Editorial: Who Can Trump the Donald? by Kyle Hynes

This is one of the most pressing issues in the Presidential race: who can beat Donald Trump, Wall Street business mogul, CEO of Trump Enterprises, and current GOP frontrunner?  Since the next president will get to elect at least three of the next Supreme Court judges, we, as a party, cannot let it be a Republican, especially one like Trump.  We’re here to discuss who has the best chance of (for comic value let’s call it “trumping”) Donald.  

I can safely say that I’m speaking for both Kyle and myself when I say that the ideal choice for us is Bernie Sanders, and I’m sure that we are also speaking for many, many people all over America, but the main argument from the right about him is that he is unelectable.  One of the key points that makes him the more susceptible candidate to the Pro-GOP media is his claim to be a socialist.  I’m just going to clear this up right here, right now, but Bernie Sanders is not a full-out socialist.  He is, however, a democratic socialist.  

The difference between the two is that the belief system of the “real” socialists is more along the lines of “the government controls all the money and natural resources, and the people get shares,” whereas democratic socialists think that capitalism is harmful (at least the free market variety), but that businesses are good, so basically just that the fact that the big corporate companies are stealing from people is corrupt.  

Another very important fact that many of the right-wing media companies seem to either forget, or to never have learned, apparently, is that socialism is not the same thing as communism.  However, this is something that even the southern democrats seem to not be aware of, because it seems that they are sticking with Hillary as their choice for the Democratic Party nominee. The only problem, it seems, is that no swing voter is going to vote for a self-admitted socialist. Yes, he calls himself a democratic socialist, but Americans will go from “democratic socialist” to “socialist” to “communist”. So, it is our opinion that he cannot beat Mr. Trump.

Next: Hillary Clinton. Could she win? Trump is going to flat-out attack Clinton about the Bengazi e-mails, while Clinton will go around the edge about Trump’s many faults. So, in reality, we feel that Secretary Clinton may have enough, but maybe not. But, in reality, a Republican has the best chance to win. Someone who panders to the Christian, conservative extremist base. Someone like . . . Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz of Texas is an “anti-establishment Republican” and believes that he was anointed to be a Senator and, oddly, Vice President. All in all, Ted Cruz likely has the most realistic chance to beat Trump.

Iowa Kicks Off 2016 Race To The White House by Kyle Hynes

On Monday, February 1, 2016, 40,000 caucus-goers cast their votes in Iowa. Real estate businessman Donald J. Trump has been leading in the polls all week, but Texas Senator Ted Cruz pulled out a surprise victory on the Republican side with 27.7% of the vote. Mr. Trump came in second with 24.3%, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio closed out the top three with 23.1%. Dr. Ben Carson, whose numbers have been in a steady decline, came in fourth with 9.3%.

At the Republican Convention to decide the nomination for its party, Iowa will have 30 delegates, or representatives, to be divided up proportionally among the candidates. Thus, Sen. Cruz has 8 delegates, Mr. Trump and Sen. Cruz will have 7 delegates each, and Dr. Carson will have 3 delegates.

Former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee suspended his campaign the morning after the caucuses.

However, on the Democratic side, the race was much tighter. The race was still up for grabs on Tuesday morning, when it came out that Hillary Clinton had won with 49.9% of the vote. Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator, had 49.7% while Martin O’Malley, who dropped out last night, had eight votes. In terms of actual Democratic delegates, Clinton has 22 and Sanders has 21.  O’Malley had no delegates.

Winter Storm Jonas "The Blizzard" Report by Hely Parmar

Winter Storm Jonas has passed! It was scattered throughout last weekend, January 23rd and 24th. There was a lot of snowfall in the North. In Norristown, PA, the snow was covering the tops of cars. One woman in Maryland was trapped in her car for three days, but rescued on Monday. Officials say that they didn’t know how the lady got trapped in the car.

The Elmwood Park Zoo, in Norristown, lost its mesh roofing over a birds exhibit. Fortunately, there were no birds in the exhibit, and they’re all fine.

