Mount Hood

Clinton wants to “get to the bottom” of the alien conspiracy

By: Jamal Smith
Sports Editor

Are we alone in the universe? Are extraterrestrials visiting our planet? What may seem like script from a science fiction movie are actually serious questions posed by many Americans. Well, fear not, Hillary Clinton just announced that if elected president, she will “get to the bottom” of the alien conspiracy.

It’s no secret that the government keeps things from the American public, either to protect the national security of the nation, or because the people in charge believe that the American public can’t handle the truth. However, recent comments made by Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and by Clinton herself, suggest that Clinton believes that the American public can indeed handle the truth.

Posada, who heads Clinton’s presidential campaign, was asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on April 7 if Clinton would release information concerning Area 51 and UFOs if she were elected into office.

“What I’ve talked to the secretary about, and what she’s said now in public, is that if she’s elected president, when she gets into office, she’ll ask for as many records as the United States federal government has to be declassified, and I think that’s a commitment that she intends to keep and that I intend to hold her to,” answered Podesta.

When Tapper asked Posada if he had personally seen UFO documents during his time serving as the White House Chief of Staff, Posada tip-toed around the question and responded by stating, “President Clinton asked for some information about some of those things, and in particular, information about what is going on at Area 51. But I think that the U.S. government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what’s going on with unidentified aerial phenomenon.”

Clinton has also recently commented on the issue, and given hope to conspiracy theorists. In an interview in late December with a New Hampshire reporter from the Conway Daily Sun, Clinton was asked about her husband’s comments on national television where he said, “If we were visited [by aliens] someday, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

She responded by stating, “I think we may have been [visited already]. We don’t know for sure.” Clinton also pledged to “get to the bottom of it.”

Then, on March 24, Clinton appeared as a guest on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Kimmel, who has asked both Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton questions pertaining to UFOs, asked Clinton if she would be more successful than her husband in attempting to find and release government documents concerning UFO’s.

“I would like to go into those files and, hopefully, make as much of that public as possible,” said Clinton. “If there’s nothing there, let’s tell people there’s nothing there. If there is something there, unless it’s a treat to national security, I think we ought to share it with the public.”

Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalsportWOU.

Baby, I got your money

By: Alvin Wilson 
Staff Writer

Many students today are only able to attend college with the help of student loans. But what would happen if the students borrowing that money weren’t able to pay it back?Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 10.05.42 PM

According to a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal, more than 40 percent of people with student loans are either behind on payments or have received permission to postpone payments.

Roughly 16 percent of those people have defaulted on their student loans, meaning they have gone at least 270 days without making a payment.

John Leadley, professor of economics at Western, is critical of the numbers in the article because of the nature of student loans. Because of this, he said the percentages may be inflated.

“When you say there’s a high percentage of people who aren’t paying, that’s going to be a higher percentage than it is for virtually any other kind of loan,” said Leadley. “These are loans that they never take off the books.”

Unlike other kinds of loans, Leadley said, student loans don’t disappear.

“If you have a car loan and you stop paying, at some point they’re just going to write it off,” he said. “They’re going to recover what they can by taking back your car, and that loan is now history. If you declare bankruptcy, that loan can be wiped out. Student loans never go away.”

Leadley said that the accumulated bad history of student loans, which goes back much further than the history of other loans, can inflate the number.

Something else that inflates the number is the prevalence of predatory lending in for-profit institutions.

According to a report by the Brookings Institution, an organization that reports on economic activity, 13 of the 25 institutions where students hold the most debt are for-profit.

“What you hear the most about in the news are these student loans from for-profit institutions,” said Leadley. “If you’re applying for a student loan, the lender doesn’t ask if it makes sense for you in any way.”

Leadley said he thinks the predatory lending habits of for-profit institutions contribute to the problem.

