What A Day - America, Online

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

As Biden works to sell his infrastructure plan, we take a look at the money he’s proposing for high-speed internet and what it could do to address equity issues in education.15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had to be tossed out after a factory mix-up in Baltimore. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is back and the Texas Rangers have announced no plans to cap attendance … even though we’re still in a pandemic.And in headlines: Republicans try to stay silent on Gaetz-gate, Ivanka Trump’s women’s initiative was a flop, and 15,000 bees in a car in New Mexico.For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday.

It's Friday, April 2nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Erin Ryan, in for Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we're both recovering from dual shoulder replacements after doing one pull-up like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Yeah, I'm bionic now, and I hate to say it, but I'd do it again. You know, with my new shoulders, I think I could defeat Kong. I believe you. On today's show, Major League Baseball is back and more dangerous than ever.

Well, that's a decision they made. I think it's a mistake. They should listen to Dr. Fauci and the scientists and the experts. Wow. Well, that was a very sad sounding President Biden telling the MLB to play it safe and not host tens of thousands of fans on opening day. We've got that and some headlines coming up. But first, the latest, where we're going to do a deep dive on President Biden's infrastructure proposal. We mentioned that the price tag could reach up to $4 trillion. I truly can't even imagine that amount of money. My brain breaks as it approaches imagining it. But Akilah, let's focus on a carve out within that funding for high speed internet. How much are we talking? A lot, lot, lot, hella money, lots of zeros. So within President Biden's

infrastructure proposal lies $100 billion to get every person in America internet access. I mean, you know, if we want to be the best country in the world, we should at least have fewer blackout zones for Wi-Fi, right? So the goal with the money is to improve the economy by empowering all Americans to work, get medical care, and take classes from wherever they live. And this digital divide has become even more apparent with so much of our lives becoming Zoom meetings in the pandemic. You know what? Honestly, Akilah, if I could work from any place in the U.S., I am purpling up a red state ASAP.

I'm out of this really terrible real estate market. I'm moving to Kansas City. I love that for you. Watch out for me and my high-speed internet that I'm going to get in rural Kansas. This isn't the first time the government has invested billions in the digital divide, but it is the first time that they're using the money differently depending on where you live.

So how is the money going to be spent in rural areas versus urban ones? That is a great question. So the problem with Wi-Fi in rural areas tends to be access at all. You know, it's expensive to install the wiring that reaches those areas, and private companies tend to be pretty cheap about it.

The problem with Wi-Fi in suburban and urban areas tends to be affordability. Cable Internet providers have created these monopolies for service in those areas, and because of it, they can charge whatever they want. When I was living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, it was apparent that the more gentrified neighborhoods had earlier access to faster fiber optic Internet. That is unsurprising, but still disappointing. Yeah, it pissed me off. I would be mad too. When I go home to visit my parents in the rural Midwest, and I record an episode, in order for me to upload the episode, I have to drive to a place where it's possible for me to hotspot my phone because our internet is so slow. It would take seven hours to upload an episode. So it's more than just an issue for rural and urban people.

Can you talk a little bit about why this plan could be good for social justice? Totally. So better, more accessible internet benefits everyone, but it's also about equity. Take doing better in schools, for example. Without good internet, according to Pew Research, black teens and people living in lower-income households were more likely to say that they can't complete homework assignments. And this is the homework gap that has been referenced countless times throughout the pandemic, and it has really negative lifelong implications in a world that is more and more online. And look, there are still outstanding questions about how this administration can achieve their goals of getting the poles

installed for Wi-Fi to reach these sparsely populated areas. Those companies haven't expressed interest in doing so in the past, even with the promise of billions of dollars. But all of this is absolutely a step in the right direction. Also within this big infrastructure bill is space for IRL connection via the country's rail services. I love a train, Akilah. I want to know what the plan is around the trains. Yeah, true, true. All right, so Biden's plan is to allocate $80 billion

to beef up our rail systems. Finally, y'all, infrastructure week is a go. So in preparation for the bill to pass, Amtrak has put out plans for 30 new routes that would give people access to transportation between bordering cities and states. And some of the new routes include a train between Riverside, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, Detroit to Toronto and Nashville to Savannah, Georgia. And the hope is that this will create new economic opportunities for people who could commute to nearby cities for jobs. The plan also makes space to fix the ancient outdated rail systems in the Northeast Corridor that you may remember from the horrible crash back in 2015 that killed eight and injured more than 180. We have to fix the old train tracks for sure. But when you said Nashville