In Washington D.C., it was reported that there was more than 2 feet of snow. West Virginia got forty-two inches, Virginia got 39 inches in all, Maryland got 38 inches, New York got 31.3, Pennsylvania got 38.3, New Jersey got 33 inches, Connecticut got 16 inches, Delaware got 17.2 inches, Rhode Island and Massachusetts both got 15.5 inches. Specifically in Pennsylvania; Harrisburg got 30.2 inches, Allentown got 31.9 inches, and Philadelphia got 22.4 inches.

Wild Weather Unleashes on World by Hely Parmer

With three feet of snow in New Mexico and tornados in Texas, the weather is going crazy everywhere! With the typically warm conditions of New Mexico and Texas, it seems impossible to have snow there, but it has happened. In a tweet posted from in El Paso, Texas on December 27, Katie May wrote “Snow on the palm trees :)”

Eleven people died due to the powerful tornados that ripped through Texas. Over 6,000 homes lost power. There were also other tornados in Mississippi, which took 10 lives, Tennessee with six casualties, two lives lost in Alabama and one fatality in Arkansas.

Floods flashed in Missouri taking 13 lives. In northern England, thousands of families lost power. The British Prime Minister went to see the damage first-hand 200 miles north of London.  In South America, several were forced to evacuate.  In all, nearly 140,000 evacuations took place in South America. Paraguay had the most with 100,000 evacuations.

Heavy rain, wind, snow, and ice are all taking over the state of Oklahoma. All the snow melting and rain pelting has caused a lot of flooding and the ice it made it hard for adults to reach their work places. Pennsylvania has yet to have any snow, let alone flooding.

Wildfires spread around Spain caused by the high temps and low rainfall. Over 40 fires in northern and central Spain have been reported. More fires in Australia destroyed more than 100 homes on Christmas Day. Thousands were told to evacuate. The fires were a terrible present for those in Australlia.

Presidential Candidate Front-Runner Analysis by Kyle Hynes

This is a short summary of the pros and cons of the five front-running hopefuls for the 2016 Presidential Election. There are three Republicans and two Democrats, all with a hope of becoming the nominee.

Republicans:

Mr. Donald Trump (26.5% in most recent Fox News poll)

Mr. Trump, the GOP front runner, is at a critical crossroads for his campaign. Mr. Trump had a huge, 10-point lead over former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on September 15. However, as Gov. Bush fell, neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson rose to come within three points of Mr. Trump on October 15. However, Mr. Trump did quite well in the Second Republican Debate on CNN to extend his lead over Dr. Carson to seven and a half points.

However, Mr. Trump then proceeded to spend an extremely disproportionate amount of time in Iowa, the state where the first caucus will take place in February of 2016. In Iowa, Mr. Trump lead Dr. Carson by seventeen points and Florida Senator Marco Rubio by twelve. However, Dr. Carson had campaigned well, and took up a two-point lead over Mr. Trump. However, very recently, Mr. Trump has taken up a fifteen point lead over Dr. Carson, far outside the polls’ margin of error.

It took everyone by surprise when Mr. Trump announced his bid for the Presidency. Mr. Trump is a 69-year old businessman from New York City and CEO of Trump Enterprises. He has a net worth of approximately $4.4 billion dollars, even though Mr. Trump likes to say that it is $9 billion. It was very much a surprise to see that Mr. Trump would attempt to become the President of the United States.

However, it is the businessman’s ideas that may sink him. His immigration ideas are open to criticism to many citizens, and in particular his ideas on building a wall between Mexico and the United States. Mr. Trump also mocked reporter Serge Kovalesky, who has a severe disability that makes him twitch, at a Trump 2016 rally in Florida. His recent comments, however, about banning all Muslim immigrants (even legal ones), may sink him.

