GUYS! We added another country to our list…. We now have news du jour listeners in Switzerland! I am so excited to be broadcasting this podcast now in TEN different countries. Wow. As always, just wanted to say we really love and appreciate our international listeners and hope you guys will help keep us up to date on any stories going on in your home countries that we should be covering. Welcome. And now without further ado – let’s hop into the news!
- The Coronavirus has now surpassed 5 million cases in the United States
And if you feel like that just like shot up out of no where, like we were JUST at 2 million, well, you’d be right. The numbers did just shoot up. Cuz that’s what they do with COVID, they multiply. And it’s more than doubled in the past two months. Yep, that’s since we have re-opened. Re-opening = speeding up the spread. We have by far the highest number of cases in the world, with Brazil in #2, and India in third.
We have been seeing over one thousand deaths PER day every day and it even got up to as many as 2k deaths in a day last Friday. That was really upsetting to see.
Meanwhile, specifically here in Oklahoma, we have seen the daily new cases numbers drop back down into the 3 and 4 hundred range, thank goodness with about 7k in active cases currently.
But the US does NOT have the highest death rates per capita, those are in Europe. They were hit pretty early on, while many were still underestimating the virus and it ran wild, over-filling hospitals and causing people to die unnecessarily.
So where do things stand in terms of a stimulus package?!?!
Well, congress is still seeing grid lock, but President Trump went ahead with this own plans and signed an executive order for COVID relief…. But it’s already facing legal hurdles as it is actually Congress’s job to allocate funds, not the President’s.
So what did the executive orders say:
- He deferred student loan debts
- $400 in inhanced unemployment benefits – but awkwardly, he only agreed that the federal government will pay $300 if those dollars and that the states would each have to pony up the other $100… Some state’s leadership have already laughed at this notion saying they don’t know where that money would come from when they have been asking for federal assistance.
- Many also feel that extended the eviction ban, but it seems like the language of the actual executive order is a little vague here on that topic – it seems like it’s more that he is asking his team to look more closely at this.
At a time when many on Congress are distancing themselves from the President, this is not a good look for him. Because it basically goes around them instead of working WITH them. That said, we, as the American people, really need help and answers right now… And we’re not getting them from Congress.
- Bill nye is on tiktok?!?!
OK so a quick little story allll about Bill Nye the science guy! When I found out he was on tiktok I kiiiind of had a melt down. It’s wonderful to learn from him again and this time, he has all the more attitude. He has great, science based explanations of what’s going on with the coronavirus. He’s definitely worth giving a follow if you’re on tiktok!
- Biden did NOT announce a running mate?
Another quick little story…. So Biden kind made me look like #fakenews this past week! He had said he would announce his running mate the first week of august…. And then he didn’t! He dodged us. But, he announced that you can text “FIRST” to 30330 to get a text alert when he chooses his VP.
- New York Attorney General Letitia James suing to dissolve the NRA
The Attorney General of New York took legal action last Thursday to dissolve the NRA, due to widespread fraud and abuse within the organization. She had spent over 18 months investigating the organization and discovered a mass amount of misconduct. They used funds that they had raised for charity, for QUOTE ‘personal gain.’ They would also offer funds to friends, family, and employees in order to keep them loyal in the scheme. In a familiar excuse, they claimed that the investigation AND legal charges were all political attacks and completely baseless. But the amount of fraudulent spending was well within the millions and Letitia James would have to have solid evidence in order to make her case… So, we’ll have to wait and see what a judge thinks.
Before I leave you guys today, I wanted to do a quick follow up on our story about schools re-opening. The governor of New York has come out as saying that schools CAN re-open, but he will go ahead and leave it up to the school districts themselves on whether to re-open, based on their districts’ situation. This is much more in line with what other major US cities are doing and quells some of the fears teachers were facing in terms of being forced by the governor to re-open before its safe.
I also wanted a follow-up on what’s going on in Lebanon.
So as I am sure you remember, there was a huge explosion in Beirut Lebanon. Well, it ended up killed about 150 people in total. Well, it turns out, the people of Lebanon had been protesting their government for years, claiming they were neglecting the needs of their own people. And then this explosion happened. And it kind of proved their point! This explosion that took out 11 city blocks, killed 150+ people, and injured enough people to overflow all of their hospitals. People lost cars and homes and limbs and loved ones. And it was simply a case of the government taking their time in regards to an emergent situation. They neglected the safety of their citizens for 6 years. And now, the protests have gotten a second wind. The people know they were on the right track by protesting in the first place, and now they have the eyes of the world on them to help put pressure on their leadership to do the right thing and step up for their people. To provide basic services like electricity and clean drinking water.
Fortunately they are getting aid from the US, France, and other countries to help with disaster relief, as well as private charitable funds. But making the government help it’s people is honestly the root of this problem… So the most important thing we can do to help right now, is help keep eyes and ears on the situation, to put global pressure on their leadership to step up, or step aside.
And that’s the News Du Jour!
I want to leave you with the quote:
“To organize, agitate, and educate must be our war cry.