Homelessness reach record high, Biden announces All In plan

On Dec. 15, federal officials released reports that documented a sharp 12% increase in homelessness in this past year alone. 653,000– that number represents America’s current unhoused population. This is the highest this number has been since the US began documenting the unhoused population in 2007. 

Image credit: CNN

California is among the top five states most demonstrative of this rise, with its homelessness rate ascending by 5.8% in 2023. New York tops the list with a 38.9% increase. Nationwide, this rise can be attributed to multiple potential causes: 1) Rent prices are rising, 2) Pandemic aid is now dwindling or extinct, 3) The mental health effects of the pandemic may affect people’s ability to acquire and retain a livable income, among many more. 

Image credit: CBS

With the Republican primary gaining speed and the 2024 election approaching, these rates may influence voters. Noting that homelessness rates are highest in Washington DC, California, Vermont, Oregon, Hawaii, and New York– all of which are Democratic-leaning states– it’s not unreasonable to expect that there may be political shifts within these states, potentially influencing the general election. Additionally, noting the demographics of America’s unhoused population, certain races or genders may be inclined to vote similarly: according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are proportionally most impacted, followed by African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans. Additionally, men on average experience homelessness more than women. 

Image credit: NBC

And with the upcoming general election in mind, perhaps candidates may consider addressing the issue of homelessness in America. Having published a fact sheet in April detailing an initiative to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025, the Biden-Harris Administration released its plan called All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Cooperating with 500 people who have themselves experienced homelessness, the Biden-Harris All In plan emphasizes supplying unhoused people’s basic needs, increasing housing accessibility, encouraging nationwide collaboration in All In, and more. Trump, who is leading in the Republican primary, hadn’t commented on homelessness since late April of this year when he proposed “ban[ning] urban camping,” and creating “inexpensive” “tent cities” to combat the issue. FL Governor Ron Desantis, who is a far second in the polls, has criticized CA Governor Gavin Newsom over his handling of homelessness in California, particularly in San Francisco. Desantis himself pledged $495,000 of funding to the Sharing Center, a social services organization that provides essential resources to Seminole County in Florida.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homeless-record-america-12-percent-jump-high-rents/

https://apnews.com/article/homelessness-increase-rent-hud-covid-60bd88687e1aef1b02d25425798bd3b1

https://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/articles/what-you-should-know-about-rising-average-apartment-rents 

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/12/1186856463/homelessness-rent-affordable-housing-encampments#:~:text=Around%20the%20country%2C%20Kushel%20says,have%20risen%20faster%20than%20wages. 

https://covid19.nih.gov/covid-19-topics/mental-health  

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/homeless-population-by-state 

https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/ 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/18/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-initiative-to-tackle-unsheltered-homelessness/ 

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/12/19/biden-harris-administration-announces-plan-to-reduce-homelessness-25-percent-by-2025.html 

https://www.usich.gov/federal-strategic-plan/overview 

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/08/homelessness-haunt-newsom-desantis-debate/ 

https://thesharingcenter.org/florida-governor-ron-desantis-pledgesfundstosharingcenter/ 

Trump's concerning remarks in New Hampshire and Iowa rally

Chants and cries of “We love you! We love you!” could be widely heard at a Trump campaign rally on Saturday, December 16, 2023 in the University of New Hampshire’s ice hockey arena. 

With the Republican primary drawing closer, a number of Republican challengers have doubled their efforts for the GOP by heavily campaigning in states such as New Hampshire and Iowa. Despite this Mr. Trump’s involvement in legal matters, this has not stopped him from going to and speaking at rallies to gain support for the primary. 

Based on polls conducted by CBS News, Mr. Trump leads with 44% favorability in New Hampshire and 58% in Iowa, a notable gap that his potential competitors Ms. Haley and Mr. Desantis is trying to close.

At the rally, Mr. Trump heavily scrutinized President Biden’s leadership and expressed his current views towards immigration. Remarks such as “Joe Biden is a threat to democracy” to darker comments such as “They’re poisoning the blood of our country… they’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world” were one of the many that were expressed during his rallies, even expressing support to authoritarian leaders Viktor Orban and Kim Jong Un, describing them as “highly respected” and “very nice.” 

This situation is a good example of front loading, as it is evident that incumbents and new challengers concentrate and dedicate efforts on influencing voters in states with early primaries  such as New Hampshire and Iowa. In addition, the widespread  support for Mr. Trump within the Republican party even after making these controversial remarks emphasizes the significant influence Mr. Trump has the cult of personality that he built around him to convince these people. 