The Bottom Line:

If Mr. Trump is to win the primaries and the General Election, he must lose his hot head and convey his ideas to more citizens.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (16% in latest polls)

Senator Rubio has been doing exceedingly well recently. He has gone from fourth place all the way to second, by a single point. Senator Rubio is proposing a much shorter tax plan, and also much less change to President Obama’s current ideas. Senator Rubio is leaning more toward the liberal side than most Republicans, but he is still very conservative. Senator Rubio seems to be gaining in popularity over the course of the election. Senator Rubio is the only politician in the top three Republican candidates, which contain Mr. Trump, Sen. Rubio, and Dr. Ben Carson (We’ll come to him later). That may help Sen. Rubio, seeing as he has much less conservative plans than the other two.

The Bottom Line:

Senator Rubio is doing very well, and he may win if he can simply wait out Senator Cruz and Mr. Trump.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz (16% in latest polls)

Senator Cruz is flirting around the second- place spot with Sen. Rubio. In many states, Sen. Cruz is even in first place, including in Texas, a huge state and home of the Republican Convention. Senator Cruz is technically in third place nationwide, but he is often in first in large states. Senator Cruz, however, has expressed racist views against Hispanics, and is currently the first choice of running mate for Mr. Trump.

The Bottom Line:

Senator Cruz is steadily gaining, and he may be the GOP nominee if Mr. Trump implodes with his stances on Muslim immigrants.

Democrats:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Secretary Clinton has the Democratic Nomination wrapped up.

Period.

Amid controversy of lying about deleting 30,000 public e-mails, Secretary Clinton has risen to over twenty- three points over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in polls.

There’s not all that much to say on the subject.

Mrs. Clinton wants a $12 per hour minimum wage, much less than Sen. Sanders’ $15.

The Bottom Line:

Secretary Clinton is very likely going to win the nomination if she can only wait out Senator Sanders.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders

Senator Sanders is an extreme liberal. He supports a federal $15 minimum wage and wants to defeat ISIS before dealing with Syrian dictator Bashir-al Assad, an idea that is not shared with Secretary Clinton. There’s not much else to say on Sanders, or the Democrats in general, since Secretary Clinton won the nomination the day that she stepped into the race.

The Bottom Line:

Senator Sanders has a great chance to come up very close to Secretary Clinton, as he has a lot of momentum, but will not win.

Elephant Poaching Case in Arushna by Hely Parmar

Elephants have been a big part of our world history for a while. They have been around for about 55 million years. In Kenya, one wildlife service has made stricter laws on poaching of elephants. However, the laws only matter as much as the justice system chooses to enforce the laws.  

Recently, a poaching crew in Africa was caught and accused of poaching elephants in Arusha, Tanzania, but the court considered the case a “lost case”, and dismissed the case in spite of evidence against the poachers.  Because of the potentially corrupt justice system, when the police catch poachers, their hard work goes down the drain because the cases are dropped, and the poachers remain on the loose.

The Arusha case has been reopened and rescheduled for December 22, 2015. The magistrate said “their case is now a case.” Hopefully there will be less poachings and the elephants will continue to exist, and we will have them for years to come.

In the Mind of a Terrorist by Molly Biver

To Omar Mostefai, one of the Paris suicide bombers, the bombs that were strapped to his chest doesn’t cause him regret. In the mind of a terrorist-bomber who’s willing to give up his life, this is unfortunately seen a privilege. Mostefai was the first identified body of the ISIS bombers of the Paris attack on Friday, November 18, where the tragic number of 130 people were killed. France, without even first declaring war, hammered down on Raqqa, Syria, with jet bombs.

Paris wasn’t the only country that was attacked; Belgium was also hit, on the 15th. They found and arrested an 8th suicide bomber, who-for some reason-did not blow himself up. His name is Saleh Abdeslam.

Beirut, Lebanon, was also hit on Nov. 16th, by ISIS, officially named ISIL. They attacked at 6:00 pm, during rush hour, so they could murder the most possible people. 43 people were murdered, and 239 were wounded. A citizen of Beirut named Adel Tormous was happily walking through the streets of Lebanon with his young daughter, when Adel spotted an ISIS bomber. He sprinted through the crowd and threw himself on top of the bomber just in time, saving dozens of lives, but everyone at a close range, including his daughter, and himself, were killed, along with many other lives in the ISIS attacks.