to Savannah, Georgia, my first thought was Girls Trip Express. That's what that route is going to be called. Bachelorette parties, 40th birthdays, all your girls trip needs. You can just go between Nashville and Savannah. It's going to be wonderful. Nancy Meyers is writing that book. I want her to decorate that train, have her set designer make the train look like one of her kitchens. Yes, please. This all sounds great, but poor unfortunate soul from The Little Mermaid, Mitch McConnell has already vowed to fight the Biden administration, quote, every step of the way. What does the fight look like to get these proposals through? You know, I honestly just wish that we could slot in another show section on the filibuster because that's where we are again with this.

Dems need 10 Republicans to break with McConnell to give the people better Internet and more travel options. They likely won't do it because party over country always with these virtuous reps. No Republicans voted for Biden's super popular covid plan, even though a few have tried to take credit for it on Twitter and gotten clapped back to the Stone Age. So it's seeming pretty unlikely that this country is ever going to move forward with the stupid filibuster problem, but we're going to keep following this. But it wouldn't be a new month in 2021 without more news on the coronavirus pandemic. So where are we with that? Well, some people are being guided by common sense and medical advice, while others are crowding into stadiums to spread COVID to the beloved traditional tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Oh, no.

Well, finally, we will get an answer to the question, what's a more effective way to end a pandemic? By taking precautions or acting like everything's fine? You know, the jury's really out. I don't know. I'm going to put on my thinking cap, but I think it's probably taking precautions. The world waits with bated breath. Let's start with some news that pairs perfectly with that slapping own forehead emoji. 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had to be tossed out after a factory mix-up in Baltimore

caused the doses to become contaminated. The factory behind the mistake was manufacturing both the Johnson & Johnson and the AstraZeneca vaccines. According to the New York Times, human error led to AstraZeneca ingredients being added to the J&J vaccine. Whoopsie-daisy. I mean, I'm never one to advocate for someone losing their job, but whose human error was this? I want names. Anyway, officials have been warning for weeks against another possible surge of cases. So where are we actually seeing that play out already? So I know you're probably tired of hearing this, but sometimes it's better to just say something true than say something pretty. We are not out of the woods yet. For a cautionary tale about what happens when you relax too soon, just take a look at what's happening in Michigan. America's mitten has become the nation's latest COVID-19 epicenter

as it experiences a surge in cases and hospitalizations that has public health officials sounding alarm bells. The British variant is to blame for much of these increasing numbers. Other Midwestern states like Minnesota and Illinois are experiencing troubling upticks of their own. And the East Coast is seeing cases increase as well. The Brazil variant has been found in 20 states. Meanwhile, some people are still taking this seriously, right?

Yes. California and many western states have seen decreasing numbers, although that may change, as Los Angeles County has plans to relax restrictions even more on Monday. Just a reminder, LA County is the biggest county by population in the entire country. Oh no. Going to be a lot of people being allowed to do more stuff on Monday. And just to add more anxiety to the mix, Major League Baseball's opening day was yesterday and COVID precautions around the league are inconsistent at best. I mean, I think I can guess, but who were the worst offenders? Well, the Texas Rangers are

doing their best to displace the Houston Astros for most hateable baseball organization in Texas as the team has announced plans to simply throw caution to the wind and play like there's no pandemic. On Monday, they hosted nearly 13,000 fans for an exhibition game, and they have no plans to cap attendance at all this season. President Biden isn't a fan. Let's hear him again on ESPN in case you didn't hear it in the back. Well, that's a decision they made. I think it's a mistake. They should listen to Dr. Fauci and the scientists and the experts. Straight up.