“Part of it is the for-profit side seeing this as money for them, and not really caring if the student is ever going to get a job to pay it back,” he said. “If I’m lending money, and the federal government guarantees that I’ll get my money back if the student defaults, what incentive do I have to check?”

Western has one of the lower student loan default rates for Oregon universities, according to Collegemeasures.org, coming in at 6.1 percent. That puts us between University of Oregon (4.4 percent) and Southern Oregon University (8.7 percent). We’re a long way from being in danger.

Leadley still thinks Western students should start looking at loans in a way that reduces their odds of being in the 43 percent of non-payers.

“If I was a student, I would want to ask myself what the implications of taking out that much debt for my degree are,” said Leadly. “Get good career and academic advising. Do research about potential salaries. Ask yourself what your loan payments might be like. Take those things into consideration.”

Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal.

Horoscopes

Aries 3/21-4/19
Only Drake knows.

Taurus 4/20-5/20
I spoke with Jupiter and she told me to pass this info along; go on and explore your sexuality with that kid from Bio that you keep eyein’.

Gemini 5/21-6/20
On Friday, keep looking in the mirror. Half of your eyebrow (because I know you always do your eyebrows) will wipe off. Be warned. No one is going to speak up about it, Gemini, that’s why I’m warning you.

Cancer 6/21-7/22
Ever swim in a pool full of adorable Corgis? No? That’s about to change this week, Cancer.

Leo 7/23-8/22
It’s not herpes, Leo. Congrats!

Virgo 8/23-9/22
Virgo, I predict good fortune on the horizon. Go to a bar this weekend and start a tab, the bartender will accidentally put all your drinks on another person’s. Sucks for them, but a night of free drinks for you!

Libra 9/23-10/22
Password to your ex’s phone: 5331.

Scorpio 10/23-11/21
Go ahead, Scorpio, celebrate taco Tuesday- you’ll regret it immediately.

Sagittarius 11/22-12/21
I’m predicting a literal mental break down for you this week, Sagittarius, over the fact that you can’t get your eyeliner in check. Prepare for this. I prescribe a fat of bottle of wine. (For the 21 and over crowd. Or, like, drink Martinelli’s and pretend it’s champagne if you’re of the younger variety.)

Capricorn 12/22-1/19
With child.

Aquarius 1/20-2/18
Not really advice, Aquarius, but I’m sensing you need to be salty. Make dinner plans with all the people you hate and cancel 15 minutes prior.

Pisces 2/19-3/20
Go to Yang’s, order an extra side of cabbage, and see what happens.

Local woman receives wrong order at Dutch, “barely lives” to tell tale

By: Katrina Penaflor 
Managing Editor

Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 9.59.23 PMJessica – or maybe it was Rachel – Smith spent last Tuesday in a panic during her Intro to Psychology course when she discovered the drink she had ordered from the local Dutch Bros. in Monmouth was, in fact, wrong.

Smith had ordered her usual non-fat, sugar free, iced Caramelizer with no whipped cream, only to discover later in class that the drink was “completely wrong.”

“First of all, the drink was hot,” said Smith. “I wanted it iced.”

When asked how she didn’t notice right off the bat that the drink was served in a hot to-go cup instead of the clear plastic one used for iced drinks, she replied, “I told you, I didn’t try it until I got to class.”

Smith also explained that the drink was actually a chai latte, and not at all a Caramelizer.

To investigate further, I travelled to the Dutch Bros. of said incident to speak to the barista who served Smith her drink. (Because, really, what else did I need to spend my time doing?)

I arrived to Dutch and was greeted by a man who was in a much better mood than I was. Taylor Swift was playing on the stereo and I immediately regretted my decision to take on this unnecessary investigation.

The man at the window, Marco (I didn’t actually ask his name but he definitely looked like a Marco) told me that he was the one who served Smith. It was his first day on the job and he accidently served her the drink that was meant for the opposite window.

“I realized my mistake right after I handed it to her, I tried to called for her but she had already driven away.”