Paris Attacks by Liz Orlova

As you may know, Paris was recently attacked by terrorists who claimed to be fighting for ISIS.  There were several attacks at different locations in Paris, like the Balaclan Concert Theater, and outside a stadium, as well as several other places in the Paris region.  The death toll was about 120.  Two-hundred people were wounded, 80 of them seriously.  Supposedly this act of terrorism was committed by ISIS fighters.  However, before ISIS usually attacks, they post many videos and plans for their attack, and there was nothing like that that happened before this one.  Although it most likely was ISIS, the previous fact provides seemingly ample evidence that it was not, in fact, an actual member of ISIS, but perhaps someone who simply wants to associate themselves unofficially with ISIS.  

A possible motive for the attacks is that France has been using a lot of missiles lately in the area where ISIS is located.  They have certainly been keeping this up.  

This also means a lot in U.S. politics.  Only five states will be accepting refugees at this point, and you will be likely pleased to know that Pennsylvania, despite its heavily Republican government, will still be taking in 20,000 Syrian refugees.  The attacks on Paris also give famous businessman/GOP hopeful Donald Trump some somewhat fact-based arguments.  Although I personally do not agree that the transitive theory (there are refugees in France, France got attacked, therefore refugees equals attacks, or its math counterpart, a=b, b=c, c=b), can necessarily be applicable in a real world situation.  However, we are not talking about logic, we are talking about what the common folk will believe, and in this case that would be Trump.  

The entire world has exploded with grief for Paris, and are seeming to express their sadness on social media, like Facebook, which has even added a French-flag filter to the icons of users.  If you have been on sites like instagram or twitter lately, you will have also seen usage of the “pray for Paris” hashtag.  Also, popular tourism sites around the world, like the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, and the Empire State Building in New York City have been lighting up in the French flag colors, to show their mourning.  The entire world seems to be grieving for Paris’s loss, and perhaps taking it as their own.  

Veterans Day By Kashawn Quick

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as “The Great War.”

Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.

On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a resolution that the “recurring anniversary of [November 11, 1918] should be commemorated with Thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations” and that the president should issue an annual proclamation calling for the observance of Armistice Day. By that time, 27 state legislatures had made November 11 a legal holiday. An act approved May 13, 1938 made November 11 a legal Federal holiday, “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.’” In actuality, there are no U.S. national holidays because the states retain the right to designate their own, and the government can only designate holidays for federal employees and for the District of Columbia. In practice, however, states almost always follow the federal lead.

Appendicitis, A Silent Killer By Jodie Challis

Beat death by learning about symptoms of things that could kill you. The specific disease today is appendicitis. Appendicitis is a disease of the appendix, where it gets inflamed, and if left untreated for long enough, can rupture leaving a poisonous liquid inside of you. There are ways to beat this disease, and avoid death altogether.

Appendicitis is generally caused by an infection that has spread to the appendix. Generally speaking, the healthier you are, the less likely you are to get an infection of any kind, although it is usually not preventable.

How do you know if you get it? The main sign is pain in the lower right side of your stomach. If you get this, then you should monitor it and go to the ER if it gets too bad. Next, if you get a pain in the lower right side of your stomach, then it should get rapidly worse over time. You may also experience a low-grade fever, and chills. You also may experience vomiting, or loss of appetite. Rebound tenderness is when you push on the area of pain and it increases at the point of release. If you get these symptoms...

You will most likely go to the ER and get a CT scan. If it tests positive for appendicitis, then you will go into an around 45 minute surgery, and stay in the hospital for at most a day afterwards with a couple of weeks for complete recovery. You will be able to do most normal things after about a week. Your pain should slowly decrease over this period of time.

Now you know everything you need to know about how to beat death. Well at least in one way.