VOLUME 75 • ISSUE 8 • AUGUST 18, 2020
CAMPUS POLICE WILL STOP CARRYING FIREARMS P. 3 NEWS Incoming freshmen face new challenges
INTERNATIONAL Explosion devastates Beirut
ARTS & CULTURE Quarantine Cuisine
CONTENTS COVER BY SAM PERSON NEWS HILL TO HALL
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CPSO CHANGES TO UNARMED PATROLS NEW YEAR, NEW STUDENTS, NEW CHALLENGES
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COMMUNITY TASK FORCE RECOMMENDS NEW BURNSIDE BRIDGE
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INTERNATIONAL MASSIVE EXPLOSION DEVASTATES BEIRUT
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STAFF
EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Dylan Jefferies MANAGING EDITOR Justin Grinnell NEWS EDITORS Hanna Anderson Aidan Kennelley INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Isabel Rekow ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Nick Townsend OPINION EDITOR AJ Earl ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings
COPY CHIEF Sophie Concannon CONTRIBUTORS Nick Gatlin Megan Huddleston Mary Joaquin Béla Kurzenhauser Karisa Yuasa PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Annie Schutz
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INDIA ENFORCES CURFEW, LOCKDOWN TO PREVENT BLACK DAY PROTESTS IN KASHMIR ARTS & CULTURE QUARANTINE CUISINE
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OPINION PRIVACY, ANTITRUST AND GOVERNMENT, OH MY!
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DIS T RIBU TION DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Dylan Jefferies
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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 DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood
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CPSO CHANGES TO UNARMED PATROLS PSU ANNOUNCES DECISIONS TO “REIMAGINE CAMPUS SAFETY”
AUGUST 10–12
HANNA ANDERSON
AUGUST 10: OREGON LEGISLATURE CONVENES AND CONCLUDES SPECIAL SESSION
Oregon lawmakers started and ended a one-day special session Monday, fixing deficits in the budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic and passing a measure further restricting the use of chokeholds by police. The session, according to AP News, was primarily focused on balancing a $1.2 billion hole in the state budget left by the pandemic. In 15 hours, the legislature passed 11 bills, including H.B. 4301, which prohibits the use of chokeholds by either police or correctional officers, unless it is for self defense as defined by law.
AUGUST 11: SUPREME COURT HALTS OREGON REDISTRICTING MEASURE
In a Tuesday ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency stay halting the effort of government watchdog groups to put a measure on the November ballot, which would create a nonpartisan commission in charge of drawing legislative and congressional districts. Previously, U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane ruled the campaign, “People not Politicians,” should get additional time to meet a lower signature threshold to get the measure on the November ballot, according to The Oregonian. It was granted by Oregon Secretary of State Bev Clarno. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum requested the current stay from Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan last month, arguing McShane’s ruling “encroaches on the state’s sovereign authority to determine for itself the process by which its own constitution can be amended.” The appeals court will now have to decide on the case for the measure to move forward.
AUGUST 12: DAN RYAN WINS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL ELECTION
Dan Ryan won the special election for commissioner seat two on Portland City Council. According to OPB, Ryan, the former head of an education nonprofit, declared victory Wednesday morning after 95% of the vote was counted and Ryan was ahead by 5,000 votes. Ryan defeated his opponent, Loretta Smith, by 51-48% of the vote. Ryan and Smith were the top two out of 18 candidates in the May primary for the position to finish the term of former commissioner Nick Fish, after his passing in January. However, in the runoff, only 39% of registered Portland voters cast a ballot.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com
HANNA ANDERSON Beginning this fall, Portland State campus public safety officers will no longer carry firearms while patrolling campus. PSU President Stephen Percy and Chief of Campus Public Safety Willie Halliburton announced Thursday CPSO officers would no longer carry firearms while on patrol, one of two announcements to change the way PSU approaches safety on campus. “Over the past few weeks, we have listened to many voices across our campus,” Percy stated in the email announcement. “The calls for change that we are hearing at PSU are ringing out across our nation. We must find a new way to protect the safety of our community, one that works to dismantle systemic racism and promotes the dignity of all who come to our urban campus.” CPSO will finish the transition to firearm-free patrols before or during the month of October, according to PSU’s new Reimagining Campus Safety website, and will continue to carry less lethal tools such as tasers. While patrols have been disarmed, sworn campus police
“DISARM PSU” WRITTEN ON THE MURAL AROUND THE APPLE STORE IN DOWNTOWN PORTLAND. ISABEL REKOW/PSU VANGUARD officers will still have access to guns, kept in the CPSO office, to be used in a “very limited” number of situations, such as an active shooter on campus. “I want to do the right thing, so that CPSO officers are doing the right thing,” Halliburton said, “and the right thing to do is to patrol campus unarmed.” According to Halliburton, while there were multiple discussions with the president and Board of Trustees, the decision for unarmed patrols was ultimately made by CPSO. In addition, the PSU BOT will create a Reimagining Campus Safety Committee to discuss and propose new and more equitable solutions to safety on campus. While a steering team has been chosen, more committee members will be selected by the initial team. The committee is expected to make recommendations to the BOT in the fall. “The Reimagine Campus Safety Committee will be asked to provide innovative solutions to our safety and security needs,” Percy said. “These needs have been changing in recent
