What A Day - 1-800-Grifthub

Episode Date: May 18, 2020

Democrats in Congress are launching an inquiry into Trump’s firing of an inspector general at the State Department. It comes after three other inspector generals were also removed from their positions earlier this year.GrubHub is doing great business during the pandemic as more people rely on delivery. But a recent Buzzfeed report shows that the company is also making money from transactions they’re not involved in—and it’s making it harder for restaurants to stay afloat.And in headlines: Justin Amash won’t run for prez, NYC experiences pandemic fatigue, and Puerto Rico’s governor will hold a vote on whether the territory should try for statehood.

It's Monday, May 18th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we're kind of surprised no one's asked us to do a virtual commencement speech yet. Yeah, like I bought a cap and gown, but one of those ones that looks like a mushroom, like I was a real professor a long time ago. I've been waiting for this. I bought a lectern. What the hell am I going to do with a lectern? On today's show, fraud schemes are impacting the already beleaguered unemployment system. Then some headlines. But first, the latest. More than anything, this pandemic has fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. A lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. If the world's going to get better, it's going to be up to you. Oof, that really bars, you know, like it just hit me in my soul. But in case you couldn't figure that out, that was former President Barack Obama giving an online commencement speech to the class of 2020.

We wish them well. Sorry about the pandemic. This all sucks. All right. Well, in other news, Democrats in Congress are launching an inquiry into Trump's firing of an inspector general at the State Department. They say this fits into a recent pattern where the president appears to dismiss people who might actually find something that he or his administration should not be doing. Gideon, take us through what happened in this particular instance. Okay, so late on Friday, President Trump tells House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he's firing Steve Linick. This is not a name that we've heard before, but Linick was in charge of the Inspector General Office at the State Department, which means it's his job to monitor if there's fraud or abuse,

misconduct or those sorts of things going on. The New York Times reported that it was in fact, secretary of state Mike Pompeo himself who told Trump to fire Linick. So then on Saturday, you have two Democrats, representative Elliot Engel and Senator Bob Menendez, who opened an investigation into the decision, noting a pattern of, quote,

politically motivated firing of inspectors general. They said, yeah, they said that it was their belief that Linick had started an investigation into Pompeo and that Pompeo's alleged recommendation that Linick be fired was therefore retaliatory. The Democrats didn't provide more details, but there's reporting that Linick may have been looking into whether Pompeo was having a political appointee at the State Department do personal errands for him and his wife, which would kind of be a no-no. And it's not that crazy or out of the realm of possibility. There was a story from last year claiming that Pompeo had used his security personnel in one instance to pick up Chinese food for him and in another to pick up the family dog from a groomer. Oh, man. All right. You know, like we said, there's no bottom. All right. Well, Pompeo has also been criticized for using State Department funds and planes to visit Kansas

frequently, a state where he had previously considered running for Senate. So, you know, we're gonna have to see what the Democrats find as they look into this. But my bets on corruption. Yeah. So the investigation from the Democrats find as they look into this. But my bets on corruption. Yeah. So the investigation from the Democrats is also looking for, quote, records of all IG investigations involving the office of the secretary that were open, pending or incomplete at the time of Mr. Lennox firing. The interesting thing here is that this firing itself or the dismissal, as it were, could actually lead to more information being uncovered because now a door has been opened. And to the earlier point that you made, Akilah, the reason this raises even more

of a red flag when people see this is just all of the recent times that Trump has fired or replaced these various inspectors general. For instance, a few weeks ago, he nominated a new inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services. After the current one, Christy Grimm put out a report showing the nation's poor response to the spread of COVID-19. The administration did not like that. Before that, he also fired Michael Atkinson, an inspector general for the intelligence community,

who told members of Congress about the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment. And then kind of the same story with Glenn Fine, who is the IG at the Defense Department and was going to be the head of the oversight panel in charge of monitoring how the administration was spending pandemic money approved by Congress. So clearly, this is something that Trump has had no trouble doing with some amount of frequency. And in a lot of these instances, he just says these various IGs have

lost his, quote, confidence. And that's why he's doing it. Wow. Well, he never had my confidence. So anyway. All right. Well, in COVID-19 news, beginning today, the World Health Organization is going to convene its annual meeting. We'll be keeping an eye on that. But the head of the Fed said that it might take until the end of next year or until a vaccine is available for the economy to fully recover. And on the economic front, there was a pretty crazy story over the weekend that had to do with fraud in the country's unemployment system. Yeah, so basically federal authorities believe that there's been an effort to use stolen personal information of American citizens from prior hacks, like social security numbers, to file unemployment claims on behalf of people