As these comments are associated with a former president seeking re-election with substantial support, it raises questions into the role individuals play in representing their own country and the extent to which dehumanizing language is acceptable.

- Jake Sakamoto

Sources:

NBC

NPR

CBS

Ukraine struggles to receive aid from the United States and the E.U.

On Tuesday of December 12, 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was at Washington DC, seeking additional military aid from Congress. 

Mr. Zelensky appealed to Congress and lawmakers, urging the United States to provide financial aid in its struggle against Russia. Though many in Congress sympathized with the concerns over the conflict in Ukraine, a partisan divide was starkly present within Congress. The Republicans prioritize the issue of immigration in the U.S., and expressed reluctance to support the aid package unless Democrats made concessions on immigration policies.

In addition to this, Ukraine also requested aid from the EU to help support their effort. EU leaders discussed and came up with a $50 billion financial aid package that would be distributed to Ukraine over the course of the next 4 years. However, in an almost unanimous agreement to agree on the decision to send aid to Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary vetoed the notion, blocking the aid package from being sent to bolster the Ukrainian war efforts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

The events unfolding have a deep relation to the topic of polarization, which was discussed in class earlier in the year. With the government split predominantly into two parties, each believing more strongly about their own ideologies and beliefs, it leads to more difficult situations of passing legislation or bills, often leading to a stalemate in decision making.

The lack of funding jeopardizes the position of Ukraine, as most of Ukraine’s budget and resources for the war comes directly from the aid it receives from other countries. Moving forwards, with Ukraine in a precarious situation, it puts into question the country's stability and the potential impacts on the global stage.

- Jake Sakamoto

Sources:
CNN
BBC

NY TIMES

Supreme Court to hear cases challenging key abortion drug mifepristone

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an abortion case for the first time since Roe v. Wade was overturned. This 2023-2024 term, the Supreme Court will decide whether to limit access to mifepristone, one of the two key drugs in the medication abortion regimen. Mifepristone is used in more than half of all abortions in the United States, and will create complications to medication abortion processes if people are denied access to the drug.

The Supreme Court has also declined to consider a challenge to the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone in 2000, which is well past the statute of limitations of six years. This means that regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision, mifepristone will continue to be on the market, but can become a lot more difficult to obtain. A ruling against mifepristone will reverse changes FDA made in 2016 and 2021 that eased access to the drug, including the lengthened window for use from 7th week to 10th week of pregnancy and access to mifepristone through U.S. mail.

Oral arguments are likely to be scheduled for spring, with decisions to be made by the end of June, putting the debate of abortion under spotlight in the 2024 campaign season. Abortion is expected to be a major issue for voters in the 2024 presidential election, and some Democrats have urged President Joe Biden to focus attention on abortion in his reelection effort. Recently, the Texas Supreme Court ruled against Kate Cox’s abortion case, saying that she does not qualify for an abortion under medical exception. 

“As the chaos and cruelty created by Trump’s work overturning Roe v. Wade continues to worsen all across the country, stories like Kate Cox’s in Texas have become all too common”, Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez responded. Although a valid statement, Rodriguez's strong blame against Trump mirrors “The President Is Not Superman” by Tom Nichols that we recently read in class, where he discusses how campaigns and people attribute what they like to who they already like as credit, and what they don’t like to whom they already dislike as blame.

As both the 2024 election and Supreme Court’s mifepristone hearing draws near, candidates and voters will have to take a stand on the polarizing issue of reproductive rights.

- Momoka Dhanuwidjaja

Sources:

USA Today

USA Today

Washington Post

CNN

Glitches with Voyager 1 could mean the end is near for a 46-year-long probe

Voyager 1, a NASA spacecraft that is 15 billion miles away from earth, is experiencing computer glitches threatening an end to its 46-years long expedition throughout the solar system.

The Voyager program started in 1977 contains two spacecrafts, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, each only meant to last 5 years, and yet 50 years later both spacecrafts are still surviving. They are the only spacecrafts to ever operate past the heliosphere, the region of space dominated by the sun, and overtook Pioneer 10 as the farthest man-made object from the earth in 1998. The spacecrafts continue exploring unknown areas in our universe despite being deemed “senior citizens” by project manager Suzanne Dodd for their long lifetime and dated technology. 