Marco graciously offered to remake the drink he had gotten wrong and asked me to hand it off to Smith, to which I replied, “absolutely.”

While singing to “Shake It Off” Marco passed off the corrected Caramelizer and continuing to repeat, while I re-answered, the question of what my plans were for the day.

After receiving Smith’s fixed drink, I waved goodbye to the chipper barista, and drank the Caramelizer on my way home.

Case closed.

Re-Opening “The Jungle Book”

By: Declan Hertel
Entertainment Editor

From the moment the first trailer for “The Jungle Book” dropped, I wanted it so freaking badly. I have no especially great love for the 1967 version, beyond enjoying it as a child, but this new take on it looked gorgeous and had a killer voice cast, and I’d been super stoked for it since. So as the lights went down on a Friday afternoon screening, I found myself giddy, hoping that this movie would be as awesome as I had imagined it would.

And you know what, it came pretty darn close. This is a solid flick.

My favorite thing about this new version, directed by Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”), is that it doesn’t care that it’s gorgeous. James Cameron’s “Avatar” blew us all away in 2009 with its spectacular visuals, but honestly, it knew that’s really the only thing it had going for it: it looked stupid good.

“The Jungle Book,” for my money, looks better. But it doesn’t care. Painstaking effort was put into making it seem like this movie was shot by real people in real places with real cameras starring real animals. It’s not out to show off, it’s out to tell a good story, and just happens to feature visuals that would have been unthinkable five years ago.

As for telling a good story, this is where the movie falls slightly (but just slightly) short. In this age where blockbuster films are—seemingly as a rule—two and a half fugging hours long, I feel weird saying this, but here goes: I wish “The Jungle Book” was longer.

Coming in at a tidy one hour and 40 minutes, “The Jungle Book” certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it also leaves too soon. When I say I wish it was longer, I don’t mean they should tack on another 20 minutes; I mean that I wanted another 30 seconds here, two minutes there, so that they could flesh out the great, great stuff they’ve got. Not more content, but fuller content. All the makings are there for a wonderful epic: it’s just not epic enough. I have fantasies of a director’s cut, but I realize that’s kind of a silly notion.

Personally, the visuals are worth the price of admission; just because the film doesn’t draw attention to them doesn’t mean they aren’t attention-grabbing. The voice performances are invariably great and delightfully understated (particularly Christopher Walken as a big-ass ape), and newcomer Neel Sethi—merely 10 years old—does a truly admirable job of carrying the film. I would love to see him get more work and improve his already pretty notable abilities.

I could say an awful lot more about the film, from the individual characters, to the perfect inclusion of “Bear Necessities,” to the slightly weird inclusion of “I Wanna Be Like You,” to the multiple questions raised by basing a mass-market movie in 2016 on a work steeped in the attitudes of a deeply racist time (next week in editorials), but alas—I’m almost out of words. Suffice to say “The Jungle Book” is a solid, highly enjoyable flick.

Contact the author at dhertel11@wou.edu or on Twitter @JournalFunTimes.

This is the Junk You Are Looking For

Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 9.49.15 PM

By: Ashton Newton

There are few bands that give me the same feelings that M83 does. It’s been that way for longer than I can recall. Something about listening to their mellow synthpop sound, deciphering their poetic lyrics, and jamming out to their fast danceable tunes grabbed hold of me and refused to let me go.

That said, when “Junk” was announced I could barely contain my excitement. M83’s 2011 LP “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” was one of the most breathtaking things I’d ever listened to, and shaped the way I look at music.

“Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” was a very cinematic record; the songs went with each other and flowed perfectly. The album was hugely inspired by movies. But “Junk” is different in that the songs are meant to stand alone, yet work together in an unrelated way.

The first song to release off of “Junk” is “Do It, Try It”, and it’s apparent that M83 was trying something entirely new with their music. The song is weird, completely on purpose. The pop sound is so upbeat and all over the place that it’s so weird it’s danceable.

