News for the enthused
2016 Election Guide to (Sorta) Knowing What the F**** You're Arguing About
"It's unfortunate, but indisputable. Ted Cruz is simply too weird looking to be President."
"Ok, so the the thing about the Benghazi scandal is... it was actually.. so you see, Benghazi is a place in Libya.. and you know what can we talk about something other than Hillary Clinton's damn e-mails??"
"Did you see what Donald Trump tweeted about that Fox lady last night?"
"You're only anti-Hillary because deep, deep down, you aren't even READY for a woman President."
"Uhhh... who's John Kasich?"
Welcome to my first blog *series*. This is very exciting!!
Election season tends to bring out the crazy in all of us. And this election in particular did not seem to hold back on the crazy one bit. It was just like, "Oh hi, 2016. You thought this was gonna be a run-of-the-mill Clinton Dynasty v.s. Bush Dynasty sort of showdown, didn't ya? Hahahaa, oh no, I'm funnier than that. Meet Ben Carson. He's a neurosurgeon who's going to ask a group of school children to point to the dumbest kid in their class. And here's that one racist guy with a TV show, Donald Trump. Everyone will brush him off at first, but no worries, he'll stick around for a while. Even after he publicly hesitates to condemn the KKK."
And so on.
I think it's very fun to watch everyone get all riled up about how awesome Candidate X and post lengthy appeals to their Facebook friends about how if Candidate Y wins, the country will go to ruins and they'll move to Canada.
In all seriousness, it's really awesome to see so many people care about something -- regardless about what that something is. I walk past several impassioned yet rather improvisational political debates on the NYU campus, and this is my attempt to add a little meat to the occasionally bare-bones arguments that I've eavesdropped.
I can't guarantee that this stuff will actually help you make sense of the very nonsensical political arena out there. These are just spur of the moment ideas I come up with and then haphazardly attempt to create. It's also worth noting that I am no expert on this stuff myself; I'm just a good Googler and fact regurgitator. If anyone has any suggestions or corrections to anything I post, I'd be thrilled to hear them.
1. Election 2016 Glossary
And it's the things you hear a million times that you'll realize you actually don't know super well. Come on, do you reeeally know what Citizens United is? (Yes? Okay, cool. Here's a wow-you're-so-smart trophy!)
2. To Agree or Disagree: A Sanders/Clinton Venn Diagram
As always, thank you for checking out my nerdy stuff and more to come.
💋 💋,
Elif
Bronies share love of ponies at Bronycon
Single digit temperatures and snow storms did little to deter the hundreds of My Little Pony fans who convened at Brooklyn's majestic Grand Prospect Hall this weekend for the 4th annual Ponycon.
From autograph signings to crafts stations like "Sew Your Own Plush Parasprite Workshop", the event was a bustling affair, decked in easter-hued pinks and sparkles.
Those unfamiliar with the fandom may bristle upon realizing the bulk of these My Little Pony fans are not princess-and-rainbow adoring little girls but rather fully grown -- and often bearded -- men who unabashedly love the world of Ponyland and the equestrian characters who inhabit it.
This very stigma is something that the "Bronies", as they're called, are working hard to dismantle. "Society expects boys to play with trucks and G.I. Joes and girls to play with dolls. Anything that strays out of those confines is considered really, really weird," a male fan who goes by the screen name d3ads0n said. "And it's especially weird when it's dudes who love a show about female ponies. When you go into Target, there's a blue lane for boys and a pink lane for girls." With workshops titled "The Social Ramifications of Being a Brony" and charitable funds like the Brony Thank You Fund which has raised over $130,000, Bronies are ready to spread the values of friendship and generosity My Little Pony inspires -- and to show the rest of the world that there's nothing shameful about the type of TV you enjoy.
Walking around the convention, I was struck by the calm and happy atmosphere. Over by the corner were some Bronies peering at each others trading cards. In the Grand Hall, professional voice actors were narrating comic strips, followed by peals of laughter from a delighted audience. Vendors in the vending room were hawking their homemade, shrinky-dink pony collections and plush stuffed animals, and overall people seemed to be really happy to be amongst those who shared their interests.
