Based Spartan gave Turano a rush, but he said he now feels the patriot movement only “loved me because they thought I was violent and I looked threatening and intimidating.” Turano added, “People emailed me to tell me I helped these ‘idiot’ groups grow, and I’m responsible for making it a family idea. I made a horrible mistake. I don’t like bullies.”

Turano said he thinks the discrimination he sees Latinos face in Southern California is “spearheaded by the alt-right.”

“Even the good people say horrible things,” Turano said.

“This lady I know struck out at a [Latino] girl and I can’t believe she went there. She has a Mexican husband and an immigrant mother-in-law and she said this racial slur. There’s no hope.”

When Turano was sixteen, he got a swastika tattoo on his right hand. Turano did not explain why. “I ended up cutting it out,” he said. Turano ended up marrying an undocumented immigrant and having children.

Still visible on Turano’s right bicep, however, is a “White Pride” tattoo. Turano said he got it to identify himself in prison, but he does not plan on removing it. Turano, still a conservative, declared like Von Ott and Gonzales, “I think everyone should be proud of who they are.”

Perhaps this is what attracted Turano to the “free speech” patriot movement in the first place.

QUESTIONABLE APPROPRIATION OF FREE SPEECH

Gibson said if extremist groups show up to his events, “they show up.” Moving forward, Gibson said he wants to empower leaders “to create their own groups.”

From “Western Chauvinist” Proud Boys fleeing the rise of feminism, to alt-right “Kekistan” members who wish to free offensive “shit-posters” from liberal “social justice warriors,” to IE members that claim “white genocide,” every “patriot” wants First Amendment rights on their own terms.

Whatever the patriot movement seeks to empower has been lost in a name game of nit-picked, white-pride identities.

As Gibson shouts “free speech” and “freedom from cultural brainwashing” from his loudspeaker, his movement brings to the surface a violent, racist, and un-American past.

Turano said he has just now come to understand that. To the people of Portland, Turano wished to say, “I’m sorry for disturbing you while supporting something I did not understand. It was during a healing time and I totally dropped the ball.”

PSU Vanguard • JULY 25, 2017 • psuvanguard.com

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NEWS ARTS NEWS& CULTURE

SUMMERTIME READING CATCH-UP: CATHERINE LACEY’S ‘THE ANSWERS’ TIM STEELE

Catherine Lacey’s prose is stirringly (sometimes hauntingly) precise. The novel is composed of dense passages plunging into thought spirals, and the complexity with which Lacey renders the psychology of her characters is astounding. Her latest novel, The Answers, is at once a fascinating character study and a sharply insightful examination of relationships and connections, wrapped in a setup both frightening and hilarious.

At the heart of The Answers is Mary. Raised in seclusion by her parents, Mary has lived most of her life cut off from the world. Now in the city, Mary is suffering from the trauma of a sexual assault, as well as a host of mystery ailments that doctors have been unable to explain. The spiritualistic Chandra, Mary’s only friend, recommends a radical holistic therapy called PAKing. The mysterious new-agey therapy is performed by Ed, whose name is hilariously unindicative of his shaman-like character. Mary is skeptical of the process, but PAKing begins to have a profound effect on her, providing her with the first traces of relief she’s felt in months.

Desperate to continue PAKing despite its high cost, Mary looks for sources of supplemental income, leading her to a mysterious series of odd interviews and tests with the secretive Matheson. Matheson ultimately informs Mary that he works for Kurt Sky, a famous actor, and Mary has been selected to take part in Kurt’s “girlfriend experiment,” playing the role of the “emotional girlfriend.”

Mary’s role entails listening to Kurt’s deepest sorrows and most vulnerable confessions, responding according to instructions dictating her facial expressions and gestures of support.

Lacey has loads of fun with this concept, drawing humor out of it in continuously new ways while skillfully balancing absurd and philosophical elements. Lacey divides the novel into different sections dipping into various characters’ heads, mainly alternating between the perspectives of Mary, Kurt, Matheson, and Ashley, a boxer hired to play Kurt’s “anger girlfriend.”