The Voyager 1 has experienced many technological errors throughout its history. It takes a total of 22.5 hours for commands from earth to reach the spacecraft, and over 45 hours to receive data back from the spacecraft, so glitches are difficult to identify and can last for months on end, the worst of which came in 2020, when NASA lost communication with Voyager 2 for a total of seven-months 

The Voyager 1 system consists of only three computers, and communicates with earth in strings of ones and zeros The most recent glitch was first noticed on November 14th, after NASA attempted sending a software patch to both Voyagers. The detection of the issue, only found in Voyager 1, is it can receive and carry out commands sent, but the flight data is now stuck repeating and sending the same pattern back to earth. The data is complete gibberish, and the Voyager 1 is completely useless until the problem is solved. 

A similar problem occurred to the Voyager 1 in four years after its launch date, in 1981, but NASA still has to find a new solution. They have started the process of finding the cause for the issue, and begun to develop a solution for it as well. This process can take weeks and weeks of work, and as issues with the spacecraft continuously become more common, NASA is aware that the end could be near for the Voyager spacecraft. 

As Calla Cofield, one of the space engineers working on fixing the Voyager 1, “The Voyagers are performing far, far past their prime missions and longer than any other spacecraft in history… So, while the engineering team is working hard to keep them alive, we also fully expect issues to arise.” 

Sources: 

CNN 

Popular Science 

- Olin Gawel 

Survivors of Sexual Harassment and Assault at the US Coast Guard Academy Testify

The purpose of the Coast Guard is national security, to ensure the safety of all people in the United States, but the ironic fact is that women in their own facilities are not safe. 

Four women have bravely come front and testified about the atrocities they faced during their time at the US Coast Guard Academy. These women were sexually assaulted and harassed at the academy. Additionally, the victims were silenced by the higher officials in the academy and the offenders have faced little to no consequences for their actions.

One of the women graduated in 1981 and she was assaulted in her own dorm room. She never reported the incident as she knew that reporting it would do her no good. She stayed quiet and continued to face the harassment until she became a commander of the Coast Guard. But, sadly even after getting this position her harassment continued.

Another woman who was in the class of 2008, shared that she would be constantly groped in public, and other men would see her being assaulted and laugh. She highlights that during swim class she would be groped underwater and when she went to her professor in tears for help, she was not taken seriously. This caused her to discontinue her education at the Coast Guard Academy and restart at a different college. Her offender is now in the position of lieutenant commander, a position that she had aspired for. While he is thriving, all she is left with is the trauma that he caused. 

Currently a Cadet in the Academy

Another woman who graduated in 2011 voiced that she was raped and assaulted by two different classmates at the university but never reported it because she had seen many women being dismissed by higher officials when they reported their experiences. She shared that the trauma she faced from being tortured physically but also mentally from not being able to report made her attempt suicide.

Finally, the fourth woman is still currently a cadet at the academy and was sexually assaulted in the first few weeks of her freshman year. She reported the incident but this caused her to be further harassed by her perpetrator's friends. While he was removed from the academy eventually, he was removed through an honorable discharge. This meant that he left with a clean slate and no one would know that he was an offender. 

The Four Survivors

A disturbing aspect of all these stories is the range in the timeline. The earliest is from 1981 but the most recent one is from a student who is still at the academy. This strongly highlights the fact that no matter how much we argue that men and women now have equal opportunity, in reality, that is a superficial view. The Coast Guard Academy is just one example. Millions of women face unsafe conditions in their place of work and education even today making them places of unequal opportunity. 

The women at the Coast Guard Academy were training to meet the requirements to achieve their career aspirations. But, they were faced with harassment and assault in the process of doing so. 

Recently in class, we learned about the requirements needed to become a senator or a representative. Additionally, we discussed how women are a minority in the makeup of the Congress. It can be argued that women not only need to meet the requirements to be eligible for the position but will most likely also be faced with other societal atrocities in the process, potentially providing a reason for why they are a minority. 

Source:

CNN

- Ashley Roselynn Vincent

Fed Plans to Cut Rates in 2024 (what does that even mean?)

The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States. Though they have various duties (see this link for a slightly more complete picture), today we’ll focus on the “Fed’s” two primary monetary policy directives:

1. Keep inflation in check (ideally around 2%) 2. Keep unemployment low (a.k.a avoid a recession)

To keep the economy healthy the Federal Reserve loves to employ one tool in particular, interest rate hikes/cuts. I won’t get into how this works (if you are curious see this video) but in simple terms, high interest rates theoretically curb inflation and low interest rates theoretically stimulate the economy, decreasing unemployment.