So who are the Bronies? Below, in their own words, are the accounts of a few fans I met.
Screen name: Jake the Army Guy
Hometown: Houston, TX
Age: 30
Occupation: Public Affairs rep. of the U.S. Military
Favorite Pony: Apple Jack
Been a fan since: Season 2
"As a military guy who loves his motorcycle, people often place me entirely into this dominant macho man stereotype. So what if I go home and watch a show about a group of pony friends? The Brony fandom is something truly special. It unites people around this common interest, and it's an incredibly friendly and non-judgmental atmosphere.
Screen name: Star Dust
Hometown: Long Island, NY
Age: 22
Occupation: Artist / Studying childhood education
Favorite Pony: Dinky Hooves
Been a fan since: The first generation in the 90's
"I'd been hearing a lot about the show from my twin, so I decided to start watching. And when I did, I was hooked. It's just a really high quality animated show, so I'm not surprised that all sorts of people like to watch it.
Screen name: d3ads0n
Hometown: Asbury, NJ
Age: 27
Occupation: UPS Driver / Musician
Favorite Pony: Apple Jack
Been a fan since: Season 1
"I liked My Little Pony as a kid, then when I was a teenager, I sorta fell out of it. Teenagers don't like that sort of thing. Then with the reboot, I started watching again and I thought 'Man, this show actually has a lot of original emotional quality. This is awesome!'
Screen names: Crosstitch (L), raverider (R)
Hometowns: Nassaw County, Dutchess County
Ages: 23, 28
Occupation: Nurse, Social Worker
Favorite Pony: Princess Luna, King Sombra (whom they're dressed as)
Been a fan since: Season 2
Crosstitch: "We actually met through the fandom. I first got into the show because my brother showed it to me, and that's how I met my ex-boyfriend. But we broke up and I met raverider at another convention. The Brony scene is a really sweet community."
Election 2016 Glossary
I was watching the Democratic debate last week when all of a sudden, I realized I had no freaking clue what the Dodd Frank bill was. I'd heard it peripherally a hundred times before, and here on the screen was Hillary, pulling it swiftly out of her Buzzword Briefcase to back up her dig against Bernie.
Now, I consider myself to be a generally (but not optimally) well informed young lady, so if I don't reeeeally know what Dodd Frank is, there are probably millions of other people who also quietly nod when it comes up at dinner parties.
So I decided to make this cheat sheet of sorts, for my fellow under-informed electorate who could use a quick refresher now and then.
I tried to design it so you can pull it up on your computer or phone as you watch upcoming debates and search as you go. If you notice a term I haven't covered yet, please, leave me a comment below and I'll add it as quickly as possible! This is still a work in progress, and if you have any knowledge you'd like to add, I would be very grateful!
Better viewing of the glossary here.
The Emoji Guide to Sunni/Shia Relations
Middle Eastern politics can seem hopelessly complicated at times, but a key to understanding much of what happens is the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, as it permeates almost every aspect of the region's politics.
Briefly, the divide between Shiites and Sunnis began when Islam's Prophet Muhammad’s died in 632 A.D. SHIITES believed that Mohammad's successor should come from his family, and thus believed his son-in-law Ali was the rightful heir. SUNNIS, on the other hand, were more motivated in expanding Islam politically, and believed Mohammad's friend Abu Bakr would make a better leader. The Sunnis won and Abu Bakr became the second leader of Islam. The Shiites didn't believe in his rule, and thus a rift was born that persists today.
Here's an important thing to know right now:
Saudi Arabia is a Sunni country and supports the growth of other Sunni entities.
These two countries are essentially fighting a proxy war for control in the Middle East by giving support to smaller countries and terrorist organizations who share their beliefs. As policy expert Rami G. Khouri explained in an Al Jazeera op-ed, "the Saudi-Iranian face-off is not just a leading example of regional troubles; it directly influences localized conflicts in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and elsewhere."