Listen to Dr. Fauci and scientists and the experts already. And over in Washington, D.C., opening day was postponed for some reason. Yes. And it was a good reason, D.C., opening day was postponed for some reason? Yes, and it was a good reason, actually. One Nationals player has tested positive for COVID this week, and five other people within the team organization are in quarantine after close contact with the player. So they've announced that they won't play on the first two days of the season just to be safe. Well, I appreciate them thinking about all of our safety. Yeah, and you know what? The Nationals, very likable organization,

despite the fact that Brett Kavanaugh likes the Nationals. Yeah, the worst thing about them is that Brett Kavanaugh is a fan. That's literally the worst thing, but they're a lot of fun to watch, and if they weren't league rivals with the Dodgers, I would be a fan. And hopefully more baseball teams realize

that when fans sing, buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back. They don't mean that they literally don't care if they contract a deadly disease at a sporting event and die. But that's the WOD Squad. And for today's Tim Check, we're talking about a new reason to love college. President Biden has made the first step towards actually canceling federal student loan debt by asking Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to write a report on whether the president can legally cancel up to $50,000 per borrower. That's a big step up from what Biden was offering on the campaign trail.

He said he supported $10,000 in student loan forgiveness, but since then, members of his own party have been pressuring him to go further and to do it by executive order. Forgiving the full 50K would erase all student loan debt for 36 million people, some of whom would never be able to pay their loans back. So Erin, what's your reaction here? Well, you know, as someone who paid off their student loans by themselves, I think that nobody else should have to go through it. I love it. I like I'm one of those people that, you know, when I was in my 20s and early 30s, it was really hard. It was a hardship to pay back my student loans. It was, um, it, it really like was an albatross around my neck for a really long time. And when I paid it off, I felt really good

about myself and accomplished, but also I would not want, I want other people to have more freedom than I did because that sucked. That absolutely sucked. How about you, Akilah? Same question. I mean, one, I just want to say I love this take. It's weird because people who pay off their loans usually are like, and I think everyone should suffer similarly. So I appreciate you having a little bit of perspective on this. I think it's great. And for all of the reasons you said, you know, student loan debt is the biggest cost in this country. School is very overpriced. And I think that, you know, if we don't have jobs that match what we're paying to go to school for,

it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have people, you know, just like going broke or never, ever getting out of that debt. It is a really horrible system that we've built here. And I think it's, you know, the right thing to do. Right. It really puts people behind the eight ball, too. You graduate from college with like 50 grand in debt. And then you have friends whose parents could pay for their entire schooling. And your friends are working hard, too, but they don't have the debt.

So they're able to get their life started. They're able to save for a down payment on a house. And it's just they're so far ahead of people that emerged from college with debt. So I think like minimizing that is necessary for anybody to ever feel like they have an adult life in younger generations. Totally. And you know, I think that a lot of people are about to graduate into a recession. As someone who did that, I'll say that, yeah, it seems like you might be able to get a job right after college that will make it easy to pay these loans back. But that wasn't the case for me.

I was deferring for several years as I had to figure out my footing. So why have to go through that kind of stress? I agree with you 100 percent. And just like that, we have checked our temps. Stay safe. Biden, do your thing. Get rid of that debt. And we'll be back after some ads

let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The latest mass shooting took place at a real estate office in Orange, California on Wednesday night, where a gunman opened fire, killing four people, including a nine-year-old boy. Police say the shooting appeared to be related to a business or personal matter between the suspect and the victims and appeared to be, quote, an isolated incident, which I think is language we need to retire, along with any senators standing in the way of meaningful gun reform or axing the filibuster. This is just so exhausting over and over again, and we don't do anything. To get involved, check out the groups Moms Demand Action, Everytown, March for Our Lives, and others in your area. And if you want to read more about the issue of gun violence and ways to fix it, check out the work from the team of tireless reporters at thetrace.org.

It's day three of Gatesgate, the scandal involving sex trafficking allegations against Florida congressman, gas mask prop comic, and former model for Party City's 1920s mob guy costume, Matt Gaetz. Here is where things stand. There's been near total silence from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who you might expect to be shouting fake news to anyone with an earshot. Only Representatives Jim Jordan and CrossFit's own Marjorie Taylor Greene have defended Gates so far, with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sticking to a tepid, quote, let's get all the information. That's not necessarily surprising, since Gates talks often and with pride about how unpopular he is among politicians and everybody. The Daily Beast also spoke to lawmakers who said Gates' drinking, illegal drug use, and frequent relationships with younger women

have made him a scandal waiting to happen, so Republicans have known to keep their distance. Since the New York Times first reported that Gates was under investigation by the DOJ for possibly transporting a 17-year-old girl across state lines for sex, he's done his best to muddy the waters. He provided documents to the conservative Washington Examiner detailing an alleged extortion scheme against him in which an ex-military official told Gates' dad

