Ivanka’s Tone-Deaf Advice to Millions of Unemployed Americans: Find Something New

Voters will have their chance to do just that this November.

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The US unemployment rate, currently at 11.1 percent, is higher than at any point during the Great Recession—a grim stat that in the face of ballooning coronavirus cases and, in some states, a return to lockdown measures, is unlikely to see substantial improvement in the months ahead. To make matters worse, the $600 federal unemployment insurance weekly subsidy is set to expire at the end of the month thanks to Republicans, even as experts credit the benefit as a crucial lifeline preventing countless families from descending into poverty.

In the midst of this economic crisis facing millions of Americans, enter Ivanka Trump with advice for the unemployed: Embrace the chaos, she urges, and “Find Something New.” The initiative comes as her most recent diamond-encrusted middle finger to American families since the pandemic hit.

The campaign’s website, which boasts ties with companies like Apple, reads like a choose-your-own-adventure where options like vague certificate and intensive programs are presented but with scant detail on how to pursue such paths, much less pay for some of them. Click on Apple, for example, and you’re simply rerouted to a page offering free beginner coding courses that surely won’t be enough to even land you an interview with the company. It’s the equivalent of directing someone to Indeed.com, wishing them good luck, and congratulating yourself for helping them in a meaningful way.

That isn’t to say that “Find Something New” will fail to inspire. For a growing number of Americans, it’s a reminder that they’ll have the chance to do exactly that come November.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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