What's Going On

What’s Going on – 9/9

SUMMER IN AMERICA
Follow the American newspaper headlines. Will President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion BUILD BACK BETTER Agenda, an omnibus domestic plan which comprises features like infrastructure, health and dental insurance, housing, childcare, college, and the environment, get passed during this Congressional session? The BBB Agenda is a 21st Century version of FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Republican dominated state houses are passing voter repression laws to affect 2022 and 2024 election outcomes. The US Supreme Court is guilty of overreach with shadow docketing, a practice which adopts the use of emergency orders and summary decisions without benefit of any legal arguments.

The Lone Star state of Texas bans abortion and offers a $10,000 bounty to anyone who reveals people who flout the law. On September 7, Governor Greg Abbott signed the sweeping voter repression bill into law, joining Georgia, Florida and 16 other states that have passed similar laws. Wonder when the Californians who relocated to Texas plan to return home? Regarding Pandemic containment, School Board members across the nation are being assaulted for favoring masks in classrooms. Law and order are on holiday in many American enclaves. President Biden’s popularity poll numbers dipped since the seemingly chaotic American Afghanistan recovery mission.

ELECTIONS/2022: Georgia’s US Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock is running for November 22 re-election. Democrats are not taking anything for granted. A NY fundraiser for Senator Warnock will be held on September 16 at 5 pm at Londel’s Restaurant, located at 2620 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Harlem. Contact Julia Naomi Blue at 917.692.5885
The California recall election to oust Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom will be held on September 14, 2021. An energized Republican Party has a new front runner, Larry Elder, 69, a conservative African American radio host who rails against Newsom’s governance. An avowed Trump supporter, Elder says that he is his own man. A recent LA Times opinion piece, a reference to Elder, is titled. “The Black Face of White Supremacy. You’ve Been Warned.” California cannot go red!

NY POWER POLITICS
Governor Kathy Hochul hit the ground running during a week with many unforeseen crises. problems. A week into her probationary period, downstate headaches surfaced, first with a Metropolitan Transit Authority power outage, disabling all of the NYC LETTERED train lines. which was followed by the potent remnants of Hurricane Ida touching down on NYC with hundreds of million dollars in damages and the death of 13 people by drowning in their basement/cellar level apartments. Hochul summoned the Lawmakers back to Albany to deal with matters of the eviction moratorium which ended on August 31 and the 9/6 expiration of Federal enhanced funds for unemployment benefits, which cuts off assistance to 7.5 million people nationally.

Governor Hochul named two African Americans to key posts. They are former NYS Assembly member Tremaine Wright, from Brooklyn who was named Chair of the NY Cannabis Control Board and Christopher Alexander will run the Office of Cannabis Management. Cannabis law was passed; but is not operational.

Are Brooklyn New Yorkers, NYS Attorney General Tish James and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams testing the 2022 NYS Gubernatorial waters which would explain their visits to Upstate NY County Fairs?
Last month, NYS passed a special election bill which was signed by Governor Cuomo. Law defines why the successor to Senator Brian Benjamin’s special election seat will be coincidental with the NYC November election. According to the new law, the County Leader Keith Wright’s committee determines whose name will appear on the ballot on November election date.

Read the 9/5 NY Daily News opinion piece, A FAIR DEAL FOR WORKING NEW YORKERS, by NYC Mayoral hopeful Eric Adams, which is a meditation on Labor Day and NYC 2021. This year many New Yorkers will not be returning to work as planned, owing to the Delta variant, a dormant economy, and the expiration of the federal safety net programs and the attendant unemployment benefits. And that’s for openers. Ironically, he adds, there are 300,000 jobs in NY which are vacant because of a shortage of the skilled labor supply. Adams presents some solutions which lend insight into his management insights.

ARTS & CULTURE: The following is an abbreviated list of the Fall arts and entertainment calendar.
African Heritage Month is observed in the USA from September 1 –15. One of the NYC African Heritage Month celebrations will be hosted by the Africa Center, located at 1250 Fifth Avenue, Harlem on Thursday, September 9. Event is an invitational. It will include cultural performances, school supply giveaways, vaccine info. Visit theafricacenter.org or call 212.444.9795
FILM: The World Channel series “Stories from the Stage” opens with film “Changed Forever 9/11.” Series spotlights three people whose lives were impacted on 9/11 – David Filipov, a war correspondent, whose father died on 9/11; an African American Michael Sargent who confronts his own prejudices; and therapist Jude Treder-Wolff who discusses 9/11 burnout. Available for broadcasting and streaming, September 6 to 30, on worldchannel.org.

TELEVISION: Dr. Condoleeza (Condi) Rice, former Stanford University Provost, National Security Advisor and US Secretary of State under President George Bush, will guest host on daytime TV show THE VIEW. Former Haitian-American Congress member Mia Love of Utah, will also be on guest host list. THE VIEW is looking for conservative GOP voices to fill the void left by Meghan McCain’s departure.
OUR KIND OF PEOPLE, a new TV series about Black elites, adapted from the Lawrence Otis Graham book of the same, title premieres on Tuesday, September 21 on Fox TV. A Lee Daniels/ Karin Gist Production, the team who brought EMPIRE to high Nielsen ratings. Series is set against Black elite enclave on Martha‘s Vineyard and centers on Black society obsessed with class, ambition and achievement. Handsome cast includes Nadine Ellis, Morris Chestnut, Joe Morton, Letoya Luckett, and Debbi Morgan.

NEWSMAKERS
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARIES: On August 28, Patricia and Rev Calvin Butts, Sr. Pastor at Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church formally celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. On September 6, Professor Linda and Edgar Ridley, behaviorist /author, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

A Harlem based brand/media consultant, Victoria is reachable at victoria.horsford@gmail.com