he could make the DOJ investigation go away for a ransom of $25 million. Don Gates did cooperate with the FBI after this, according to those documents, but from what I understand, you can't be extorted for doing sex trafficking unless there's some evidence you did sex trafficking. Like that's the whole extortion bit. Yesterday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an ethics committee investigation of Gates. Bring it on. The more investigations, the merrier. Yeah. You know, men that age, he's 38. He's rushing toward his 40s. Men that age who are targeting people that young, girls that young, clearly do so

in part because they completely lack the ability to impress a woman who knows any better. It's just... It's true. Lock him up. Lock him up. I'm pro-prison reform and I think that a lot of sentencing is really draconian and unjust.

Why don't we reform it after we throw him under the jail? Yes, exactly. He can be the last one in, and then after that, we reform. Yeah, the last one out. Oh, boy. Being the smartest Trump only gets you so far. Government auditors have found that the signature program of reactionary girl boss and former presidential advisor Ivanka Trump was a total flop. The Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was tasked with giving millions of dollars to women-owned

businesses and impoverished communities around the world. In a damning report issued earlier this week, I read the whole thing and damning is the proper, proper word for it. The Government Accountability Office found that the program administrators were not able to say how much thing and damning is the proper, proper word for it. The government accountability office found that the program administrators were not able to say how much money it had given to these groups or how to even define what actually constitutes a woman owned business. Of the recommendations listed in the report, the GAO says that the program should establish a process to ensure that money allocated by Congress gets to intended recipients. Another thing that the report said multiple times, because it's a government report, so it's all like methodology, conclusions, like that.

Another thing it said was, we need to figure out what any of these words mean. We haven't agreed on definitions for anything. It's really, really, really stunning. Yeah, it's bleak. To be determined if this failure affects Ivanka as she moves into her post-White House career, a person who has to look really close at any plate of food she's served in New York City to make sure nobody did anything to it. Yeah, I just wouldn't be eating there.

But in the words of Matt Rogers, this was just her flop buffoonery in the clown square. Yeah, I think she deserves every bad review that she gets after this. Turning now to insect news, a guy in New Mexico returned to his car after a 10-minute grocery shopping trip this Sunday to find 15,000 honeybees in the back seat. Obviously, they were unmasked, not even close to socially distanced. You know, maybe that stuff flies in the hive. But when you're a guest in someone's car, it is totally uncool. Here's where the story takes a nice turn, though. Instead of surrendering his vehicle to the swarm, the man called the fire department

and one of the firemen who responded was an amateur beekeeper. What? The luck. All the luck. He quickly defused the situation because as he told The New York Times, he would, quote, do anything to keep people from killing the bees. I mean, I don't think that guy was about to fight the bees. This was always going to be the bees win over a period of 30 minutes. The fireman lured the bees out of the car and into the hive box treated with lemongrass oil.

As we all know, that mimics the smell of the queen. She smells delicious. For his efforts, the fireman got to take home an impressive three and a half pounds of bees. Allegedly, springtime is swarm season when colonies split and follow the queen bee to a new location. They could end up anywhere, including the office of Matt Gates. And I think that this might be what Nicki Minaj meant when she said bees in the trap. Wow. That song was way more complicated than I thought the first time I heard it. I have a question that arose as I listened to you tell this amazing story. How do you count that many bees?

Like 15,000? Do you have them raise their hands? Yeah, and did they stop swarming? You're probably counting a few several times. Right. I feel like I'm going to be a little bit skeptical of any count of bees that is over five bees. Yeah. Because how can you know?

It proved to me that they were just switching order. Because they probably were. They weren't in the line. And those are the headlines. One last thing before we go. This week on Rubicon, Brian Boitler talks to FiveThirtyEight senior writer Perry Bacon about the recent wave of voter suppression laws, the biggest threats to H.R.1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Check it out and subscribe to Rubicon wherever you listen to podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, feed lemongrass oil to bees, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just a student loan statement that says zero 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 Erin Ryan. And better luck next time, Ivanka. Get it together, lady. Figure it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Erin Ryan. And better luck next time, Ivanka. Get it together, lady. Figure it out. Okay? Or just go away already. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.