years. The Board of Trustees and I anticipate that this reimagination will include creating effective responses to concerns about safety, including building access, as well as assisting community members in crisis.” Shortly after the announcement, DisarmPSU released a statement regarding the decisions. “After seven years of organizing, protesting, collaborating, and coalition-building, the members of #DisarmPSU are thrilled by today’s announcement from President Percy that CPSO will patrol campus without firearms,” the statement read. “Today, we are reminded that we don’t win by appealing to the goodwill of those in power; We win through organizing, and today we won.” This is a developing story—a longer piece will be released in our next issue. We want to hear from you! If you have thoughts or comments, email news@ psuvanguard.com or editor@psuvanguard.com and your responses may be featured in a future article.
NEWS
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INCOMING FRESHMEN FACE NEW CHALLENGES ENTERING COLLEGE DURING A PANDEMIC SAM PERSON KARISA YUASA For the incoming freshmen class, whose senior year of high school was already affected when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled proms, last days of high school and traditional graduations, the idea of a fresh start in a college setting created something to look forward to. However, as COVID-19 continues to affect the country, most classes will be held remotely, Portland State Housing and Residence Life established a no-guest policy, and the idea of the “typical college experience” has become less realistic. “I saw myself making new friends in my college classes and having an amazing roommate to share my college experience,” said Natalie Kapuniai-Ryan, an incoming freshman from Sherwood, Oregon. “But now it’s definitely going to be harder. I don’t have a roommate to become friends with before classes start, and if I do take classes in person, it’ll be hard to make friends given the social distancing rules put in place.” The new rules and guidelines due to COVID-19 have created more uncertainties, especially for these first-time college students. “COVID definitely affected my plans on moving up to Portland,” said Haley Yamasato, an incoming freshman from Honolulu, Hawaii. “Right now I’m not even sure if I’m staying back or moving up.” These unprecedented circumstances have also led to hard decisions they did not expect to have to make. “COVID-19 has definitely affected my school choice greatly,” Kapuniai-Ryan said. “I was going to play volleyball at a private college but now that most of the seasons are canceled, I backed out and am now attending PSU.”
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The continual uncertainty of the current environment required flexibility in plans. “If I was asked a year ago what I was most looking forward to in regards to starting college, it would be exploring what college life has to offer,” said Tori DeJournett, an incoming freshman from Oahu, Hawaii. “For me, living in Hawaii for most of my life, you don’t get as many opportunities as people who live on the mainland.” “COVID has affected my plans for the fall in every way possible. I am very sad that I won’t be on campus for the fall semester, but I am looking forward to eventually going on campus.” COVID-19 continues to impact new student’s college experience before the fall term even starts. New Student Orientation, which traditionally took the form of a half day, in-person event, where students were able to meet other new students, was turned into a 90 minute selfpaced virtual session. “New Student Orientation is [a student’s] opportunity to learn about PSU and prepare for [their] first term. [They] will get details about campus life, student services, and degree requirements.” PSU Admissions stated in an Instagram post. Some challenges did arise as a result of the new style of Orientation, according to students who finished it. “I attended a virtual orientation and it was very informative, but there’s a lot of moving pieces right now and so many unknowns that I feel unprepared. I thought I’d be signed up for classes in June or July, but I’m just now signing up for classes,” Kapuniai-Ryan said. “If I’m completely honest, the virtual Orientation for me personally was hard to follow, but with the help of advisors, I was able to figure it out.” DeJournett said. “I definitely think
if I didn’t reach out to my advisors and the admissions office I would definitely be lost and confused.” In an effort to create a more personal connection to new students, the admissions and orientation teams created new ways to interact with new students. Orientation leaders made calls to all new students to check in on their Online Orientation progress and to answer any questions. Through the Go2PSU Instagram page, an Orientation leader does a series called “What’s up Wednesdays,” where a different topic is covered live every week. On select Wednesdays & Fridays, the Orientation team hosts Connect2PSU Days. “Connect2PSU Days are half-day virtual events for incoming students, designed to introduce [them] to fellow new students, Orientation Leaders, and PSU staff representing a variety of campus resources and services.” states the PSU Website. Conducted over Zoom meetings, Connect2PSU Days created a space for new students to interact in real-time in an effort to emulate the feeling of a traditional in-person Orientation. “I attended a Connect2PSU Day and all the hosts were super nice and answered all my questions. They also helped me figure out my registration. Overall I think it was a great experience,” Yamasoto said. Although current times will lead to a start to college that no one expected, some freshmen still remain hopeful for what is ahead. “If I was asked a year ago about what I’m most excited for in college, it would be making new friends. I think this will be way harder to do now since the COVID situation, but I am still excited to start this new chapter in my life,” Yamasoto said.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com
