Our weekly roundup of the news, some trends, and our thoughts — plus a reading list for the weekend.
$95,300,000,000: After six months of political gridlock, this week, Biden signed a bill that included 95 billion dollars of aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The majority of money, $61 billion, will go to Ukraine, for military assistance. $26 billion went to Israel. "My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad," Biden said. The bill also includes $1 billion of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
TikTok: Also tucked into this package was a bill that will ban TikTok unless it sells to a U.S. owner within a year. The CEO announced in a video posted to the platform that they are “not going anywhere” and plan to go to court over this. Biden’s campaign plans to continue using TikTok throughout the election to reach younger voters, according to NBC News.
College Campuses: In our round-up last week, we wrote about how three students from Columbia were suspended and 100 arrested. Since then, Biden made a comment condemning the protest, Republicans held a press conference on Columbia's library steps, Columbia canceled in-person classes for the rest of the semester, and demonstrations spread to campuses across the U.S. At USC, over 90 students were arrested by LAPD and the school canceled its main commencement ceremony. At Emory, reporters recorded professors getting thrown to the ground and arrested. At UT Austin 57 were arrested (all charges ended up being dropped) after Abbot sent in State Troopers. Among those 57 was a journalist with the local Fox 7 news affiliate. Student journalism has been critical. Read this interview with members of Columbia’s student radio station on how they are meeting the moment.
Supreme Court: Amongst all of this news, this week, the Supreme Court heard probably the most significant housing case to come before them in decades. The case comes from a small Oregon town that tried to impose a $295 fine for anyone sleeping on public property. Siding with the city would mean overruling a 2018 appeals court decision, Martin v. City of Boise, that found that the Eighth Amendment prohibits bans on sleeping outdoors for people who don’t have any other options (in this case, the town does not have enough shelter space). Bloomberg spoke with Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director for the nonprofit National Homelessness Law Center. He pointed to a similar law in Kentucky that made public camping illegal and prohibited state funds to any groups that provide permanent housing to homeless people without setting behavioral preconditions for admittance, such as sobriety or abstinence. Bloomberg writes that “this element is an effort to defund the care model known as Housing First, favored by the Biden administration and many experts, which calls for getting a person off the street before addressing substance abuse, mental health or other problems.” We recommend reading this piece on how this strategy was effective in Houston. All of this comes amongst a record-high number of homeless people in 2023.
Reading List:
An interview in the Jacobin with a VW worker after they won a blowout unionization victory at a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee: “It has been pleasantly surprising to see who supports the union: you might expect people to be one way, and the “culture war” crap has really polarized people. But where the rubber meets the road, and they can see how it affects them, they see clearly.”
A piece in the New Yorker about why you can’t get a restaurant reservation: “Another reseller, PerceptiveWash44, told me that he makes reservations while watching TV. He was standing outside the break room at the West Coast hotel where he works as a concierge. “It’s, like, some people play Candy Crush on their phone. I play ‘Dinner Reservations,’ ” he said. “It’s just a way to pass the time.” Last year, he made eighty thousand dollars reselling reservations.”
Others: Ken Burns recommends Bad Faith, a new doc about Christian Nationalism & democracy. In that vein, we recommend our interview with John Fea. Rebecca Solnit recommends a series of conversations with climate visionary Joanna Macy (95) and her friend Jessica Serrante (35). Oliver Stone is unveiling his long-awaited documentary about Lula at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. In prep for Stone’s doc, The Edge of Democracy, about Lula pre-prison, is an excellent watch.