Weird and different sounds are very present in “Junk.” The songs “Bibi the Dog,” “Walkway Blues,” and “Road Blaster” are all very fast paced dance songs that rely on unrecognizable synthpop sounds to create a groovy beat that the queen would have no choice but to dance to.

“Junk” also has its sweet side. Susanne Sundfor lent her voice for the song “For the Kids,” a more traditional sounding ballad. “Atlantique Sud” is a beautiful French duet with Mai Lan that is the most sentimental song on the album.

Beck also makes an appearance on “Junk” in the song “Time Wind.” Beck’s vocals with M83’s music make for a really cool song. Rock artists and M83’s music go very well together.

There are some songs that are a bit underwhelming for me. M83 is known for long and epic instrumental songs like “Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun” off of their album “Before the Dawn Heals Us,” but on “Junk” the instrumentals like “Moon Crystal” and “The Wizard” just feel too short and rushed for their style.

The album ends with “Sunday Night 1987,” one of the most calming songs on the album. M83 ends their albums with songs that leave you thinking and with a smile, and “Junk” is no exception.

“Junk” is an extremely satisfying album to listen to. M83 gives a new, unique sound with songs for every mood and person.

Contact the author at anewton14@wou.edu.

Democrats on the issues

By: Conner Williams
Editor-in- Chief

There’s no doubt that much of the two Democratic candidates’ political rhetoric (and personal antics) are aimed towards younger generations. After Obama’s overwhelming success that was directly related to his use of social media and web analytics that allowed his team to create targeted messages to voters, Sanders and Clinton have developed platforms that largely spread through the use of social media communication. The two have certainly gone to extraordinary lengths to present themselves as relatable to younger generations, but just what do they stand for? Despite many media outlets portraying political figures as celebrities, there’s still the actual policies to focus on. Here are the Democrats on the top five issues, as per their campaign websites.

Bernie Sanders – berniesanders.comScreen Shot 2016-04-17 at 9.26.59 PM

  1. Income and wealth inequality – closing the gap between the upper and lower economic classes
  2. Tuition and debt free college – ending for-profit student loans and subsidize tuition through taxes on Wall Street speculators
  3. Campaign finance reform – repealing the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling and outlawing Super PACs
  4. Rebuilding infrastructure through increased jobs – investing $1 trillion over 5 years to “modernize our infrastructure”
  5. Higher wages for workers – increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour nationwide

Hillary Clinton – hillaryclinton.com (issues are listed in alphabetical order on website and may not reflect level of importance)

Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 9.29.14 PM

  1. Alzheimer’s disease – providing a cure for the disease by 2025
  2. Campaign finance reform – overturning Citizens United, eliminating unaccountable sources of money, and establish a federally-funded system to match small donations
  3. Campus sexual assault – providing support to survivors and increase prevention programs
  4. Climate change and energy – creating jobs in clean energy, install 500 million solar panels, and bringing greenhouse gas emission to 30 percent below the 2005 levels
  5. New College Compact – refinancing current student loans at lower rates, enforce affordable tuition rates, and ensuring no student “has to borrow to pay for tuition, books, or fees to attend a four-year public college in their state.”

Many of the programs proposed by the Democratic candidates have been shunned by those on the right because of their inevitable cost to the taxpayers. Reducing college tuition, addressing greenhouse gas emission standards, and rebuilding the infrastructure do call for a significant investment in the future. And that’s the way we should be thinking of it: as an investment, not a cost. Investing in education, infrastructure, healthcare, and other public-interest programs will benefit huge denominations of people. Economically speaking, building a giant wall will do nothing to improve the American economy, even if Mexico were somehow coerced to pay for it. We need to address large-scale economic issues that affect people all across the country from all denominations and levels of income. The catch, however, is that the Democratic candidates promise that much of the bill for these investments will be footed by those at the top-end of the income spectrum.

Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalEIC