The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: USA

  • The Failure of U.S Soccer

    The Failure of U.S Soccer

    The United States men’s national team has not made much progress since failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup

    The lowest moment in recent history for the United States men’s national soccer team was on the night of Oct. 10, 2018, on a rain-soaked pitch in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago.

    The U.S. was on the cusp of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and only needed a draw against the Trinidad and Tobago national team, who were dead last in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football qualifying standings and had not won in their last nine matches.

    Even if the U.S. were to lose this game, a failsafe existed in the form of either Mexico or Costa Rica winning their respective game, which would send the U.S. to their eighth straight World Cup. It seemed like a sure thing.

    On that fateful night, everything that could have possibly gone wrong for the U.S. men’s national team went haywire.

    I believe it was one of the worst moments in American sports history.

    An own goal that was deflected off the leg of U.S. defender Omar Gonzalez somehow found its way past goalkeeper Tim Howard in minute 17. Trinidad would add another goal in minute 37, and while the Americans would add a goal late, it would not be enough.

    The United States lost 2-1 to the worst team in the final round of qualifying. To make matters worse, Mexico and Costa Rica, who were two of the best teams in the region, managed to lose both of their matches. For the first time since 1986, the United States would not be in the World Cup. To say this was an embarrassment would be an understatement.

    I believe it was one of the worst moments in American sports history. For the United States to fail to get a tie against a team that was 1-8 previously in qualifying was a national embarrassment. Missing out on the World Cup would deal a massive blow to the U.S. Soccer Federation.

    Fans across the U.S. would miss out on seeing their national team play on the world’s biggest stage, and subsequently, the up-and-coming players on the national team would miss out on a valuable experience that would strengthen their development. To make things even worse, qualifying for the next World Cup does not begin until 2021, leaving us a long time to think about what happened.

    Since then, the U.S. Soccer Federation has fired their head coach, Bruce Arena, and after many months of interim coaches at the helm, Gregg Berhalter was selected to lead the long journey back to the next World Cup in 2022 in Qatar. Many of the players that were a part of the 2010 and 2014 World Cup squads are now gone, leaving a lot of young and talented but unproven players to develop at the international level.

    A lot of the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup was years in the making. The U.S. had an aging roster of players that were on the back end of their international careers. Players like Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore, who were a huge part of past World Cups, were just not producing at the same level as in the past.

    Now that the U.S. has an almost entirely different roster, it looks like the team has no sense of direction. An embarrassing loss to Canada in the CONCACAF Nations League in October highlighted the fact that the U.S. still has a long way to go to reach the next World Cup. The U.S. roster is currently highlighted by budding superstar Christian Pulisic, who is the best scorer for the team and plays club soccer for Chelsea in one of the top soccer leagues in the world. Other than Pulisic, the U.S. roster is a rotating door of names.

    If the U.S. has issues competing with teams on our own continent, then being able to someday compete with the top European or South American nations is going to be a daunting task.

    It all comes down to a complete lack of talent within the U.S. Soccer Federation. One problem is finding talent and developing it, but the main problem is dual-national players committing to other nations. If you’re a young player and you have the choice of playing for the United States or Mexico, right now I would bet that player is going to choose Mexico.

    While the men’s team is trying to find their identity on the field, I would like to shout out the U.S. Women’s National Team for winning two straight World Cups and continuing to make this country proud. They are setting an example for how American soccer should be played and I look forward to their continued success.

  • Professor Ponders California’s Independent Future

    Professor Ponders California’s Independent Future

    Alison Holmes, Ph.D. spent her sabbatical researching whether California acts as its own nation

    California has the means to be its own nation. It’s big, it’s wealthy and it’s been disrupting the status quo by acting internationally.

    “California has been acting outside the box,” Humboldt State University Associate Professor and International Studies program leader Alison Holmes said. “They’ve been going and doing stuff with China, Mexico and Canada. It’s like, ‘Wait, you’re not supposed to do that. That’s not what international relations theory says, it’s not what the U.S. Constitution says, it’s not what all kinds of other rules suggest.’ So how are they doing that?”

    Holmes spent her sabbatical last school year researching California and talking with state officials and those the state has dealt with.

    In August, Holmes presented her research to the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State University in a presentation called, “California as a Nation-State: Innovative or Inevitable?”