Recently, Saudi Arabia and Iran have formally cut diplomatic ties after Saudi Arabia executed a Shia cleric. The ramifications have rippled throughout the rest of the region, as Sunni states like Sudan, Somalia, Bahrain, UAE have also cut off ties with Iran.
| Iran supports | Saudi Arabia supports |
|---|---|
| Iraq and Syria | Many Arab countries in the region including Egypt, Sudan, UAE, Kuwait |
| Syria's Assad regime | Sunni rebel fighters in Syria |
| Hezbollah | Al Qaeda |
| Yemen's Shia Houthi rebels | Yemen's Sunni government |
Here's a run-down of Sunni and Shia relationships in the Middle East, including that of Iran and Saudi Arabia. This isn't an exhaustive guide, but these are some of the main players on the scene today.
If the Syrian War happened to us
If the Syrian war happened to the United States, 170 million Americans would be refugees.
59 million of us would have fled our borders, maybe seeking solace in Mexico, or onwards to South America by smuggling in cars, by boat, by foot. Washington D.C. would be a war zone, New York City and Los Angeles would both be in shambles, and scattered throughout small-town America would be a brutal militant group imposing a dystopic pseudo-government on citizens and using American resources to gain strength.
This is not a logical hypothetical, because it's impossible (and trivializing) to imagine current events of one country happening in a vastly different one. But it's hard to come to terms with just how much devastation Syria has endured, so this is simply an exercise of relation -- I'm scaling Syria's proportion of damage to our own population.
How many people would have died?
Since the initial string of peaceful protests back in 2011, 250,000 Syrians have been killed, of which 115,000 were civilians and 12,000 were kids. Syria has a population of 22.85 million population, while America has a population of 318.9 million.
What would happen to our cities?
Imagine in 2020, if most of America's major cities were in shambles. It's a jarring notion that places where millions of people live today could crumble into ruins in just five years.
Since the outbreak of the war, most urban centers in Syria have become war zones, forcing half of the nation's population out of their homes, and resulting in thousands of civilian casualties of those unwilling or unable to flee in time.
As of summer 2014, there were more than 30,000 destroyed or damaged buildings in Aleppo, Ar Raqqa, Daraa, Deir Ez Zor, Hama, and Homs.
Where would ISIS be?
When it began in 2011, the Syrian war was very much a civil conflict. Syrians, outraged by their brutal government and inspired by other Arab uprisings occurring around the area, began massive peaceful protests in city centers. The protests quickly spread throughout the country, and the government increasingly responded with lethal measures against its citizens. and slowly, civilian rebel groups formed to fight the government. As the war dragged on, intentions became hazier, as extremist rebels fled to Syria from bordering countries, some (including what's now known as ISIS) with differing agendas.
Including its territory in Iraq, In Syria and Iraq combined, there are an estimated 2.8 million to 5.3 million people living under ISIS rule. A fraction of those people are there by choice, but for the most part, they are civilians whose towns and villages have been seized and and overrun in the middle of war. Today, ISIS occupies about 30% of Syrian land, most of which is rural, and it receives about a billion dollars a year in tax revenue from civilians subject to its rule.
If the Syrian War happened in the United States, that would equate to ISIS establishing control in the central U.S., leading up into Canada.
Where would we go?
The Syrian war no longer belongs to Syrians, and if it happened here, it wouldn't belong to us either. The war began to protect Syrians, but was overridden by the agenda of outsiders -- radicalized, extremist, and violent outsiders.
Over half of Syria's population has been dislocated, meaning that there are at least 12 million people in the world who need to re-establish their lives somewhere else. The massive migration out of Syria has strained neighboring countries, most notably Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Families escape together by foot, and by dangerous migrant boat crossings, aspiring to obtain refugee status in Europe. Half of the refugees are children, many of whom have had inconsistent education over the past four years.
Sources:
Cover Photo: UNRWA
Statistics: UNHCR, Amnesty International, UNOSAT