For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic the Fed brought interest rates to near zero, incentivizing investments in the economy that would help the country navigate the incoming recession. As touched upon earlier, a side effect of lowering interest rates is increased inflation. And boy did inflation increase. We’re actually still grappling with inflation today, and for the past few months/years the Fed has been aggressively raising interest rates in an attempt to rein in the economy. As of December 2023, interest rates are in the 5.25% to 5.50% range, a 22-year high.

But all is not lost! The Fed has recognized that inflation seems to be slowing, and is pivoting to prevent a recession. They have announced a tentative plan to implement multiple rate cuts in 2024. Right now the Fed expects to end 2024 with a 4.6% rate. Many Wall Street analysts were surprised, expecting much steeper cuts (Link).

The economy is incredibly complex, and it can take years for the effects of the Fed’s monetary policy to become fully clear. In the meantime, we can only cross our fingers and hope that the Fed’s plan works out. On that somber note, we can now enjoy an incredibly subtle segue into how this relates to what we are currently learning in class.

Previously in AP Gov we explored the presidency. The nomination process for Governors of the Federal Reserve’s board is similar to that of the Supreme court, with the President having the power to nominate candidates to the board and Congress charged with approving the President’s picks. The Fed’s Board of Governors, while very powerful, is pretty much where the federal government’s involvement ends. The Federal reserve is a unique institution in that it is made up and directly influenced by (big) private banks that own shares in the Federal Reserve. The management structure is a bit convoluted (check it out here) but the President, despite being Chief Executive, has almost no say in how the Fed chooses to approach its duties.

Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Fed

The relationship between the president and the Fed as a whole is fairly opaque. In fact, back when Trump was still president some thought that Trump would attempt to fire Board Chairman Jerome Powell. This would have been uncharted legal territory and even experienced legal scholars weren’t sure if Trump was allowed to fire Powell and if so, under what circumstances he could do so at all (PBS Link).

- Vishal D.

NYT WSJ Reuters Article about the Fed’s controversial status. Does it really help us in economic crises? Or does it just make things worse?

Major Super PAC Supporting Desantis May Face New Legal Issues

Florida Governor and Republican president nominee Ron Dasantis’ campaign experiences turbulence as one of his most influential political action committees (PAC), Never Back Down (NBD), according to sources from the Associated Press, have been coordinating with Desantis.  

This important super PAC is a major contributor to Desantis’ campaigns, spending over 40 million on advertising alone this year.  16 million of which is spent solely in Iowa, which holds the US’ first and most influential presidential primaries.  To put that into perspective, Desantis’ own campaign spending amounts to just only over 4 million dollars. 

PACs, or political action committees, are organizations that pool funds in order to donate to political campaigns.  Regular PACs are subject to limitations on how much they can accept from individuals or corporations, and how much they can contribute to a campaign.  However, super PACs, made possible in 2010 by a Supreme Court decision, are not subject to these limitations, on the condition that they do not directly contribute to a campaign and that they do not coordinate with candidates.  As a result, they can independently spend a limitless amount of money supporting a candidate through running ads or electioneering, all while being able to receive an unlimited amount of money from individuals or corporations

. 

According to the Associated press, at November 2023, Desantis’ wife, Casey Desantis expressed concerns about NBD taking down an ad criticizing their political opponent, Nikkey Haley.  Desantis relayed these concerns to NBD’s board, who then relayed it to the staff of NBD.  This clearly violates the condition that NBD, as a super PAC, may not coordinate, in any way, with Desantis. As small and innocuous as this action may seem, giving Desantis the benefit of the doubt would make historically hard to prove cases like these even more slippery.

“To actually have a conversation with the candidate’s agents and the super PAC’s agents about strategy — there is no plausible argument that that is legal,” legal director of the Campaign Legal Center Adav Noti expresses.

A hit to Never Back Down will be a major hit to Desantis and his campaign. As these concerns grow, disagreement between the nominee and the group fester, and many of the NBD staff being fired or quitting, Desantis seeks to appeal to new super PACs such as Fight Right.

Sources Used

Associated Press

Politico

Washington Post

Further Reading

Florida Politics - Similar case pertaining to Senator Rick Scott

- Ray Zhang

Republican members in House vote for impeachment inquiry of President Biden

 On Wednesday December 13th the House formalized an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. Republicans in the House claim that President Biden was financially benefited from his family's foreign business dealings. The vote ruled in favor of the inquiry, a 221 to 212 victory. 

The inquiry was first proposed earlier this year, in September, but lacked support and could not pass for a lack of evidence against the president, and even Republican members in the house were not in support of the inquiry. 

President Biden and House Democrats question the purpose of the investigation because no evidence has tied the President to any of the family business dealings. 