Much of the psychological tension focuses on the characters’ true feelings, with Mary frequently questioning the authenticity of her emotions. This is fur-

ther played with by the “research division,” the quiet team of scientists pulling the experiment’s strings. The research division uses the experiment (which they perceive as Kurt’s vanity project) as a means of testing out “internal directives,” through which they attempt to produce certain emotions in the experiment’s participants.

From Kurt’s perspective, the girlfriend experiment seems to be an attempt to crack a sort of code for love, to find a formula for producing its effects without the risk of fallout.

Mary is more okay with love and the mystery of its unpredictable stability. While on ecstasy with Kurt, she delivers a memorable line: “Love is a compromise for only getting to be one person.” Lacey explores the healing power of escaping the trappings of our individual consciousness through Mary’s PAKing sessions, during which she often loses track of time as well as herself, her energy seemingly blending with Ed’s and soothing her pain.

Ultimately, The Answers doesn’t seek to provide any. Rather, it’s steeped in the potential to instigate reflection and may cause readers to experience some thought spirals of their own.

FARRAR STRAUS AND GIROUX/2017

GLUTEN-FREE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES CLASSY COOKING WITH CASSIE

by Cassie Duncanson As one of the women in my Creative Writing program says, “Peanut butter is my one true love.”

It’s true: Without peanut butter, I wouldn’t have gotten through living in dorms for two years, my first year of apartment-ownership, or the occasional bout of insomnia.

The King Arthur Flour company’s recipe for gluten-free, dairy-free peanut butter cookies is my favorite cookie recipe, bar none. (Glutenfree means it’s healthier, right?) I usually have the ingredients in my pantry, they’re quick to make, and the only tools I need to make them are a bowl and a fork. If you are not familiar with volume measurements by eye, add a onecup measuring cup and a teaspoon to your list of materials. And that’s it. You do not need a hand mixer for this recipe, though you are welcome to use one. Me? Baking days are usually also arm days.

The best part about this recipe is how easy it is to memorize (nearly everything is a 1:1 ratio) and the minimal number of tools. You can make these cookies at midnight without wak-

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ing any roommates, unless you’re like me and your dog can smell the peanut butter even in deep slumber and tries to trip you up in the middle of the kitchen.

It is really easy to mistake these cookies for being done. The peanut butter and the brown sugar combine to a color that makes the cookies look done before you put them in the oven.

It is also really easy to overbake them. I like them best when the ridges of the cookie just start to brown up a little bit. If you want a crunchier cookie, you can wait for a little more browning along the outside.

If you are eating these at home, go ahead and eat them as soon as they cool down enough to not burn your tongue. If you plan on serving them, wait until they cool completely. They do have a tendency to get crumbly, and they’ll hold together easier once cooled down.

Ingredients: • 1 cup peanut butter • ¾ cup packed brown sugar (roughly translates to 1 cup loose) • 1 egg

PSU Vanguard • JULY 25, 2017 • psuvanguard.com

CASSIE DUNCANSON/PSU VANGUARD • ½ tablespoon baking soda • Pinch of salt • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • ½ cup chocolate chips Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix together the peanut butter and brown sugar until you get an even consistency, just like if you were creaming butter and sugar in a standard cookie recipe.

While this recipe calls for peanut butter, you cannot use organic peanut butter (I’m sorry).

It necessitates a more processed product. With organic peanut butter, the oil separates while baking even if you incorporate the peanut butter while mixing. Learn from my mistakes.

While I don’t notice much of a difference taste-wise, I recommend using light brown sugar as opposed to dark brown sugar. It’s easier to believe the cookies are fully baked

when they are still undercooked in the center with the darker sugar.

Add the egg and stir until combined.

Mix in the baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract until combined. I frequently forgo the vanilla extract because I forget about it unless I’m looking at the recipe. I haven’t noticed a taste difference.

Stir in the chocolate chips. (Let’s be real here. Don’t measure the chocolate chips. Add in as many as your summer body deserves.

Hint: that would be all the chocolate chips.)

Spoon out a spoon’s worth of dough onto the parchment paper. To get more dough on the parchment paper rather than your fingers, use a second spoon to dislodge the dough from the first.