MULTNOMAH COUNTY PREPARES FOR THE BIG EARTHQUAKE
COUNTY OFFICIALS SEEK TO REPAIR BURNSIDE BRIDGE IN PREPARATION FOR POTENTIAL MEGATHRUST EARTHQUAKE BURNSIDE BRIDGE IN PORTLAND, OREGON. COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS MEGAN HUDDLESTON 2020 may as well be the year of the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Last week, Multnomah County received recommendations from the community for the Burnside Bridge’s seismically sound replacement as part of the county’s project to prepare Portland for the likely potential of a megathrust earthquake. “Oregon has the potential for a 9.0+ magnitude earthquake caused by the Cascadia Subduction Zone,” Oregon’s Office of Energy Management stated. “Currently, scientists are predicting that there is about a 37% chance that a megathrust earthquake…will occur in the next 50 years.” The Cascadia Subduction Zone results from the Juan de Fuca plate, located in the Pacific Ocean, running into North America. Running from northern California up to Vancouver Island in Canada, it lies anywhere from 70–100 miles from the shoreline. Approximately 80 miles from the coast, Portland falls right in the middle of the subduction zone. Even during a global pandemic and civil unrest, Multnomah County hasn’t forgotten about this potential natural disaster, and is moving forward with preparations to mitigate the damage.
So, how is Multnomah County planning on making the Burnside Bridge seismically sound enough to survive the megathrust? According to Diane Moug and Ashar Khosravifar, professors of geotechnical engineering at Portland State, one key aspect is liquefaction. Liquefaction occurs when an earthquake turns soil into a soft, soupy substance. Khosravifar said an easy way to understand liquefaction is to close your eyes and imagine you’re at the coast. “When you’re walking on the beach, the soil underneath your feet—the saturated sand—is pretty stiff soil,” Khosravifar said. “It can tolerate your weight. But then if you start stepping back and forth and jump up and down, the soil starts to get really soft and it looks like it’s bleeding out water. That’s liquefaction. That’s repetitive loading—what an earthquake does to soil. So, all of a sudden, soil that was competent enough to carry your load gets really loose.” Liquefiable soils typically occur alongside rivers, such as the Willamette and Columbia. “Anywhere you go in the world where you have two ingredients—major rivers that deposit really loose soil or material and an active fault—when you have these two together, there’s a real liquefaction risk,” Khosravifar said.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com
Multnomah County officials want to ensure that one bridge spanning the Willamette within Portland won’t be susceptible to liquefaction during the Cascadia Subduction Zone megathrust earthquake. “[Liquefaction] is really a big part of what informs the new bridge design,” Moug explained. “They wanted to move the foundation away from the weak soil that would undergo liquefaction. They’ll put the bridge piers in the middle of the river, where the soils are less likely to liquify.” Moug and Khosravifar are currently researching ways to mitigate liquefaction along the Willamette River in northwest Portland, where the critical energy infrastructure hub is located, and around Portland airport runways near the Columbia River. While the county continues preparing major infrastructure for the big earthquake, residents are asking themselves what they can do to help prepare themselves and their community. Portland State Professor Yu Xiao, whose research focuses on disaster management and community resilience, says there are a few simple things we can all do now to prepare for the potential future catastrophe. “The best way to prepare is to first take care of
yourself,” Xiao said. “You don’t want to be a liability to someone else. So, first take care of your basic needs. Then help others.” Xiao warned this is not a call to stockpile mass reserves of toilet paper, as was seen at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think water is the most important thing,” Xiao said. She suggested investing in a water filtration device, which you can also use while hiking or camping. She also said residents should have two weeks’ worth of non-perishable food on hand. Finally, Xiao emphasized the importance of having digital resources available in physical form. “Back up your documents. Make copies of your important files. Keep them together and put them in a bag. If there’s an earthquake, you want to be able to grab it and leave,” Xiao said. Although the thought of a megathrust earthquake amid all the other challenges 2020 has brought to Portland can be frightening, Xiao remained optimistic. “Keep a positive mind and be adaptive,” Xiao said. “Adaptation—that’s the key word. We can only adapt to the changes.”way that we currently run it.” Voting for the special election will take place on August 11, with results of who wins released later on Tuesday night.