who have not been laid off. According to a Secret Service document obtained by the New York Times, Washington state has been the hardest hit so far. Authorities there started to notice this problem when people were apparently calling and asking why they were getting benefit notices in the mail if they were still employed. That would be a pretty odd thing for someone to go through, particularly if they thought that was the way their employer was letting them know they were being laid off. Scary situation. The problem got so bad in Washington last week, the state officials had to actually stop unemployment claims for two days

after they believed that $1.6 million had been given out in fraudulent claims. And as we talked about before, these unemployment systems are already crazily overloaded in many states, so this is adding to the backlog of legitimate claims that people are waiting to get. Florida, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are among other states that have seen reports of similar fraud recently. And apparently, the Secret Service has information suggesting that the people involved could be from a Nigerian fraud ring. So the first reference I had for all of this are those bad jokes about Nigerian princes emailing with various too-good-to-be-true opportunities. Has a similar ring to it, but obviously more severity. So we'll be keeping

track of that as that story develops too. But Akilah, what else is going on domestically? So we've talked about restaurants closing and others struggling to stay in operation. But while beloved local spots are fizzling out, Grubhub, the food delivery app that is kept afloat by these restaurants, is doing great. Partially, it's because of the sky-high fees Grubhub charges businesses to use their app. And maybe you have started calling restaurants directly to order food. But there's some bad news there. It turns out you might be dialing phone numbers generated and advertised by Grubhub, and restaurants are charged fees that sometimes exceed the income the order generates. What's worse, according to Vice News, is that Yelp often lists the Grubhub, and restaurants are charged fees that sometimes exceed the income the order generates. What's worse, according to Vice News, is that Yelp often lists the Grubhub

number as the restaurant's direct line, so confusion is pretty much everywhere for those of us trying to support local businesses. BuzzFeed did some really great reporting on how all of this works. Grubhub, which also owns Seamless and Menu Pages, has said in its defense that restaurant owners knew the deal when they signed the contract. But it's pretty safe to assume that most of the businesses that are hurting right now didn't sign the contract, knowing that a pandemic would completely upend their business models. But there is a little bit of good news. So last Wednesday, the New York City Council passed a bill prohibiting platforms like Grubhub from charging for telephone calls in which a transaction didn't take place, while there is still a state of emergency. And that bill also caps fees that platforms can charge

for orders and deliveries until the pandemic ends. Good news indeed. And we'll probably be hearing more about Grubhub in the coming months as Uber tries to buy it and the food delivery industry faces more scrutiny. In the meantime, though, what else is going on around the world? All right. So it has been a few days since we checked in on the global aspect of the pandemic. So here's a quick update on a few areas of the world where infections are growing. In Brazil, cases officially surpassed Italy, which you'll recall was the epicenter for much of February and March. Brazil announced nearly 15,000 new infections on Saturday, taking its total to more than 230,000.

That's the fourth largest confirmed caseload after the U.S., Russia, and the U.K. President Bolsonaro remains in denial, refusing to implement stay-at-home orders and going as far as to tweet, quote, unemployment, hunger, and misery will be the future of those who support the tyranny of total isolation. Man. woof. Also, two of his health ministers have now quit back to back because of clashes with him. It's the worst situation in all of Latin America, but other places like Mexico and Peru are also struggling to contain their outbreaks. Yeah, I mean, containment on its own is a massive challenge and you add to it an outright denialist in office and it's just like a disaster. But there's also some news out of

Africa to go over too, right? Yeah. So Africa, like Latin America, was a lot later to see their outbreaks than other parts of the world like Asia and Europe. But last week, the continent reached a grim milestone. Every country in Africa now has reported cases of COVID-19. Nigeria's second largest city, Kano, is seeing a major rise in cases. The official reported total is 753 cases and 33 deaths. But locals and medical professionals say the reality is far worse. And the lack of reporting is not unique to Nigeria. I mean, in Somalia, they've simply stopped releasing that data altogether. So, you know, hopefully things can start to turn around, but we will keep you posted.

And that's the latest. Happy Monday, WOD Squad. New week, new check-in. We're feeling good, staying distant, washing our hands, and wearing masks. But let's talk about face shields, okay? On Friday, the 80s new wave band Devo announced that they will be selling their trademark red plastic energy dome hats with face shields attached to them to protect you from, quote, invisible particles. So, Giddydy i gotta know which band or performer would you like to see come out with their own protective equipment and what would

it be i gotta say first when we were first talking about the devo thing i thought it sounded great but imagine this like on a broad scale like it would be fucking terrifying so like i don't know if i want to encourage that as a thing but oh my gosh it is cool it is cool um i would say if the talking heads were still around you could do like the david byrne massive suit and that could function as a mass type thing that you would like just pull over your head and sort of like turtle shell it or you know bob dylan the harmonica around the neck could be kind of repurposed so it blocks your entire face. I don't know if that's very functional, but those are just two options. I think that those are some pretty good options. I think that seems like pretty legitimate.