Makes ~12 cookies.

Bake for 12–15 minutes. Pour a glass of milk and enjoy!

ARTS & CULTURE

INTERGENERATIONAL FEMMEPUNKS: BLONDIE, GARBAGE AT MCMENAMINS EDGEFIELD ANDREW D. JANKOWSKI

ELLA HIGGINS Waiting in rush hour traffic gives me ample time to replay Blondie and Garbage’s new albums: Pollinator (2017) and Strange Little Birds (2016). The former is a series of collaborations between Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and musicians like Sia, Charlie xCx, Nick Valensi (The Strokes), Johnny Marr (Morrisey) and Blood Orange, along with some backing vocals from John Roberts (Bob’s Burgers). The latter seems like Shirley Manson & Co. making their debut sound more sleek and atmospheric, as though tapping the specific veins from which their music’s influence on the new generation of brooding femme vocalists flows.

I really enjoy both albums: My boyfriend singled out the Dave Sitek co-written song “Fun,” which features a video starring Raja Gemini (RuPaul’s Drag Race, America’s Next Top Model), calling it “gay pop music.”

From Strange Little Birds, videos for “Empty” and “Magnetized” give us the album’s manifesto by way of Shirley Manson’s fashion moments, goth ’90s home decor fantasies, and the rage and joy in admitting lyrics like, “I am so empty” and “I’m not in love, I’m not in love/I’m magnetized by you/There’s nothing I can do/It’s all a fantasy.”

I realize I’m going to miss John Doe & Exene Cervenka, vocalists for California punk band X. The idea of seeing all of these aging leg-

ends together on a McMenamins stage is exciting. I’m not saying “aging” in the sense of generations of A&E writers belittling women: I’m saying it in the sense that 2016 took Prince, Bowie, Vanity, Carrie Fisher/Debbie Reynolds, Christina Grimmie, Alexis Arquette, Chyna, Phife Dawg, Big Ang, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Zsa Zsa and so many other legends, and it’s definitely not cool to die in 2017 (R.I.P. Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell, et al.).

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Blondie, Garbage, Exene Cervenka and John Doe aren’t dead. It’s why Edgefield is packed tonight. I make it to a spot on the back lawn in time for Garbage’s second song, “Queer.” Garbage’s set mostly turns out to be greatest hits with a few new songs thrown in, like “Night Drive Loneliness” and “Even Though Our Love is Doomed.” For some reason, I always forget that Shirley Manson is Scottish, so hearing her speak between songs is always a delight. She thanks the audience for its support throughout the years, in particular a couple of Oregonians who helped Garbage secure the theme to The World is Not Enough (1999) and were in attendance that night.

When Blondie opened their set, I thought they were having technical issues until I realized it was part of a glitch-based sound/visual installation evoking a bee swarm, which

looked like static until natural shapes and depth revealed themselves. During songs like “Fun,” “Call Me,” and “Rapture,” the swarm changed from white to red, taking on the shapes of masculine and feminine forms poledancing. Blondie also played a few covers: Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35” and the 2011 an Unkindness song “Fragments,” which has nearly half a million YouTube views.

Blondie played two more Pollinator songs, “Long Time” and “Too Much,” along with the hits “Atomic” and “Heart of Glass.”

I was never close enough to see the musicians very well: Manson wore a black-andwhite striped dress and orange hair, while Debbie Harry wore a black-and-yellow V-striped dress and a gleaming gold headdress that, from where I was sitting, looked like Madonna’s Phillip Treacy headdress from the Super Bowl five years ago, but in press photos released before this show looks like two realistic, larger-than-life honey bees resting upon the queen bee (used with all respect to Lil’ Kim and Beyonce). Behind me, someone was reading a book during both sets, and women discussed being thankful they didn’t have to work while swapping cucumber pizza recipes (By the way, did you know marinara sauce has fewer calories than pizza sauce?)

The fact of the matter is Debbie Harry, Shirley Manson and their squads of men

could, like John Waters, basically choose to do victory laps around the world and rest on their laurels if they wanted to. Instead they choose to keep creating new music and bringing greatest hits to people who have never seen them live: Blondie last played Portland in 1999, and while Garbage has made a Portland stop on every tour of their career, that is hardly a complaint, especially when they play Portland’s biggest and most famous venues.