    In her research, Holmes found that cities and industries within California may act internationally, but the state itself doesn’t typically act as its own nation.

    “We do things internationally but we don’t do them in a coordinated fashion,” Holmes said.

    Holmes grew up in Oklahoma, but she moved to the United Kingdom after volunteering in Belfast during college. Holmes lived in the United Kingdom for 25 years, where, among other things, she worked for and advised the Liberal Democrats and worked as the Deputy Head of Corporate Communication Strategy for the BBC.

    In 2005, Holmes completed her doctorate in London and then became a speechwriter for Ambassador Robert Tuttle.

    “When I worked for the ambassador, I became very interested in international relations and diplomacy,” Holmes said.

    California likes to think that it’s an innovator. We’re really big and proud about how we do stuff. And actually we’re not at the front of that innovation edge; a lot of other places in the world have been doing this for a long time.”

    Alison Holmes, Ph.D.

    When Holmes moved to California, she saw a perfect opportunity for research.

    “California makes an excellent case-study, because it is the fifth largest economy in the world,” Holmes said. “But it is a sub-national unit of a huge, hegemonic, vast, largest-nation power.

    Holmes said California’s international actions are part of a larger globalization trend.

    “What a lot of international relations theory will tell you is that globalization has meant a bunch of people who aren’t nation-states have started to do things on the international stage,” Holmes said.

    With this in mind, Holmes said that while California might be innovative for the United States, it isn’t elsewhere.

    “California likes to think that it’s an innovator,” Holmes said. “We’re really big and proud about how we do stuff. And actually we’re not at the front of that innovation edge; a lot of other places in the world have been doing this for a long time.”

    Holmes also said non-state entities acting internationally brings up questions about the very nature of sovereignty.

    “When does a sovereign not have sovereignty?” Holmes said. “At what point do state relations at the international level become a foreign policy? My point here is that our traditional ideas of sovereignty are ill-equipped to describe what we see in the real world.”

    Holmes says there are three future goals for California: the establishment of an agency focused on international policy, the honoring of tribal relations and the inclusion of tribes in international policy, and the coordination of city and county international efforts with state efforts.

    Holmes ended her research presentation with an urge to take advantage of California’s diversity across all of its communities.

    “That is the only way to create a robust local-global citizenship and to turn California’s state-nation vision of unity from diversity into a reality,” Holmes said.

    Locally, Holmes said Humboldt is more global than it might think. Holmes urged Humboldt residents to connect local actions with outside, global forces.

    “I worry that Humboldt is a little too proud of being the Lost Coast or being behind the Redwood Curtain,” Holmes said. “Privileging what they perceive to be the local over the global, to the point of seeking to disconnect from rather than engage with the world outside.”

    Holmes said ignoring global events has consequences.

    “If you don’t understand these things, you’re not really paying attention to what’s happening, how you can take advantage of that, how you can be a part of that and how it doesn’t have to roll over you like a steamroller,” Holmes said. “Because otherwise it will.”

    However, Holmes cautioned that connecting local issues with the rest of the globe doesn’t mean people should start blaming external forces for all local problems.

    “Trying to understand it is not the same as trying to find somebody else to blame,” Holmes said.

    Holmes suggested that freshmen coming to HSU would likely benefit from learning intercultural communication strategies that international studies students use.

    “There is culture shock,” Holmes said of new HSU students. “There is intercultural communication issues between the different groups of people who turn up here.”

    While HSU politics professor and international relations teacher Noah Zerbe said Holmes’ work goes beyond the scope of his expertise, he did agree with the importance of paying attention to the rest of the globe.

    “Stuff that happens globally affects us everywhere,” Zerbe said. “It affects us here as well.”

    California’s prowess has led some to believe that California should secede from the United States.

    Marcus Ruiz Evans, president of Yes California, the largest organization dedicated to California’s secession, said he believes California would be better off on its own.

    “The basic idea is that California is held back financially because it’s part of America,” Ruiz Evans said over the phone.

    “The basic idea is that California is held back financially because it’s part of America.”

    Marcus Ruiz Evans

    Ruiz Evans said Yes California and the #CalExit movement started back in 2011. Since then, it has seen significant growth, especially following the election of Donald Trump.

    However, Ruiz Evans said that the movement’s growth led to a divide in its supporters that left the movement momentarily stagnant.

