World Affairs
"SNL" Premieres 50th Season With Long-Awaited Political Cold Open
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.--The iconic Late Night Comedy show, “Saturday Night Live”, kicked off its 50th season on Saturday, Sept. 28 with host Jean Smart and musical guest, Jelly Roll. The episode’s cold open comedically depicted the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns in the days after the presidential debate.
Walz and Vance’s Shockingly Civilized Debate
By Kim Brain Canin
The 2024 vice presidential nominees, Senator JD Vance of the Republican Party and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz had a 90 minute long debate over a wide range of issues such as immigration and abortion hosted by CBS and arranged by the moderators, Narah O’Donnel and Margaret Brennan on Oct. 2, 2024. Both candidates were surprisingly civilized compared to the previous Presidential debate, as many citizens stated.
Vance and Walz had a heated debate on Oct. 2, 2024, both opposed each other in a civilized manner. Vance continuously stated his opinion on Kamala’s border security, while Vance strongly disagreed with the abortion rights that Former President, Donalnd Trump publicly averse.
Jan. 6 discussions still occurred despite over three years in the debate. Vance dodged and imposed, “Hillary Clinton in 2016 said that Donald Trump had the election stolen by Vladimir Putin because the Russians bought like $500,000 worth of Facebook ads,” ultimately dodging the question of Walz about Jan. 6 and the violent attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
During the debate, both candidates mentioned the occurring false claims of immigrants, “pet eaters,” which are heavily advertised by the Republican Party. Walz confronted Vance, saying that “there are consequences to such claims.” Vance then replied, “The people I care most about in Springfield are the American citizens.” and continued to reiterate his defense of his false claims on Haitian immigrants. However, Vance eventually got fact-checked by the moderators, stating there are “12,000 to 15,000 immigrants in Springfield legally.”
Indigenous People’s Day
By Christopher Gallegos Tamayo, Staff Writer
Indigenous People Day is a holiday where people celebrate and honor the history and culture(s) of Native American people all over the United States. The day helps us remember the struggles and achievements that were made by Indigenous communities and encourages us to learn more about their important contributions to our country.
Indigenous Peoples Day originally came out as an alternative for Columbus Day around the late 1980s. It's well known as a holiday to celebrate the Native Americans and Indigenous populations all across the world. The holiday first arose as a result of visibility of the American Indians in a different time period.
The Holiday was then able to replace the other holiday known as Columbus Day as a way of respect and a way to honor the history and culture of Native Americans. People figured this would be better since Columbus day was about Christopher Columbus marking territory on the Americas beginning the centuries of oppression and displacement for indigenous communities.
The day is a day meant to recognize the painful history Indigenous people have faced throughout history. Along with it being a way to celebrate their communities, it's also a day for protests and resistance, said Tilsen, who is Oglala Lakota (one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people).
Aood way for you to be able to honor Indigenous peoples day yourself is by simply visiting a museum to honor the people of our past and those in the present. Another way would be to attend a local festival, making a great way to connect with and to learn about different communities.
Can Cats Influence Presidential Polling Numbers?
By: Sophia Manuel
During the presidential debate, hosted by ABC on Sept. 10, former president Donald Trump made comments about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating dogs and cats. Since then, residents of Springfield have faced bomb threats and an increase of visitors from far-right groups. Despite this, many social media users have used the cat-based political rhetoric as a catalyst for good.
Debate Comments
During the debate, Trump referred to Haitian immigrants in Springfield, saying, “they’re eating the dogs… they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live [in Springfield], and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
Springfield City Manager, Byran Heck, told the Wall Street Journal he was called by a staffer for Trump’s running mate, JD Vance. “He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” reported Heck, “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.
Heck says those in Springfield are “living the danger that misinformation and created stories leads to.”
According to Slate, there have been over 30 bomb threats in Springfield since the debate. Mia Perez, a resident of Springfield, told Slate she had to pick her daughter up from school two days in a row due to bomb threats.
According to CNN, Springfield’s City Hall closed due to a bomb threat on Sept. 12. On Sept. 13, two elementary schools were forced to evacuate, and two hospitals had to lockdown the day after.
On Sept. 15, Vance said the following on CNN with Dana Bash, “The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
CNN’s Bash responded, “You just said that this is a story that you created.”
Vance replied, “It comes from firsthand accounts from my constituents. I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it. I didn’t create 20,000 illegal migrants coming into Springfield thanks to Kamala Harris’ policies. Her policies did that. But yes, we created the actual focus that allowed the American media to talk about this story and the suffering caused by Kamala Harris’ policies.”
ABC reports many of the 12,000-15,000 Haitian immigrants in Clark County, which contains Springfield, are in the United States legally.
Taylor Swift’s Endorsement
Shortly after the debate, Taylor Swift posted her endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to Instagram. She signed her endorsement “childless cat lady,” likely in response to comments from Vance. In a 2021 Fox News interview, Vance said, “the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.” In an unrelated resurfaced tweet, Vance referred to Paul Krugman as “one of many weird cat ladies.” One protester in Springfield was seen holding a sign with “pro cat anti cat lady” written across it.
Despite endorsing Harris, Swift also wrote, “the choice is yours to make” in her post. She encouraged fans to vote, and posted an Instagram story with a link to vote.gov. A spokesperson for the General Services Administration, which runs vote.gov, said 405,999 users visited vote.gov through Swift’s link within 24 hours.
Debate Remixes
The Kiffness (David Scott), a South African musician, remixed Trump’s debate quote about people eating cats and dogs. According to the Daily Mail, his remix has hit over 10 million views on X, formerly Twitter, alone. Scott said he plans to donate proceeds from the remix to the Clark County SPCA, in Springfield. Scott has already raised over $16,000, per Newsweek.
Residents in Springfield have surely been shaken up by the recent cat-based political rhetoric. Swift has once again caused a spike in voter registration, before this historic election. And, according to Billboard, the Kiffness played his “Eating the Cats” remix at a recent concert in Munich, Germany. All these events tie back to social media and cats, two themes not present in the majority of previous presidential elections.