(Can you imagine how expensive an intimate show would be?)

It’s great to see both bands tonight on a stage built by a local franchise that has expanded across the Pacific Northwest during my lifetime, but there was one moment in particular that took me back to a moment when Club Portland was still around and queers and women had to be grateful for any bit part assigned to us by the dominant paradigms: the fury with which Manson screamed the refrain of one of 2017’s most popular raps in Duke Erikson or Eric Avery’s face, a moment that revealed all the hard work that has allowed generations of American women to reach this point in their personal and professional liberation: Sit down.

Bitch, be humble.

Sit down, little bitch.

Be humble.

PSU Vanguard • JULY 25, 2017 • psuvanguard.com

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OPINION

SHARKS SEEK PEACE THIS WEEK

JAW-ST WANTING SOME ROOM TO SWIM Gray Scale

by Gray Bouchat The ocean poses as a scary place. No one knows how deep it runs. No one knows what kind of creatures delve in that deep darkness. No one knows much. Oceans cover 70 percent of the world, yet remain a mystery. One thing people know though, is that sharks live there, and sharks are scary.

PSYCH. Sharks aren’t scary! Are you kidding me? Put yourself in the shark’s position. You’re just swimming around your home when suddenly there’s something above you with annoying legs kicking in the water. That’s the equivalent of a perfectly roasted chicken—or tofurkey—showing up at your doorstep. Are you just going to leave that perfectly roasted chicken alone? No, you’re going to eat it.

Sharks aren’t scary. They are carnivorous creatures, and if you’re stupid enough to swim in their territory, don’t complain if you get bit. However, people don’t see it that way. When someone receives an injury from a shark, it’s all hands on deck to find that shark and kill it. Imagine aliens coming from outer space, seeing humans walking around on land and killing them

because they are an inconvenience. Does that sound logical?

Nope. It sounds like oceanic pest-control.

Have you ever thought about cows? Do you know what cows are? Blood thirsty killing machines! They kill an estimated 22 people per year, while sharks only kill about four people per year. So why do sharks have a scary movie about them, but not cows? Because cows don’t have sharp teeth? That just isn’t right.

The only thing sharks want to do is swim. Swim, eat small fish, mate, and swim. The ocean is their home, and we are invading it. Sharks don’t “infest” the ocean. If anything, humans infest the earth.

Shark fin soup is a popular delicacy in China, but its production is horrendous. People who harvest the shark meat use a method called finning. This involves dragging the sharks onto the boat by a hook, cutting off all the shark’s fins, while it is alive, then tossing the still-alive shark back into the ocean to sink to the bottom. It will either die from blood loss or from another animal eating it. Imagine that kind of pain.

About 100 million sharks are killed every year. Whether that’s from finning, killing unnecessarily, or contaminants in the ocean, this number is far too large. That kind of population decline is unsustainable.

Some annoying articles will have titles like, “Why you should care about sharks” or “Why sharks deserve more respect.”

That’s great and all, but maybe you should care about sharks because they are a creature on this earth that has been depicted as a monster. Why? Because they help the food chain and ecosystem? Because they have been on this planet far longer than humans have?

Sharks possess sharp teeth and can range from 60 feet to 20 centimeters in size. At the end of the day, they are just animals trying to eat, living their own lives in their ocean home.

So, instead of infesting their home, understand these misunderstood creatures and educate yourself. Shark Week runs July 23–30, so watch some Discovery Channel and make yourself aware.

GEORGIA HATCHETT

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PSU Vanguard • JULY 25, 2017 • psuvanguard.com

OPINION

IS YOUR MAKEUP ACTUALLY CRUELTY-FREE? GrayScale

by Gray Bouchat The practice of animal testing consists of conducting experiments for commercial products on animals to ensure they’re safe for human consumption or use. Companies breed animals such as cats, dogs and rabbits within laboratories, confine them in cages, and strap them down to forcibly test products and drugs. Animals are bred solely for product testing. These grotesque environments resemble puppy and kitten mills in purpose and function, and one question comes to my mind: If human volunteer recruits exist, why test on animals?