    “With success came civil divorce,” Ruiz Evans said.

    Nevertheless, Ruiz Evans said he firmly believes California should secede. Ruiz Evans said that California, on its own, wouldn’t have to fight with the president or the rest of the country, wouldn’t have to fight with federal immigration laws and would save billions of dollars.

    Ruiz Evans also said California is held back politically and financially, and that he believes a split is only logical.

    “We think it’s inevitable,” Ruiz Evans said.

    Yet, when asked, Holmes put a damper on such enthusiasm.

    “I am not sure ‘doing it alone’ is ever a great idea,” Holmes said. “I think while California is rich by many standards, if they had to pay for all the things that the federal government currently does, our situation would change rapidly. California could go that route, but revolutions rarely end well or the way the instigators intended. Be careful what you wish for.”

  • War on the Horizon? Iran Blamed for Oil Field Attacks

    War on the Horizon? Iran Blamed for Oil Field Attacks

    United Nations pointed to Iran after Houthi rebels initially claim Saudi Aramco attacks

    On Sept. 14, drones attacked two of Saudi Aramco’s oil plants and the United States quickly pointed fingers at Iran as the perpetrator, sending military aid to Saudi Arabia.

    Iranian-backed Houthi rebels initially claimed the attack as their own, reporting that they sent missiles from Yemen, but U.S. Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo were adamant that Iran was to blame for the attacks on the Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities. Pompeo commented on the incident during an episode of CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

    “No reasonable person doubts precisely who conducted these strikes,” Pompeo said. “And it is the intelligence community’s determination that it is likely the case that these were launched from Iran.”

    Iran drew global attention by targeting Saudi Arabia, the world’s oil exportation leader. In an interview on 60 Minutes, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Salman put the attack in context.

    “This attack didn’t hit the heart of the Saudi energy industry, but rather the heart of the global energy industry,” Bin Salman said. “It disrupted 5.5% of the world’s energy needs; the needs of the U.S. and China and the whole world.”

    Iran and Saudi Arabia both continue to try to gain influence in the Middle East, and the ongoing conflict in Yemen proves that while they may not want full-scale war, neither side fears conflict.

    After meeting with President Donald Trump and his national security team, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper explained Trump’s approval of military support in response to Iran’s aggression during a press conference at the Pentagon.

    CNN’s coverage of US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Gen. Joseph Dunford announcing the United States sending troops to Saudi Arabia.

    “It is clear based on detailed exploitation conducted by Saudi, United States and other international investigative teams that the weapons used in the attack were Iranian-produced, and were not launched from Yemen as was initially claimed,” Esper said. “All indications are that Iran was responsible for the attack.”

    Esper added that in response to the attacks and a Saudi call for help, the U.S. will deploy defensive forces focused on air and missile defense.

    At the United Nations General Assembly, the leaders of Germany, France and the U.K. released a joint statement concurring with the U.S.

    “It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack,” the statement said. “There is no other plausible explanation. We support ongoing investigations to establish further detail.”

    Trump said the U.S. also employed economic measures against Iran.

    “We have just sanctioned the Iranian National Bank,” Trump said. “That is their central banking system and it’s going to be at the highest level of sanctions.”

    CBS News coverage of Trump’s announcement of new Iran sanctions on national bank.

    However, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani has denied Iran’s fault. Rouhani called the attack a retaliation from Yemen for unwanted outside influence.

    “The people of Yemen are forced to respond to all the violations and the flood of weapons from U.S. and Europe toward Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” Rouhani said in a televised press conference in Ankara. “They cannot show legitimate defense in the face of their country being destroyed.”

  • Trump watch (March 1 to March 7)

    Trump watch (March 1 to March 7)

    President Trump addressed the Congress for the first time since his inauguration on Tuesday Feb. 28. Trump spoke about his policies on issues such as trade, defense, immigration and counterterrorism.

    Source: CNN

    President Trump tweeted Saturday night about allegations concerning former president Obama’s administration wiretapping his phones before the election. Trump’s spokesman said the administration was asking Congress to investigate the allegations

    Source: New York Times

    President Trump signed a new executive order on March 6. The executive order is a new revised version of Trump’s initial travel ban. The new order bans immigration from six Muslim-majority countries and excluded Iraq from the list.

    Source: CNN