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MASSIVE EXPLOSION DEVASTATES BEIRUT ISABEL REKOW A massive explosion rocked Beirut on Aug. 4, killing over 200 people, destroying 70,000 houses and leading to the resignation of Lebanon’s government. According to BBC, just after 6 p.m. a fire in the Port of Beirut ignited warehouses storing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate—a chemical commonly added to fertilizers that is also used by the mining industry to create explosives. The explosion in Beirut caused a mushroom cloud to bloom over the port and sent a shock wave into the capital. Over 5,000 people were injured and windows shattered miles away from the epicenter of the blast. Seismographs registered its power as equivalent to a 3.3-magnitude earthquake. Damage to the city was so extensive that over 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes. The chemicals arrived in 2013, when a Russian cargo ship on its way from Georgia to Mozambique made an unscheduled stop in Beirut. Lebanese port officials impounded the ship and its cargo of ammonium nitrate due to unpaid port fees and “gross violations in operating a
AN APARTMENT HOME IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE EXPLOSION IN BEIRUT, LEBANON. COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS vessel,” according to CNN. Igor Grechushkin, the Russian businessman leasing the vessel, abandoned the ship. Its cargo languished in a dockside warehouse for years despite repeated warnings of the danger it posed. Four years ago, a contractor for the United States government warned a Lebanese port official that the ammonium nitrate stockpile at the port was a security risk. In 2016, Lebanon’s then-Director of Customs, Chafic Merhi, wrote to a judge: “due to the extreme danger posed by [these] stored items in unsuitable climate conditions, we reiterate our
request to the Port Authorities to re-export the goods immediately to maintain the safety of the port and those working in it.” Security officials alerted Lebanon’s leaders to the dangers of the stored chemicals in July—mere weeks before the stockpile detonated. In a July 20 letter to the president and prime minister of Lebanon, a top security official referenced a judicial investigation in January that concluded the chemicals were in immediate need of safer storage, according to Reuters. Lebanese authorities, joined by international investigators including the FBI, will investigate
the causes of the explosion, as it is unclear what caused the fire at the port. “The cause has not been determined yet,” Lebanese President Michel Aoun said. “There is a possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act.” The explosion sparked protests in Beirut as thousands of residents expressed their anger at a government they see as corrupt and negligent, according to The Middle East Eye. Law enforcement responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Over 700 people were wounded and one police officer was killed during the protests. The Lebanese government, led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, stepped down on Aug. 10. “I said before that corruption is rooted in every juncture of the state,” Diab said, “but I have discovered that corruption is bigger than the state.” Aoun accepted the government’s resignation, but requested it remain until a new cabinet is formed, according to Al Jazeera. The people of Lebanon continue to protest against the government. On Aug. 10, the Lebanese parliament voted to grant extensive powers to the army under the current state of emergency. Rights groups fear a crackdown on freedom of speech and assembly.