Why not think of a more humane way to test these products?

Why not make the products with organic, vegan ingredients that won’t harm a person or animal in the first place?

Typically, brands will put out a notice about their cruelty-free practices, but some allow for exceptions. The full

truth is hard to distinguish sometimes. For example, MAC Cosmetics claims to “be a leader in the movement to end animal testing globally.” However, the company website also says China, a country that sells the products, tests on animals, and in these cases an “exception” is made. If a company wants to lead the way toward cruelty-free beauty products, shouldn’t it be consistent? If a company tests on animals in any country for any reason, it is not cruelty-free and is not a leader to end animal testing.

Most of the time, popular brands are owned by an even larger company, and if that larger company allows animal testing in any way or allows the use of animal-tested ingredients within the products, the brands it owns also perpetuate the practice. Estee Lauder owns MAC, Clinique, Bobbi Brown,

and Bumble & Bumble. Procter & Gamble owns Olay, Crest Toothpaste, Old Spice, and many more.

But don’t get discouraged yet. Many brands care about our furry friends! If you are searching for makeup or beauty products including shampoo, lotion and face wash, just look for a tiny bunny symbol on the back of the bottle or compact.

This means that the product is cruelty-free. In some cases, there is no bunny, but a statement such as “not tested on animals” is included on the label. If neither of these appears on the product, always research the product. Sometimes brands don’t have anything on their product about cruelty-free policies. It may take some digging, but it’s well worth it to know you aren’t condoning or perpetuating this cruel commercial practice.

MARIKA VAN DE KAMP

PSU Vanguard • JULY 25, 2017 • psuvanguard.com

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July 25­—31

EVENT LISTINGS

OFF CAMPUS FEATURED EVENT

THURSDAY, JULY 27

PARADE NOON, SATURDAY, JULY 29 2ND ANNUAL JAPANESE AMERICAN PORTLANDIA MERMAID HISTORICAL PLAZA PARADE FREE, ALL AGES Celebrating both the eponymous Raymond Kaskey sculpture and “the living culture of professional mermaid entertainers now thriving in Oregon,” the Portlandia Mermaid Parade includes opening ceremonies and a closing swim party at Poets Beach.

ART RECEPTION SCREAMING SKY MELISSA MONROE + LIZ GALLERY HARRIS FREE, ALL AGES 5 P.M. Screaming Sky Gallery hosts a reception for multi-media sculptors for Last Thursday.

TUESDAY, JULY 25 ART ROCK 7:30 P.M. BLONDE REDHEAD, WONDER BALLROOM PORCELAIN RAFT $25, 21+ The ’90s noise rockers turned soft and subtle over the turn of the 21st century and tour in support of their new EP, 3 O’Clock.

NIGHTLIFE HOLOCENE EMO NITE PDX $10, 21+ 9 P.M. “Emotional Nitetime” is somehow different from Wednesday’s “Taking Back Tuesday.”

NIGHTLIFE LOVECRAFT BAR BONES FREE, 21+ 9 P.M. DJ Aurora and guests play dark synth, darkwave, industrial, post punk and more.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26 DRAG QUEENS 5:30 P.M. BINGO W/POISON MISSION THEATER WATERS $15, 21+ Poison Waters recently scaled a building in drag for charity. Go play bingo with her.

SCIENCE OMSI OMSI AFTER DARK $7.50–30, 21+ 7 P.M. Learn about explosions, whether they’re cinematic fireballs or chemical reactions, and some of the most famous explosions in the recorded history of mankind, like Mt. Vesuvius and Mt. St. Helens, with booze on hand and kids banned from the premises.

ART ROCK WHITE OWL SOCIAL ARCTIC FLOWERS, CLUB OVER, FLESHH FREE, ALL AGES 8 P.M. Donations are encouraged for these bands, also supported by DJs Dark Entries and Beta Male, as well as for the nonprofits hosting them: Freeform Portland and PDX Pop Now! NIGHTLIFE HOLOCENE TAKING BACK TUESDAY $6–8, 21+ 9 P.M. “Taking Back Tuesday” is somehow different from Tuesday’s “Emo Nite PDX.” Show up to find out!

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HIP-HOP 7 P.M. JARREN BENTON, HAWTHORNE THEATRE CALEB BROWN, BINGX $15–65, ALL AGES The Decatur, GA rapper comes to Portland in support of his new LP, Mink Coat Killa.

FILM CLINTON STREET RETROSPECTIVE, THEATER SILENT LOVERS (2017) $8, ALL AGES 8 P.M. NYC artist & filmmaker Julie Orlick screens a collection of nine short films created since 2014, including her newest film starring Queen Bettie and her Submissive Mime.

COMEDY JULY 28–29) JON LOVITZ HELIUM COMEDY CLUB 8 P.M. (ALSO $25–33, 21+ PERFORMING Our readers may most likely recognize this SNL alum from The Brave Little Toaster, A League of Their Own, New Girl and (just maybe) The Critic.

FRIDAY, JULY 28 ART RECEPTION UNIONKNOTT SUMMER GROUP SHOW FREE, ALL AGES 6 P.M. New works from Tyler Corbett, Sean Croghan, Timothy Scott Dalbow, Lance Dawes, Jason Vance Dickason, Lindsay Jaramillo, Lindsay Kennedy, Miss Lopez Media and Slim Pickins.

SOFT ROCK MODA CENTER NEIL DIAMOND $40–125, ALL AGES 8 P.M. The pop icon tours the world to celebrate over 50 years of working in the music industry.

NIGHTLIFE 9 P.M. SNAP! ’90S DANCE HOLOCENE PARTY $7, 21+ This month’s installment of the DJs Doc Adams/Colin Jones/Freaky Outty spun, Coco Madrid-hosted ’90s dance party is Y2K themed. Many PSU freshmen were born in 1999.

DRAG QUEENS LOVECRAFT BAR CLUB KAI-KAI $10, 21+ 9 P.M. DJs Buckmaster and FatherFannie play Spice Girls mixes along with themed drag numbers.

PSU Vanguard • JULY 25, 2017 • psuvanguard.com

FILM CLINTON STREET HEDWIG & THE ANGRY THEATER INCH (2001) $8–10, ALL AGES 9:30 P.M. This Sundance darling based on the stage musical of the same name features a singalong led by the Clinton Street Cabaret.

NIGHTLIFE KILLINGSWORTH TWERK DYNASTY 10 P.M. $5, 21+ Next month marks both the fifth anniversary and the last edition of this regular dance party. DJs Status Apparatus (SEA) and Ill Camino play music.

SATURDAY, JULY 29 HIP-HOP STAR THEATER BLACKALICIOUS, ZION-I $20, 21+ 8 P.M. The classic rap heavyweights tour in support of their new album, Imani, vol. 1.

GALA 8 P.M. SIREN’S MASQUERADE WORLD TRADE CENTER BALL $35, 21+ The official afterparty for the 2nd Annual Portlandia Mermaid Parade, featuring a buffet, photo booth, raffle, dance performances and more. Formalwear or fantasywear required.

INDIE POP KELLY’S OLYMPIAN FEMME FATALES $8–10, 21+ 8 P.M. Laryssa Birdseye, Sarah Wild & the Watch and Courtney Noe all occupy different positions on the pop spectrum, but unite on a single bill for female solidarity, and to normalize all-female performance bills.

NIGHTLIFE ANALOG CAFE & ANDAZ THEATER 9 P.M. $8, 21+ DJ Anjali & the Incredible Kid’s monthly Bhangra and Bollywood dance party.

FUNDRAISER KILLINGSWORTH HEX THE PATRIARCHY DYNASTY 9 P.M. $5, 21+ W.I.T.C.H. PDX hosts a benefit show for Trans Assistance Project and Sankofa Collective Northwest, with music from DJs Erin Yanke, Beast, NZ Henton and Especially Heinous.

NIGHTLIFE THE LIQUOR STORE B*NICE $10, 21+ 10 P.M. This party celebrating U.K. garage music features live DJ sets from Roska (U.K.), Drexler, Commune and SPF666.

