What A Day - Ballot Cleanser

Episode Date: October 29, 2020

COVID-19 numbers are up in the US, with more than 500,000 new cases over the past week. Trouble spots include El Paso, TX, where hospitals are stretched to capacity, plus the Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Montana. Europe is also seeing numbers spike, leading some countries to re-implement national shutdowns. There are five days until election day, so we’re continuing to review notable ballot initiatives. Today, we discuss Utah and Nebraska amendments that would outlaw slavery as punishment for crimes, a Florida amendment that would raise the minimum wage, and more. And in headlines: tens of thousands protested a new abortion law in Poland, tech CEOs testify about content moderation, a look at how swordfish stab.Show Links:votesaveamerica.com/volunteer

it's thursday october 29th i'm akilah hughes and i'm getting interesting and this is what a day where we are almost ready to reveal the rogue member of wad who goes by anonymous yeah i mean they texted me who it was so like any minute i could tell you guys but i'm excited for you guys to find out yeah i mean we have like a whole special thing set up for it. But like, if we have to say... It's Gideon. Yeah, it's me. It's me.

On today's show, more state ballot measures you need to know about than some headlines. But first, the latest. Just look at what happened last night in Omaha after the Trump rally ended. Hundreds of people, including old Americans and children, were stranded in sub-zero freezing temperatures for hours. Several folks ended up in the hospital. It's an image that captures President Trump's whole approach to this crisis. He takes a lot of big pronouncements, and he makes a lot of big pronouncements, but they don't hold up.

He gets his photo op, and then he gets out. He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequence of his failure to make a responsible plan. Damn. Well, that was Joe Biden talking about a recent Trump event in Omaha where thousands of supporters were left in near freezing temperatures after he left. Yeah, leaving elderly white people in the cold in a pandemic is kind of Trump's personal brand. But in other news, we may be done dealing with COVID-19, but it is sadly not done dealing with us.

As the United States and Europe enter winter, fun, the rise in cases has pushed many countries to new peaks, beginning with the United States. There have been more than 500,000 new cases over the past week alone, which is obviously terrifying, and a record with daily counts exceeding 70,000. According to the COVID Tracking Project, it's not just that there's more testing. There have been, on average, over 40,000 Americans hospitalized in the past week as well, an estimated 46% jump from a month ago. And as we've touched on before, places with fewer resources that might not have seen these kinds of numbers before are seeing their hospitals dangerously stretched thin. Yeah, that's right. There are just so many trouble spots, we can only name a few. But to give a sense of what these

numbers look like on the ground and how they're playing out, according to a report from the New York Times, El Paso has seen their number of hospitalized patients with COVID triple over the last three weeks, and it's creating such a strain that some patients have had to actually be airlifted to places as far away as San Antonio. There are health workers from other parts of Texas converging on El Paso, and the downtown convention center is being converted into a 50-bed hospital. And then farther away from Texas, states like the Dakotas, Wisconsin, and Montana are leading the country overall in new infections per capita. In North Dakota, one of the few states that doesn't have a statewide mask mandate still, larger metro areas like Fargo have had to implement it on a local level. And then in Chicago, they're averaging more than twice the amount of COVID-related hospital admissions a day compared to a month ago.

That's according to Illinois' governor. So despite the fact that everyone is tired, I can speak for myself in saying I am, especially the nation's healthcare workers, you know, we just have to be vigilant and tough it out for a little while longer if we can. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIH said yesterday that he still is, quote, very certain that a vaccine will be on the way in the next few months, which will just begin the process of getting us all out of this. Yeah, we look forward to that day, but it's not today. And, you know, with the exhaustion, our new attempts to do localized lockdowns instead of anything nationwide.

So what are the latest steps being taken right now? Yeah, so we're seeing all kinds of stuff. And it's definitely a bit worrisome, you know, if it turns into something larger. In Newark, New Jersey, for instance, restaurants and non-essential businesses have to close to indoor customers at 8 p.m. Officials in El Paso have instituted a curfew and have asked for people to stay home for two weeks. And Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said yesterday that Chicago will be ending indoor dining and bar service as of Friday. So that had been talked about earlier, and now it's actually happening.

