The other side of Pomona College’s gubernatorial debate: Sitting with the students

On April 28, eight candidates squared off at Pomona College for the largest California gubernatorial debate yet — a spectacle students likened to a political sitcom. With antics like Chad Bianco accusing his opponents of “lying to these kids,” or Katie Porter hanging her head in mock exhaustion, the debate offered the audience a candid look into the orderly disorder of state politics.

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OPINION: What Minneapolis can teach us about America’s descent into fascism

“As students at the 5Cs, we have the privilege of residing in a community that feels physically and emotionally distant from ICE activity, despite deportations taking place as close as Pomona County,” Olivia Brinkman PO ’29 writes. “Scrolling through horrific reels, at a loss for what to do, we think to ourselves: What impact do we really have when our government is crumbling around us? This sense of helplessness is exactly what Trump and other elected officials want you to feel — it allows them to continue to exercise their power to commit crimes without facing the consequences. ”

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OPINION: Trump’s authoritarianism doesn’t listen to your No Kings Day cardboard signs

Trump’s administration has sanctioned a campaign of extrajudicial kidnappings, careless deportation, and general terror. It has forced those it targets to ask the permanent question of will I still be here tomorrow, every day. So why do we only show our dissent if we get a little free time, and nothing good is on TV? In the No Kings protests, Jason Murillo PO ‘28 sees performance, not praxis. Cheerfully bobbing oh-so-clever signs on streetcorners does nothing to practically oppose a regime that has no respect for the Constitution, much less polite dissent.

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Williamson Gallery exhibit illuminates political history of Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martínez

You might be unfamiliar with “The Flower Vendors,” the mural tucked inside Scripps’ Margaret Fowler Garden, and with its artist — acclaimed Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martínez.

Ramos Martínez’s work has long been thought of as decorative and apolitical, but a new exhibition at Scripps’ Ruth Chandler Williamson gallery, “Pintor de Poemas,” is reappraising him as anything but.

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