FILM ROCK HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) 11:59 P.M.

CLINTON STREET THEATER $12–15, ALL AGES

Shadow cast performers from across the PNW will gather for this special midnight show, with a pre-film blessing by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

SUNDAY, JULY 30 SPORTS 11 A.M. 6TH ANNUAL BAT ‘N’ ERV LIND STADIUM ROUGE $5–20, ALL AGES Drag queens and friends play softball to raise funds for the Portland AIDS Walk.

DRAG QUEENS 3 P.M. CLUB KAI-KAI STAR THEATER PRESENTS: TEA $20–50, 21+ Patio dance party with music from DJs Prince$$ Dimebag & Casual Aztec, followed by drag performances headlined

by Valentina (RuPaul‘s Drag Race season 9 Miss Congeniality).

SUPERNATURAL SPEAK OUT INTERVIEW WITH 6 P.M. AN ABDUCTEE: PARANORMAL PUB THE EXPERIENCERS FREE, 21+ Ali Travis and Aleta DeBee recreate their interview with at least one person they believe has been abducted by aliens, but more importantly: When did we get a Paranormal Pub? POP ROCK 7:30 P.M. ED SHEERAN, JAMES MODA CENTER BLUNT $70–90, ALL AGES Ed Sheeran isn’t dead on Game of Thrones and neither am I. Crying emoji.

MONDAY, JULY 31 LOCAL ART 6 P.M. THE KNOW’S ARTS & THE KNOW CRAFTS FLEA MARKET FREE, 21+ & BAZAAR Entangled Roots Press, John Werrin, Moff, Samuel Farrell, Johnny Buffalo and other artists gather to exhibit, sell and trade their artwork.

FILM CLINTON STREET WET HOT AMERICAN THEATER SUMMER (2001) $5, ALL AGES 7 P.M. This comedy satirizing period comedies is now almost as far removed from its release date as its source material.

Screening benefits Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.

COMEDY 8 P.M. LAST TUESDAY FREMONT THEATER STANDING: MONDAY $10, ALL AGES EDITION Jeremiah Coughlan hosts this standup night, headlined by Barbara Holm and third place winner in Willamette Week’s 2017 Reader’s Poll for Funniest Person, Becky Braunstein.

Andrew D. Jankowski

ON CAMPUS FEATURED EVENT

FILM MULTIPLE TIMES WHO FRAMED ROGER 5TH AVENUE CINEMA RABBIT? (1988) $4–5 (FREE W/PSU ID), JULY 28–30 ALL AGES “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.” I guarantee this movie is even better than you remember.

TUESDAY, JULY 25 BLOOD DRIVE SMSU BALLROOM RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE FREE, ALL AGES 11 A.M. Look at these heterosexual people, flaunting their veiny lifestyle in my face amidst a national blood shortage (the Red Cross needs more than double what it has on reserve).

CHAMBER MUSIC 7 P.M. JULIE BYRNE, JOHANNA THE OLD CHURCH WARREN $13–15, ALL AGES The New York environmental scientistcum-contemporary folk singer tours i n suppor t of her new a lbu m , Not E ven Happiness.

CHAMBER MUSIC LINCOLN BACH TO TWIN PEAKS PERFORMANCE HALL 7:30 P.M. $10–60, ALL AGES Protégé Project composers Chris Rogerson and Daniel Schlosberg lead the Dover Quartet and Imani Winds from songs of the institution to the avant garde of chamber music, touching upon Bach, Poulenc and Badalamenti.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26 CHAMBER MUSIC THE OLD CHURCH SACK LUNCH SERIES FREE, ALL AGES NOON NYC’s Fair Trade Trio—violinists Ashley Windle & Hannah Levinson and cellist Jeanette Stenson—make it their mission to play pieces arranged and composed by women. They debut Emily Doolittle’s “string trio commissioned by the Fair Trade Chamber Music Society,” Beethoven and more.

