Happy Day of Love!

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MASK OFF!

California passed a law banning federal immigration agents from wearing masks during raids after the shootings of Renee Good, Keith Porter Jr. and Alex Pretti. Just before it was set to take effect a federal judge blocked it, agreeing with the Justice Department that the state cannot single out federal officers while leaving state and local police untouched. Lawmakers plan to rewrite the bill so it applies across the board. For now masked agents can continue operating in public without showing their faces.

Federal officials say anonymity protects agents from harassment and doxxing. Which is ironic because these agents and the companies the DHS partners with, actively dox and harass victims themselves to make arrests. But I get it: “it’s cool when they do it, it’s a problem when we do it”, you know how the rest goes. Communities experiencing armed officers riding through neighborhoods without visible identification have been asking who it is they’re seeing kick down doors and demand papers and why that “duty” necessitates such deception.

According to the Senate Bill Policy Committee Analysis, “SB 805, the No Vigilantes Act, will expand the scope of existing impersonation laws, and require law enforcement operating in California to display identification featuring their name or badge number.” Which, without the mask removal mandate falls a little flat but is at least in the interest of the public.

I just finished Watchmen (2019), and for readers who’ve never seen it, it’s a series set in a version of America where police begin wearing masks after a violent attack on officers in Tulsa (generations after the 1921 massacre). In response a senator named Joe Keene pushes through a law called the Defense of Police Act, arguing that officers need to conceal their identities to stay safe. Crime supposedly drops and other cities start vying for the same model. Now, I don’t mean to spoil the mystery as I would recommend the show to you all, but somehow the viewer and characters alike come to find out that the mask mandate was just a means by which the Senator could advance himself politically.  

It is an insult to insinuate that the masks actually protect victims or anyone for that matter, they simple hide the perpetrator from themselves and the surrounding community, so no one knows the face behind the violence. So agents, or should I say employees (as the hiring process barely rivals that of a desk job) can live out White psycho-fantasies where they don their disguise, rage on civilians—full-on Patrick Bateman style—and then go home to uphold the facade of the loving, god-fearing, family man who just want better for his country. Without getting to the root of that delusion of grandeur, or speaking to the power of a spell, and how MAGA is without a doubt bound by one, I wish to make the following point. You cannot walk around intimidating, abusing, and murdering people and then put on a face covering for fear of retribution.

Hell no. Take that mask off.

Stop the Saboteur.

219 to 211. Six Republicans joined nearly every Democrat to vote to rescind Trump’s Canada tariffs, marking the first time the House has formally pushed back on his use of a “national emergency” to justify sweeping trade penalties. The resolution will likely die under a veto, but the vote itself matters because it forced lawmakers to go on record after a year of procedural maneuvering to protect them from having to choose.

For months House Republican leadership manipulated the congressional calendar to avoid coming to this exact moment, stretching the definition of a legislative “day” so that challenges to the emergency declaration could not mature into a vote. But you cannot put off tomorrow forever, so members facing tight reelection races had to decide whether or not to stand with a so-called economic strategy we as the constituents know very well is actually raising the cost of American living.

Trump declared the emergency last February under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, along with additional tariffs on China, attributing them to border security and fentanyl trafficking. Yet less than 0.1 percent of the fentanyl entering the United States in 2023 came from Canada, according to federal data. The stated justification and the measurable reality do not align. Very saboteur of them.

Without implying I side with one political binary as opposed to the other, it is fair to discuss how the Republican party has historically run from a position of open markets and congressional authority over trade. Yet under Trump they’ve largely ceded that authority to the executive branch, allowing tariffs to be drafted at his own discretion, and fly off his desk like hall passes. Speaker Mike Johnson expressed that Congress should not interfere with President Donald Trump’s trade policies even as members of his own caucus broke ranks to say otherwise. Even at the expense of the country’s health, officials in his cohort will continue to work to ensure the fulfillment of his (/their) own interests. Trump then responded by threatening primary challenges against any Republican who voted against him. Spells, I tell you, spells.

As for the general public, you can’t force-feed someone expired medication and then tell them they’ll feel better in no time, when they can see the expiration date for themselves. Once your eyes have been opened, you’ll find no solace in buying into the bullcrap. Because that’s all it is.

So, as midterm elections approach, affordability will likely be the focal point of the conversation, and hopefully a lot of congress members some will come to recognize that deferring to the White House carries its own career cost, if growing a conscience doesn’t come first.

We’re Hiring?

January’s jobs report brought a measure of relief that many people have been waiting for, especially professionals who have been sending resumes into a frozen market since last fall. Employers added 130,000 jobs, signaling that hiring may finally be thawing after a year of little to no movement. Coming out of a winter decline and a weak 2025, the horizons appear a little brighter.

With the additions the unemployment rate dipped to 4.3 percent, which remains low by historical standards. Health care and construction accounted for much of the growth. Manufacturing added modestly. Hospitality barely moved. Warehousing and transportation declined. And yet the federal workforce continues to tighten. Last year’s revisions show how fragile the labor market actually was, with average monthly job growth in 2025 hovering near 15,000 and nearly 900,000 fewer jobs in the economy than previously estimated. So as we exhale, let us keep in mind much is still to be reversed.

And even when the broader unemployment rate stays relatively low, Black unemployment remains at an elevated level. In December the Black unemployment rate reached 7.5 percent, its highest level since 2021, and rose more sharply in 2025 than the overall rate did. 200 years of fighting for fair labor practices and Black workers are still often the first fired and the last hired.

Costs remain elevated as well; Inflation may have slowed earlier in the year but has since ticked back up, and tariffs have increased input costs for businesses that rely on global supply chains. Larger corporations can absorb volatility or secure exemptions while smaller firms often cannot. Thus Black owned businesses, which tend to operate on thinner margins anyway and have significantly less access to capital, have been hit with a sledgehammer. I mean think about it; many of these establishments employ fewer than 20 workers, and have likely reduced payrolls over the past year. Unfortunately, that’s put us in a forced-choice hell where either the prices are raised or staff is cut; Worst case, both.

So if you're black and you’ve been getting up to try and somehow shake some money off that darn tree, you’ve displayed a resilience your ancestors would be proud of. Happy Black History Month and Happy Day of Love!

Written & Designed by Ife Giwa
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