INDIA ENFORCES CURFEW, LOCKDOWN TO PREVENT BLACK DAY PROTESTS IN KASHMIR RESTRICTIONS PERSIST A YEAR AFTER THE STATE’S LOSS OF AUTONOMY
MARY JOAQUIN The Indian government imposed a curfew and lockdown in Kashmir to prevent protests on Aug. 5, the one-year anniversary of Kashmir’s loss of autonomy. The Hindu nationalist government announced a two-day curfew in the Muslim-majority state on Aug. 4–5, compounding COVID-19 regulations. Authorities lifted the curfew late on Aug. 4 for lack of major incidents, according to Reuters. “A series of inputs have been received suggesting that separatist and Pakistan-sponsored groups are planning to observe Aug. 5 as Black Day, and violent action or protests are not ruled out,” said Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, a civil administrator, as reported by Al Jazeera. Security measures included steel barricades, razor wires lining main roads, paramilitary forces and patrols advising residents to remain indoors in Srinagar. Days before Aug. 5, police detained scores of young men on suspicion of organizing anti-India protests, according to AP News. Checkpoints also continued to control movement across the city. In the third private meeting by the United Nations Security Council regarding Kashmir, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who especially thanked China’s support, said the meeting “nullified, yet another time, the Indian self-serving claim that it is an ‘internal matter.’” Responding to the meeting in a tweet, Indian
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United Nations Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti said countries present at the meeting underlined that Jammu and Kashmir were a “bilateral issue & did not deserve [the] time and attention of [the] Council,” according to Al Jazeera. The one-year anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, which allowed Kashmiris to live under different laws from the rest of India, was followed by a security lockdown and communications blackout in Kashmir. Activists urged a “global spotlight” in India’s only Muslim-majority state, which remains one of the world’s most militarized zones, according to CNN. A 213-day blackout—including the longest Internet shutdown in a democratic country— restricted residents from an online presence. After closures of thousands of public and private schools, the blackout rendered students unable to access online classes. “Educators across the country moved to online platforms for schooling during COVID-19 but New Delhi’s ban on high-speed internet in Kashmir continues to keep our children away,” said G. N. Var, president of the Private Schools Association of Jammu and Kashmir. Doctors relying on overseas information about the coronavirus struggled to keep up to date on how to handle patients, according to TIME. A doctor who publicly demanded resources and equipment was transferred to a different location.
There is a “kind of censorship that exists because health professionals, doctors are not allowed to speak about any, you know, problems with regards to COVID preparation,” said Gowhar Geelani, a journalist based in Srinagar. “The focus is more to contain the story so that the bad news doesn’t go out,” he continued, calling the shutdown an “information black hole.” Journalists were targeted by authorities, brought to police stations and sometimes interrogated to name their sources as the government sought to stifle dissent, according to CNN.
BLACK DAY PROTESTERS. COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS “Over the last one year the Government of India has been systematically dismantling all avenues for justice for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” said Avinash Kumar, Amnesty International India’s executive director. “With zero representation, protracted internet restrictions, arbitrary use of some of India’s most stringent laws, verbal orders of detention and crippling of the local media—most of this disproportionately higher in Kashmir—it’s been a complete year since we have heard the people of Jammu and Kashmir speak.”
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com
QU A R AN T I N E C U I S I N E HOW TO USE EVERYONE’S FAVORITE LATESUMMER FRUIT, THE TOMATO
NICK GATLIN It’s late summer, which means the greatest produce of all time is hitting grocery stores and farmers markets across the country: tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes—they’re all incredible. They have the sweetness and tenderness of a fruit, and the umami bite of a good savory vegetable. You can make tomato soup, marinara sauce, pizza sauce, even eat them raw like an apple if you wanted to. But it’s summer, at the height of the sweet, ripe tomato season, so that means we need to take full advantage of their unique qualities. That means eating them raw, or just barely cooked enough to bring out their flavor. Also, it’s really hot outside, so it doesn’t hurt that these take little to no time at the stove to make.
Caprese Salad INGREDIENTS
Tomatoes (preferably heirloom) Fresh high-moisture mozzarella Olive oil and balsamic vinegar (optional) You knew this one was coming. Caprese salad is basically the de-facto summer tomato dish, and for good reason. It’s cheap, it’s incredibly easy to make and it’s delicious. Cut your tomatoes into thick, wide circular slices. Do the same with your mozzarella, assuming it’s not already sliced. Arrange them in alternating layers on the plate, then season the tomato slices with flaky salt. If you want, you can add pepper or olive oil and vinegar. If you’ve got store-bought tomatoes, go ahead and add those. If you have tomatoes from a farmers market, or some you grew yourself, just add salt. Trust me—good, fresh heirloom tomatoes don’t need anything except salt. They’re perfect on their own.