I'd wear them. Okay. Yeah. Well, we'll go into development right away. But what band merch are you thinking about? All right. so this is actually something that you said earlier before we recorded this, but I think Kanye's bejeweled mask from Yeezus is a really great idea.

Unfortunately, Kanye is dead to me, but if he wasn't, I would be wearing that beautiful bejeweled mask that just hides all of it. Or maybe a Sia wig. It's just the whole wig but there's a face cutout

which I guess is the opposite of Sia. That would just seem like a performance art thing was happening if more than one person had those and they just showed up in the street. People had to explain to other people no, no, no, this is PPE. This is just what it looks like now.

Well, and then maybe all of those DJs, like Deadmau5 and Marshmallow Heads, just like, we're all DJs now. That's the new Coachella, yeah. I dig it. All right, well, guess what? We just had another perfect temperature check. Please Google images of the now sold out Whip It masks.

Let us know which band you'd want to release PPE and we will check back in with you tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Governor Wanda Vasquez of Puerto Rico announced she'll be holding a referendum in November to decide whether or not Puerto Rico should become a U.S. state. The referendum will be non-binding because the territory would need support from Congress in order to be able to declare statehood, which doesn't seem to be likely under our current leadership. Leaders, including Vasquez, have long claimed that Puerto Rico gets inferior treatment compared to states, especially when it comes to aid for natural disasters. Statehood would also mean that Puerto Rico can finally have direct representation in Congress with two senators and five representatives. Right on. Israel's parliament has finally sworn in its new government after three deadlocked elections. It's parliament has finally sworn in its new government after three deadlocked

elections. It's an unconventional coalition between incumbent right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former rival Benny Gantz. They've decided that Netanyahu will be Prime Minister for the first half of a three-year term, while Gantz is, quote, alternate Prime Minister, or if you prefer, sub-Prime Minister. For the last half of the term, they'll switch roles. The new, quote, alternate prime minister role is conveniently exempt from a law requiring officials to resign if they're charged with a crime, which just so happens to be perfect for Netanyahu,

who's been indicted on corruption charges. During parliament's vote, Netanyahu also pledged to push the annexation of part of the West Bank in line with Trump's not-so-good and quite problematic Mideast peace plan. Maybe there's still time for nine or ten or a hundred more elections in Israel. Yeah, here's hoping. Alright, well, while stay-at-home orders will be in place until June 13th at the earliest in New York City, coronavirus fatigue has begun to set in, leading to reports this weekend of groups visiting bars and getting takeout drinks to create their

own, less-safe, more-rude bar atmospheres on the sidewalk. this weekend of groups visiting bars and getting takeout drinks to create their own less safe, more rude bar atmospheres on the sidewalk. Guys, remember, the chain is only as strong as its most carefree hard partying link. The city's mayor, Bill de Blasio, addressed this behavior during his daily news conference on Sunday, saying that law enforcement would be out to break these groups up and noting that these gatherings were happening most frequently on the Upper East Side. Beaches will also remain closed in New York City despite rising temperatures. If you're sad you can't be there on Memorial Day, you can recreate the whole beach experience in your apartment just by drinking a water bottle that's been left in the hot sun, sprinkling dirt

in your potato chips, and pulling up a YouTube video called seagull shrieking. Love Sandy Lays. After joining the Libertarian Party last month to explore a third party run for president, Michigan Congressman Justin Amash has announced he'll be sitting this one out. Anyone who's ever posted a cute pic, devoured all the delicious comments and likes, then deleted can relate. Amash is a former Republican who has often beefed with Donald Trump, and he cites the pandemic as the main reason for his change of heart since it makes campaigning and fundraising much more difficult. A Monmouth University poll had suggested that Amash's candidacy would pull voters from Joe Biden more than Trump, narrowing a predicted 9% Biden lead to a 7% lead. So it's good that Amash made this call. Keep him in your thoughts anyway,

because if there's anything this election cycle has taught us, it's how difficult it is simply to not run for president. There were 500 candidates back in the day. Yeah, I almost ran. All right. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, play us Blown in the Wind on your harmonica slash face mask, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, and not just Judah Friedlander's Hats and 30 Rock like me,

What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And please hit like and subscribe on our endless screaming seagull videos. Come on. We edit those. Bye.

That's my video. I loved it. What a day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.