Jamie Rasking, Democratic representative from Maryland, says “What is the crime that Joe Biden is being accused of? They don’t have it,” 

However Republicans hope this is a step in the right direction. The party gained many votes in favor after Hunter Biden refused to go and testify to his closed hearing in Capitol Hill, and demanded to testify in a public hearing instead.  

Republicans who were formerly against the inquiry voted for it, all in agreence that the White House has been uncooraportive and hope to further investigate. As House Majority Whip Tom Emmer reminds the world; “Voting in favor of an impeachment inquiry does not equal impeachment.”

Sources:

USA Today

CNN 

- Olin Gawel

Big Name School Presidents in Congressional Antisemitism Hearing

During the December 5th Congressional hearing led by the House of Education and Workforce Committee, respective President from Harvard, MIT and University of Pennsylvania testified in front of Congress. The focus of the hearing? Whether the calling for the genocide of Jews violated their campus bullying and harassment policies. 

Harvard University President Claudine Gay (left) and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill (right) testifying in Congressional hearing on antisemitism in their respective campus 

Congressmen held this hearing to officially decipher University's policy conduct on bullying and harassment as antisemitism is on the rise on college campuses due to the Israel-Hamas war. Unofficially, these Congressmen wanted to hold the top three Universities responsible for enforcing their bullying and harassment policy by calling them to testify on whether calling for the genocide of Jews violates their  policy. 

Despite the war, rise of anti-semitism and Islamophobia being a causation for the House of Education and Workforce Committee's to hold this hearing, committee hearings are typically held to "gather information for use by the committee in it's activities" (Senate Finance Committee). Committee hearings are typically held in order to shape a bill proposal.  

Due to anti-semitism being on rise, and the US being a staunch ally for the Jewish population, the purpose of this hearing could be a result of affirming that private institutions are being held to the same standard's as public institutions in the United States. 

So what came of this hearing? Public outrage. Video's of the hearing are going viral all over TikTok and other social media platforms, depicting all three Presidents of ambiguously avoiding the yes or no question that the congresswoman repeatedly asked: "Is the call for the genocide of Jews a violation of your Bullying and Harassment policy?" They basically stated that it can violate their policy based on the context of the situation. 

Due to their evasive response, the White House has condemned all three Presidents for their lack of clarity on the issue, and not firming stating yes. Public black lash has led to now former President of UPenn Liz Magill to resign Saturday, while many call for Claudine Gay to resign as Harvard's president. 

Sources: 

Gzero

The Guardian 

Business Insider 

The Times of Israel 

Trump redirects "Threat to Democracy"claims onto Biden as he takes the 2024 election lead over Biden

 On December 9th, our beloved ex-president Donald John Trump has responded to the comments claiming that his victory in 2024 would be a "threat to democracy", and in the most Donald Trump way possible, he flips it onto current president Joe Biden, who's job performance rating hits all-time low in the latest polling. "Hoax... Democrat Misinformation" were words used by Trump to describe these latest accusations as he continues to grow his lead over Biden for the 2024 presidential election. Trump, facing federal and states charges stemming from his effort to overturn the 2020 election, claims that Biden is "the real threat to democracy." 

Our former president, claims that he never wanted to be a dictator, except for his day 1 in office, where he expresses how badly he "Wants a wall," and that he'd like to "drill, drill, and drill." These comments soon drew attention from many Democrats who would call out his behavior and label his potential victory "threat to democracy." Trump said later that Democrats’ attacks regarding democracy were a “desperate and shameless attempt to distract from the monstrous abuses of power the left is committing before your very eyes." His evidence? The dozens of state-level petitions to remove him from the 2024 ballot. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, believes that Trump's second stint in office could be very different than his first. Christie claims that "[Trump] Is an angry bitter man who wants to be back as president to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him."

But this showdown doesn't end here, Trump went on to say that Democrats and the media "think the threat to democracy will save Biden from having created the worst inflation in our country's history, a fragile economy that may soon end in a depression like 1929 … We are very, very close to a depression, the likes of which you have never seen. We owe $36 trillion and this guy has no clue." The former president is currently facing 91 Indictments yet warns Biden about potential "retaliation" if he returns to the White House.

Trump seems to be gaining steam as we get closer and closer to the 2024 presidential election, and to conclude his speech on Saturday, he predicted that he'd return to the White House and make American "Great Again." 

Here's a bonus quote for reading this blog of mine. "We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media. We will evict Joe Biden from the White House and we will finish. This job of making our country great again once and for all." - Donald John Trump.