Tomato-Ricotta-Avocado Toast INGREDIENTS
Thick-sliced bread Avocado Ricotta
Tomato (preferably heirloom) Herbs (optional)
Yeah, it’s avocado toast. Sue me. The great thing about fresh tomatoes is that they make practically any dish better just by being there. Take, for example, avocado toast. Toast a thick slice of crusty bread like sourdough or French bread—it needs to be well toasted to stand up to all the moisture and weight we’re about to add. Once it’s toasted, spread a generous layer of butter, then smear an avocado across the top. Make sure to leave some ridges and bumps in there. Then, spread about a tablespoon of ricotta over the top, and layer some thick slices of tomato on top of that. Sprinkle some flaky salt, black pepper and herbs such as parsley or basil. This can be a monster of an open-faced sandwich. If you want, you could add another slice of toast on top to make it a full-fledged sandwich. Or you could customize the ingredients; you could sub in cream cheese for the ricotta, omit the avocado or use cherry tomatoes instead of heirlooms or beefsteak. It’s also amazing on a bagel.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com
AVOCADO TOAST WITH TOMATOES AND RICOTTA. NICK GATLIN/PSU VANGUARD
Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce INGREDIENTS
Olive oil (or butter) Cherry tomatoes Garlic Red pepper
Vinegar or lemon juice Pasta Salt Parmesan (optional)
This is my go-to tomato-based pasta sauce nowadays. San Marzanos are expensive, and cherry tomatoes are the best-tasting store-bought tomatoes you can get. They’re sweeter than bigger tomatoes, they tend to make a thicker and more cohesive sauce, and they’re usually pretty ripe when you get them at the store. Heat some olive oil or butter on medium heat in a saute pan. Once it’s shimmering, add a handful or two of cherry tomatoes and fry them until they start to pop and break down. Crush them with the back of a spoon to help the process. Once they’re thoroughly cooked and mushy, add some crushed garlic and red pepper flakes. Mix those together and add a splash of white wine vinegar, or any other mild vinegar or lemon juice.
While you’re cooking the sauce, boil your pasta of choice according to the instructions on the box for al dente. Don’t cook it too soft—it’s going to continue cooking in the sauce. Once it’s done, spoon a couple tablespoons of pasta water into the saucepan, and drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the sauce, stirring vigorously to create an emulsion (this is why the pasta water is important—it adds more starch). If you want, grate a generous amount of parmesan cheese straight into the pasta, stir it again for one final mix and you’re done. This is a more bare-bones sauce than many other pasta sauces, but that’s why I like it so much. It’s savory and sweet without being too heavy, and it just embodies the feeling of summer food. If you grow your own tomatoes, you can upgrade this sauce by cutting bigger tomatoes in half, roasting them skin side up, and charring the outside until the inside becomes soft and jammy. Again, only do this if you grow your own, or you can get really fresh tomatoes from a farmers market or farm-share box. Like, falling-apart-ripe. If you can’t get any fresh, ripe tomatoes, stick with cherry tomatoes.
ARTS & CULTURE
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PRIVACY, ANTITRUST
AND GOVERNMENT, BÉLA KURZENHAUSER The world of technology has been a feverous, gladiatorial effort of epic proportions over the past few decades as billionaire companies are pitted against each other, ferociously fighting over the attention of consumers. Are you iPhone or Android? Apple or Windows? PlayStation or Xbox? These questions exist in our minds constantly, and the brands we dispense loyalty to are responsible for a myriad of cultural statuses in our lives. The phone we use, the car we drive and the TV we own all determine our cultural class status. In that gladiatorial fight between big businesses, we the consumers are the emperors that decide the gladiators’ fates. On July 29, the United States House of Representatives’ Antitrust subcommittee led by representatives David Cicilline and Joe Neguse held a historic meeting with CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, the heads of four of the five biggest tech companies in the U.S. (the fifth, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, was absent.) The four were grilled by the subcommittee, but rather, the grilling was more of a lukewarm confrontation with little to no follow-up questions to the menagerie of blatant lies displayed by the executives. The hearing showed that a partial, marginal handful of these representatives might care, but in the broad-scale look at the economy, these companies are good for the U.S.’s image. They are good for the image of our capitalist powerhouse, dominating the world market. Back to the hearing. The primary focus of the subcommittee is to put pressure on companies
SHANNON STEED
