All the World's a Stage

A $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefit, approved by the U.S. Congress in March, expires today; leaving 20+ million jobless Americans in the lurch and the U.S. economy on the brink.

A $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefit, approved by the U.S. Congress in March, expires today; leaving 20+ million jobless Americans in the lurch, and the U.S. economy on the brink. A meeting which included the White House, and both houses of Congress, ended yesterday with no agreement. The emergency unemployment benefit expires today.

Both parties remained unrelenting on expanding the $2 Trillion CARES ACT. Democrats stand by their wide-ranging $3 trillion proposal, while Republicans struggle to coalesce around a smaller $1 trillion allowance. While Democrats want to continue paying out an extra $600 per week to 20+ million Americans, Republicans now characterize the payments as “completely unhinged” and creating a “disincentive for people to actually return to the workforce.” Both have attached Riders: additional legislation having little connection with the subject matter of the bill.

Amidst the melee, Trump continues to demand nearly $1.8 billion for a new FBI building at its present site, near his hotel in downtown Washington. Even Republicans have said they oppose inclusion of the FBI headquarters to the current bill to which Trump replied, “Then Republicans should go back to school and learn. They need a new building, and we can do it very easily.”

President Donald Trump explicitly floated delaying November's presidential election on Thursday, lending extraordinary assertion to persistent concerns that he will seek to circumvent voting in a contest where he currently trails his opponent by double digits.

A federal eviction moratorium is ending. Here’s what renters should know.

The end of the four-month moratorium puts 12 million renters at risk of eviction as the pandemic continues to surge.

Of the 110 million Americans living in rental households, 20 percent are at risk of eviction. Congress passed a national moratorium that has shielded about one-third of renters from eviction since late March. The renters protected under this moratorium live in buildings or homes with a mortgage that has some form of government backing.

That moratorium expires today, as the U.S. economy continues to suffer a historic contraction. Between April and June, the nation’s gross domestic product plunged by 9.5 percent — or an annual rate of 32.9 percent due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. As of today, over 4 million Americans are infected, and upwards of 150,000 are now dead. On average, one American is dying every minute from COVID-19.

Three former presidents honor Congressman and Civil Rights Legend John Lewis in Atlanta.

It is the former capitol of the confederacy. As services began to get underway, the bells at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and churches around the country, rang 80 times to mark the life of Civil Rights Leader, Congressman John Lewis.

Senators Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were in attendance, and Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush paid tribute. But President Barack Obama delivered the eulogy honoring a man who led the 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Spoke at the March on Washington. Spent his congressional years advocating for Voting Rights and equality for Black Americans, and was known as the “Moral Conscience of the U.S. Congress.”

Of the Black Lives Matter protests still raging throughout the United States Obama said, “This is what John taught us, and its where real courage comes from, not in turning on each other, but by turning towards one another. Not by sowing hatred and division, but by spreading love and truth. Not by avoiding our responsibilities to create a better America and a better world, but by embracing those responsibilities with joy and perseverance and discovering that, in our beloved community, we do not walk alone.

If you want to honor John don’t call him a hero. Just vote.”