DML Morning Briefing Fri. Apr. 9: NY money give-away, DeSantis, Hillary, the CDC, and racism
By Team DML
Today is April 9 and I am Dennis Michael Lynch. Below are my opinions on the stories grabbing headlines this morning. I hope you share this briefing as doing so will make you the smartest person in the room, in my opinion.
1 – New York will offer one-time payments of up to $15,600 to undocumented immigrants who lost work during the pandemic.
The New York Times reports: When the coronavirus arrived in New York City a year ago, it hit enclaves of undocumented immigrants with a fury, killing thousands and wiping out the service and construction jobs that kept many families afloat.
Lifelines like unemployment insurance and federal stimulus checks were out of reach because undocumented people are ineligible for most government aid. Instead, they have relied on food pantries, lenient landlords and loans from friends.
But after a sweeping move by lawmakers this week, New York will now offer one-time payments of up to $15,600 to undocumented immigrants who lost work during the pandemic. The effort — a $2.1 billion fund in the state budget — is by far the biggest of its kind in the country and a sign of the state’s shift toward policies championed by progressive Democrats.
The excluded workers fund, part of the state’s new $212 billion budget deal that was reached on Tuesday, was one of the most contentious points of debate during negotiations, which dragged on past the April 1 deadline.
Undocumented workers could receive up to $15,600, the equivalent of $300 per week for the last year, if they can verify that they were state residents, ineligible for federal unemployment benefits and lost income as a result of the pandemic.
Others who can prove at least their residency and identity, and provide some work documentation, could be eligible for a lower sum up to $3,200.
DML: Taxpayers are paying for this windfall… while the homeless are still on the streets!!
2 – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announces Florida Suing Federal Government, CDC to Allow Cruises to Resume Sailing
NBC Miami reported: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is filing a lawsuit against the federal government and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow cruise ships to resume sailing immediately, after they were shut down for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeSantis announced the legal action during a news conference Thursday at PortMiami.
“The CDC has locked down this industry for over a year, this is not reasonable, this is not rational,” DeSantis said. “We don’t believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data.”
“People are going to cruise one way or another. The question is are we going to do it out of Florida, which is the number one place to do it in the world, or are they going to be doing it out of the Bahamas or other locations?” DeSantis said.
On Friday, the CDC updated its guidance to say that fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. without getting tested for the coronavirus or going into quarantine afterward. It also issued more technical details around its conditional plan to allow cruise ships in U.S. ports, but it did not say when cruise lines could resume sailing.
The governor, who signed an executive order forbidding Covid vaccine passports, said the cruise industry won’t get an exception. He’s adamant that public entities, along with the private sector, not require people show proof that they have been vaccinated.
DML: Again – we need to clone this guy! Everyone should put pressure on their governors to follow DeSantis’ example!
3 – Hillary Clinton Issues Ultimatum: Preserve the Filibuster or Minority Voting Rights: ‘We Can’t Do Both’
Breitart reports: Twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton issued an ultimatum Thursday, contending Congress must choose between preserving the filibuster or protecting voting rights for minorities. But doing both, she suggested, is an impossibility.
“We can preserve the filibuster, or we can preserve the voting rights of people of color. But we can’t do both,” Clinton said, providing a CNN graphic of the United States which identified bills “aiming to curb voting rights introduced in almost every state”:
Clinton’s remark follows a wave of leftist rage stemming from Georgia’s recently signed election integrity law, which, despite popular belief, expands voting in some areas.
DML: Go sit down, Hillary.
4 – Princeton is selecting fewer white students every year: 32% of the Class of 2025 are white – as college takes on more applicants of color than any other Ivy League school
The Daily Mail reports: Princeton is selecting fewer white students every year and now takes more non-white applicants than any other Ivy League school, new data from the university has revealed.
Princeton announced on Thursday that it had sent letters out to its class of 2025. The successful applicants will learn by 7pm EST if they’ve got a place or not. More than 37,600 applied and 1,498 were selected. Of them, 68 percent – 1,018 – ‘self-identify’ as people of color.
The school did not separate among that group how many are black, Hispanic, Asian or any other race, leaving 32 percent – 479 students – to ‘self-identity’ as white.
In 2019, 56 percent of Princeton’s intake said they were of color – 44 percent were white. In 2020, 61 percent of the new class said they were people of color – 39 percent were white.
The school insists that it is following the same process every year, without adjusting it deliberately in favor of any one group of applicants. They have not revealed the breakdown of applicants to be able to determine if more students of color are applying every year.
DML: Isn’t this discrimination?
5 – CDC director says racism is ‘serious public health threat’
The Hill reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday declared racism a “serious public health threat,” becoming the largest federal agency to do so.
“A growing body of research shows that centuries of racism in this country has had a profound and negative impact on communities of color,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement published on the agency’s website.
Walensky noted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt most severely in communities of color, which have experienced disproportionate case counts and deaths.
“To build a healthier America for all, we must confront the systems and policies that have resulted in the generational injustice that has given rise to racial and ethnic health inequities,” the agency said.
The declaration is part of a new agency-wide initiative called Racism and Health, which the CDC said is meant to be a hub for its research into the effects of racism on health, and efforts to achieve health equity.
DML: The left is going to use Covid – and the CDC – to help push their entire agenda!