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that exhibit anti-competition and monopolistic behaviors such as suppressing other companies or developers and buying up competitors. The tech industry has suffered greatly at the hand of billionaire business in the last few decades. There is an acronym used in economics and in the CS job market, namely that of FAANG—Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Four of these five companies, excluding Netflix, have exhibited ruthless, animalistic behavior towards their competitors, exploiting legal loopholes, bribing representatives and senators and boosting their stocks with unethical business acquisitions. Facebook is blatant about this, using its money to scoop up possible competitors such as Instagram and WhatsApp—after all, who needs to worry about competition in the social media space when you own the competition? The legacy of Mark Zuckerberg is infamous, partially due to the success of 2010’s The Social Network. Facebook and the Zuck have built their business on the back of exploitation, corruption, bribery and lies. The history of Facebook has been rife with scandals from the day it gestated in Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room, where a malicious site strived to create rifts between female students to the current day, where misinformation and indoctrination plague the site and data leaks through the servers like a sieve. Facebook is
inseparable from controversy—it is controversy. Throughout the last decade, it has become so deeply rooted in life throughout the world that it has become unavoidable in our daily life. Apple and Google are equally as suppressive in their competitive tendencies. Cook and Pichai, CEOs of Apple and Alphabet, respectively, lied directly to the subcommittee about their companies’ mobile storefront regulations. The App Store and the Google Play Store have, since their inception, been a thorn in the paw of any developer looking to put an app on the mobile platform, whether it is a notepad or an innovative new game. These storefronts are an unfettered monopoly on the mobile platform. If you want to make an app for smartphones, you must go through either one of these storefronts. There is no other way to put your software on a user’s device unless their phone is jailbroken (illegally “unlocking” your phone to give the user more freedom with their device.) There used to be similar issues with the PC market until the Microsoft lawsuits of 2001, where the U.S. government ruled Microsoft could not restrict developers and users from putting custom software onto their Windows PCs. If you want to put software on a Windows computer, you can do so—there is nothing stopping you besides your technological literacy and ability to click the install button. The recent Epic Games/Apple/Google trifecta lawsuit shows an attempt at cracking down on the
clear anti-competition policies that Apple and Google enact on their storefronts. The fierce regulations and hefty profit cut on the storefronts is more than just private companies curating their platform—it’s a monopoly. Smartphones have become essential to daily life, just as PCs did in 2001, and it’s time for the U.S. to force Apple and Google to change. These practices of buying, selling and replicating rivals hurts more than just small developers and companies. It hurts consumers and people, too. When a small selection of trillion-dollar market-cap companies have a strict, clear-cut monopoly on one of the world’s biggest industries, it allows those companies to get away with anything. In 2017, the Federal Communications Commission, led by chairman Ajit Pai, repealed the net neutrality laws enacted in 2005. These laws were created to give power to the people when it came to their internet privacy. Net neutrality laws stated users of the internet were entitled to their privacy of information. They stated Internet Service Providers such as Comcast and AT&T could not restrict a users’ internet speeds to certain platforms or websites, and they could not restrict access to or control what a user can or cannot use the internet for. The outrage and reaction to the repeal of these laws was immense, largely because many of the senators that voted to repeal net neutrality were paid large bribes by telecom giants such as Comcast and AT&T. The vast power, size and scale of these companies allows them to bully their way into influencing policy and politics. When the U.S. claims it will pressure companies like Facebook and Google over privacy, encryption and security, it is not because it wants to protect its citizens. It is because the U.S. is angry Google gets to spy on you but it cannot. The millions of angry auto-generated phone calls and emails sent by infuriated Reddit, Netflix and Twitter users to their local representatives does not change anything, because in a capitalistic society and government, money outweighs everything. The antitrust subcommittee claims to or subtly attempts to rail against or grill these CEOs, but it ultimately does not care. Security is a sham. Why would the U.S. government care about the FacebookCambridge Analytica scandal when its own security agencies have been spying on the common citizen for decades? The state of digital privacy in the U.S. is, at this point in time, past the point of no return. We have dug a hole too deep to recover from the monopolistic dystopia that the FAANG companies have built. The mere fact these companies were ever able to grow to the titans they have become should be seen as a colossal, unatonable failure at the hands of the government. We must grow and learn to accept that we live in a world without privacy, without security, without the confidence of our private lives; and that it will only get worse from here. Privacy is dead—and capitalism killed it.
PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com