FILM 7 P.M. MOVEMENT & FLOW: WHITSELL PORTLAND DANCE FILMS AUDITORIUM (2015–17) $6–9, ALL AGES Directors & choreographers Conrad Kazcor, Fuchsia Lin, Dylan Wilbur Media, Gabriel Shalom, Jackie Davis and Amy Yang Chiao attend a group screening of films focusing on subjects in Portland contemporary dance.

THURSDAY, JULY 27

FAMILY 4 P.M. OLD FASHIONED FAMILY SW 12TH & MARKET PICNIC FREE, ALL AGES Free food, games and fun for PSU and/ or international kiddos and their student-parents.

FRIDAY, JULY 28 CHAMBER MUSIC LINCOLN PERFORMANCE LANG & COLEMAN HALL #75 NOON FREE, ALL AGES The last New @ Noon showcase of Summer Term brings together David Lang and Valerie Coleman (Imani Winds flutist & composer).

FILM JULY 29, 8:30 P.M.) BLUE VELVET (1986) WHITSELL AUDITORIUM 7 P.M. (ALSO SCREENING $6–9, ALL AGES Screening as part of the David Lynch Retrospective. Did you know: flawless treasure Isabella Rossellini’s performance was panned by Italian critics as being a cheap ripoff of Rossellini’s mother, Ingrid Bergman, and her role as Isla Lund in Casablanca (1942)?

COMEDY ARLENE SCHNITZER MYSTERY SCIENCE CONCERT HALL THEATER 3000 LIVE $73–100, ALL AGES 8 P.M. A live episode of the cult-classic sci-fi spoof show, which lampoons Eegah (1962).

SATURDAY, JULY 29 FILM WHITSELL AUDITORIUM LE JOUR SE LÈVE (1939) $6–9, ALL AGES 6 P.M. Factory worker François (Jean Gabin) reflects on his life, loves and crimes in this Romantic Fatalism classic from director Marcel Carné.

SUNDAY, JULY 30

OPERA 2/7:30 P.M. THE DIFFICULTY OF NEWMARK THEATRE CROSSING A FIELD/LITTLE $43–86, ALL AGES MATCH GIRL PASSION Double billing of two operas: the latter an operatic adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson holiday sob story, and the former, as per the copy: “a story about those [a slave owner] leaves behind,” as he, “disappears in plain view of his family, neighbors, and slaves…[s]et to haunting, emotional music.”

Fucking opera, dude.

FUNDRAISER THE OLD CHURCH JOURNEY OF THE HEART $25, ALL AGES 3 P.M. Alison King (soprano), Brad Raymond (tenor) and pianist David Saffert perform to benefit the Merry Heart Children’s Camp.

CHAMBER MUSIC LINCOLN PERFORMANCE THE COMPLETE HALL #175 BRANDENBURGS $10–75, ALL AGES 4 P.M. 20+ musicians play Baroque masterpieces to close out Chamber Music Northwest’s summer concert series.

MONDAY, JULY 31 INDIE MUSIC DIRECTOR PARK MONDAY SOUNDSCAPES FREE, ALL AGES 6 P.M. 1000 Fuegos plays Director Park for an evening of free outdoor music.

FILM WHITSELL REAR WINDOW (1954) AUDITORIUM 7 P.M. $6–9, ALL AGES Hitchcock’s classic thriller starring Jimmy Stewart and pre-royal Grace Kelly was a major influence on David Lynch.

THEATER PORTLAND JAPANESE TENARAIKO GARDEN 7:30 P.M. (ALSO $15, ALL AGES PERFORMED JULY 30) Actor/dancer Nakamura Umeno makes his U.S. debut in one of the most famous works in the kabuki canon, about “a young girl on her way home from a calligraphy lesson who fantasizes about the life ahead of her, composing imaginary love poems from the words she wrote in class as butterflies dance around her.”

FILM 5TH AVENUE CINEMA THE DRILLER KILLER $4–5 (FREE W/PSU ID), (1979) ALL AGES 11:59 P.M. This politically incorrect dark comedy features a wino-murdering artist driven to the brink by failure and two harping female roommates.

ELLA HIGGINS

PSU Vanguard • JULY 25, 2017 • psuvanguard.com

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COLORING PAGE MARIKA VAN DE KAMP