The Skinny on COVID
The latest in numbers: 44M total cases & 701K deaths (+756K & +13K from last week) in the US.
The headlines:
COVID is hitting rural parts of the country twice as hard as it’s hitting the big cities.
The surge Alaska is going through at the moment is so bad, doctors have to ration care.
Some students are so against vaccine mandates that they’re withdrawing from college.
Keeping Up with Biden & Harris
The Biden administration has had a rough couple weeks (or months??) in the press and it shows. The POTUS’ approval rating is dropping amongst many groups, giving him an average approval of about 50% these days.
Pro-Israel groups are upset with Kamala Harris after she told a student their concerns about Israeli violence against Palestinians were valid. We mean...technically the student wasn’t wrong, and neither was the VP, but a hit dog will holler.
With Democrats in Congress still unable to settle their differences, Joe went to the Hill to give progressives a dose of reality about their beloved $3.5T spending bill. He seemed optimistic leaving the meeting, but only time will tell if his negotiation skills are really that good.
In an effort to make others forget about how bad of a job they’re doing with immigration, a new memo was released by Biden & nem outlining new arrest & deportation standards for the undocumented immigrants in the country.
Congress, What’s Good?
Crisis averted! Congress got it together & passed an appropriations bill to avoid a government shutdown. Now +800K federal employees don’t have to worry about where their next check will come from while the government gets paid to bicker every damn day. Yay.
What they still failed to do, however, was raise the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen predicted that we have until October 18 to pay our debts or risk sparking a market crash. Republicans appear hellbent on seeing a recession through or forcing Democrats to do it alone. Let us pray that Republicans tap into that Christian faith they claim to base their entire platform on.
Oh wait. Just kidding. Roughly 4K Department of Transportation workers are still experiencing a partial shutdown because their funding is tied up in the infrastructure bill that Democrats can’t stop fighting amongst themselves about.
BTW, Nancy Pelosi delayed the infrastructure vote to October 31 in hopes of having enough support to pass the infrastructure bill & budget resolution together.
Coming up in committee meetings this week:
Renewing & strengthening the Violence Against Women’s Act
A Facebook whistleblower’s claims that the social media platform is unsafe for kids
The historical roots & contributions of Historically Black Colleges & Universities
The ongoing drought in the western United States
Social Justice Round Up
After purchasing beachfront land in 1912, a Black family in Los Angeles County was harassed by the Klan until eminent domain (really, racism) forced them off of their property in 1924. Thanks to a community effort and government officials who paid attention, their descendants have regained ownership of the land 97 years later.
Texas people, where y’all at? Hispanic, Black & Asian folks drove population growth in your state for the last 10 years, but your Republican lawmakers are working hard to disenfranchise y’all by redrawing congressional maps (aka gerrymandering). Hispanic voters are especially impacted.
Efforts to ban books by Black authors have ramped up amid debates about Critical Race Theory.
Tell us something we didn’t know. A member of the Boogaloo Bois (a far-right organization with racist origins) admitted to opening fire at a Minneapolis Police Station during the George Floyd protests.
Around the Diaspora
President Buhari of Nigeria considers lifting his Twitter ban, but only if the platform meets his conditions which includes paying taxes & having a physical presence in the country. Buhari claims the restriction of Twitter is due to economic & security threats to Nigeria, but he really made the decision to ban the platform in June after one of his tweets was deleted for going against its community standards.
Another 60K Haitians are headed to the US border, Panama says. Elected officials in Haiti are asking Biden to stop the deportation of migrants back to Haiti as the numbers say most of the Haitian migrants who made their way to Texas in September were sent back to their home country.
A week from today, Trinidad will open up “safe zones,” specific areas of the country only available to the vaccinated. Unvaccinated persons & safe zone businesses who allow unvaccinated persons to enter will be fined $5K TT & $25K TT respectively.
Getting to the Money
The Ghetto Film School & Netflix opened up a content creation program for Black filmmakers. Is that you? Register here for the chance to create original & impactful short films.
Issa whole lotta hiring going on over at Rain the Growth Agency. From entry level to senior positions, the agency is building their team to manage a surge of new business. Oh & the roles are mostly remote too. Check out their Careers page for more information.
Buying Black
In need of a dairy-free ice cream that’s also without any gluten, soy, or artificial flavors? That sounds like a job for Cajou Creamery.
Culture that Pops
We don’t quite have all of the words to fully capture how we’re feeling these days about the safety of the women in our community, but Black women deserve to feel safe & protected in this world. Seriously, what has to happen in order to make that a reality?
Gentrification ain’t happening in West Baltimore without a fight. This Black woman founded an equitable development company that’s transforming abandoned buildings in her hometown and turning them into affordable housing for her neighbors. Black women always understand the assignment.
Rapper Noname has opened up the Radical Hood Library in Los Angeles, a community space aimed at helping the local Black & Brown community with books (for themselves or for incarcerated loved ones), free food, music & more.