august: cleveland county

.@b_riexinger - könnte auch #Kanzler ;-) #FeelTheBernd #LTW16 #BWPlusSozial pic.twitter.com/ayIGtiSPH6

— fds BaWü (@fds_linke_bw) February 5, 2016

The Washington Post has some interesting photos from Karneval earlier this month. The most controversial was a float which features Donald Trump with the slogan "Make Fascism Great Again."

Also, Thuringian governor Bodo Ramelow visited the Pope at the end of the month, which made this thesis-writer very happy.

pic.twitter.com/vvfCDmapeM

— Bodo Ramelow (@bodoramelow) February 26, 2016

Get out the vote campaigns are usually an indicator of how close it is to a major election. There are so many good reasons to become an informed citizen and go and vote for your representatives. However, if you can't be convinced for reasons of self-interest, please think of the others.

In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that 13.1 million non-citizens live legally in the United States. That's 13.1 million people who live in a country where they cannot choose their own representatives.

On top of that, the United States' place as a leader in international affairs means that decisions made here don't just stop at our borders. Decisions made by American leadership change lives around the world on a daily basis. Every single day, thousands of Americans come into contact with foreign nationals through programs such as the Peace Corps and the Fulbright Program that are federally funded. Worldwide, many people are living in areas where USAID is present and Americans are providing relief.

Americans use current trade laws to purchase objects made in foreign countries. Changes in these laws could have impact on those people in foreign countries who may have moved from the countryside to a factory-filled city to find a better life.

You know that University of Texas slogan that they used on their commercials? It is actually true on election day in the United States: what starts here changes the world.

Please vote in the presidential primary and the election in November.

If you live in Oklahoma and you know you'll be busy on November 18, apply for an absentee ballot here or consider voting early.

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Title photo: pre-1959 flag from Unsplash

The Financial Diet is one of my favorite websites. It focuses on helping people in their twenties make responsible financial choices, and I love to contribute to it. Here's a new article I wrote if you're interested.

The Democratic primary race, which features two well-qualified candidates, has at times become a race centered on language and the words which Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders use to describe themselves and their campaigns. This is coupled with wider rhetoric about how we view America and what kind of country and society we live in, along with the society and country we want to see.

Source: Sanders Campaign Website

"Revolution" is a word that the Sanders campaign is fond of using to set itself apart from the other candidates on both sides of the aisle. It signifies that a Sanders presidency would be a significant departure from previous presidencies. This plays into the American idea that revolution is inherently good. Since we were children, we all learned about the American revolution and how this was a wonderful thing because it paved the way for the United States to become its own country. The American narrative, however, typically leaves out the detail that most revolutions are unsuccessful and do not lead to democratic societies. Even if a revolution is successful in ousting a group from power, the fall-out is often too much for the revolutionaries to take. Factions form, and at times the end result is another government much the same or worse than before in terms of freedom and democracy. The French Revolution of 1789, the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Confederate States of America, and the Arab Spring are all examples of revolutions that did not improve everyone's lives and made things much worse in some cases.

The word "socialist" makes me very uncomfortable when I hear it in this campaign cycle. This is because when I lived in Eastern Germany, I was corrected more than once when I said that the area used to be communist. The people who lived in the German Democratic Republic were convinced that their old system was authoritarian socialism. Now, the addition of the word "democratic" in from of "socialist" makes a world of difference. It's the difference between the government paying your neighbors to spy on you and being free to say what you wish. Here are Sanders's remarks on his view of democratic socialism.

Finally, the word "progressive" has been put through the wringer in the past few weeks. What is a progressive? Who deserves to use this word? Both Sanders and Clinton self-identify as progressives. If you google the word, the first thing that comes up is an insurance company. NPR, The Atlantic, and The New York Times have all tried to define the word recently. I always think of the Progressive movement in the US at the start of the 20th century:

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Title photo source: Unsplash

It's time for my monthly German wrap-up! The German side of the internet jumped right out of the holiday lull into new discussions about feminism, refugees, and sexism. Most of my links today have something to do with the New Year's Eve attacks in Cologne. Here's a bit of background from The Atlantic.

These horrible attacks have, as I said, sparked a huge national debate about refugee rights, feminism, and sexism in Germany. This opinion piece from tagesschau.de points out that sexism is not a new problem that the refugees brought with them. An English language article from Der Spiegel talks about the immediate fallout from the attacks. Additionally, earlier today the center-left SPD's local party office in Essen had to call off a planned protest against refugees. This shows how wide-spread and divisive the issue has become; the SPD's national and state parties have condemned the protest as going against the party's values.

In my old city of Erfurt, someone took out ads supporting the refugees and condemning the right wing ahead of an AfD demonstration.

In English: "Is Erfurt cool?" (In my opinion, the answer is yes!)

In less heavy news, I've rediscovered my love for German "Check" tv programs. Both ARD and ZDF have several programs that are a sort of consumer report for various objects - my favorite ones compare the supermarket chains. Here's one titled "Wie gut ist die deutsche Kueche?" ("How good is German food?") and another one called "Vorsicht, Verbraucherfalle!" ("Caution, Consumer Trap!") which examines the difference between the way food looks on the packaging and how it looks in reality.

Here's a helpful blog post telling ways to sound less foreign when speaking German. I felt quite clever since I already knew about "ischab" and "ne" even though I suppose those are two of the easier things to pick up on.

Besides that, I've been watching a lot of YouTube - I especially enjoyed Ella The Bee's planning videos this month, even if they're a bit more intense than the way I do things.

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Photo source: NYPL Digital Collections