Yeah, and that brings us to Europe. Obviously, earlier in the pandemic, some of what we witnessed there was a preview to how bad the situation would get here in the U.S. and how we might end up dealing with it. So let's talk about how Europe is handling the giant wave that they're going through right now. Yeah, so two pretty significant things happened in France and Germany, and they both seemed more like last resorts to keep their hospitals from being overwhelmed. And to compare to the U.S. here, you know, some of these countries have tried more targeted lockdowns already, like the ones that we're beginning to see here in recent days, and they just didn't work

well enough. So let's start with what France is doing. President Emmanuel Macron said that they will be imposing a full nationwide lockdown, marking the second time this year that something so drastic has had to happen. We're likely to see more details about it today, but it will reportedly mirror the spring lockdown where people will have to stay home unless they're going out for essentials or doctor's appointments or limited exercise. Then in Germany, which was once seen as having a really strong handle on the virus, Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday that there will be a one month shutdown of restaurants, bars, theaters and gyms nationwide. They're also set to limit public gatherings to 10 people. So this is pretty severe

stuff that's showing the gravity of the situation there. Though one of the differences between now and the spring is that France and Germany are set to keep factories and some other economic activity and their schools open. So these developments, as well as the dismal state of the pandemic in the US, sent the stock market way, way down yesterday. And we'll touch on the economy more broadly tomorrow. But now let's get back to the election countdown. We are five days out, folks. That is right. Wow.

And good news is we're still smashing early voting records day by day. The total stood last night above 75 million. So that's an additional 5 million early voters in just a day, which is trending towards record participation in a modern presidential election. So stuff to be proud of. If you voted already, I am so proud of you. If you're going to vote, I'm proud of you. If you can't vote, I'm sorry. And if you won't vote, kick rocks. All right, we're voting now. We also got a massive decision from the Supreme Court yesterday rejecting a Pennsylvania GOP challenge that would have prevented mail ballots that arrive after election

day from being counted. We'll remind you next week, but we don't expect to have all the results for the election on election night. And with Pennsylvania rising in the battleground state ranks, it's definitely going to be one to watch. That is for sure. And there was also another Supreme Court decision yesterday about ballot deadlines in North Carolina, another very, very important state that also kept in place an extension. We will have more on the ins and outs of these decisions in the coming days, but we have even more fun state ballot initiatives to talk about. That was sarcasm because these are kind of wild. So let's start with Utah and Nebraska. Both states are voting on whether to remove slavery as a punishment for

crime. Can you please explain this to me? Yeah, it would be my pleasure because it is as weird as it sounds. So in Nebraska, it's Amendment 1. In Utah, it's Amendment C. Top line, if you want to get rid of slavery with no exceptions, just vote yes. But a little more backstory since I think we're all curious about this. So Nebraska and Utah are among 12 states with a big loophole written into their constitutions. Slavery and involuntary servitude are banned, except as punishment for people convicted of crimes. Yeah, it's wild. Another nine states also have provisions in their constitutions that allow involuntary servitude, but not slavery, as criminal punishment. And the language in these state constitutions is largely taken from the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery, but included an exception for criminal punishment. That gave rise to a

really gruesome history after abolition, where states used the criminal justice system to, in effect, re-enslave people convicted of crimes, people who were overwhelmingly Black and often for petty crimes, you know, Jim Crow, see the 13th by Ava DuVernay for more. And still today, the exception clause in the 13th Amendment has been used to defend prison labor practices where people are put to work for pay that can be as low as four cents an hour. These state initiatives would remove the exception language. Voters in Colorado approved a similar measure in 2018. It's not clear that the amendments would change either state's prison labor program since both states pay inmates, albeit a lot less than minimum wage. But supporters say this change is necessary and a long time coming. Yeah, I mean, seems like it for sure. And let's talk about another law that's long overdue

for an update in Mississippi. Yeah, and it is definitely kind of wonky, but I want to highlight it because I think it's important. So it's measure two, and it has to do with state rules for getting elected. Right now in Mississippi, in order to become governor or win any other state-level office, a candidate has to win a majority of the vote and also get the most votes in a majority of the state's local house districts. Sounds complicated. It's not. Basically, it's like a mini electoral college requirement.

And if you don't win the mini electoral college, then the Mississippi State House chooses the winner. And by the way, the state house districts are obviously gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. Welcome to 2020 and America. But it's a law that was passed in 1890, which is not a great era for laws in Mississippi. And some argue it's racist because it potentially dilutes the power of black voters. Last year, there was a federal lawsuit challenging the rule, and the court agreed it was likely unconstitutional, but kicked it right back to the state to address the issue, which is why it's on the ballot now. Voting yes gets rid of the rule and replaces it with a runoff system. Okay, very, very good to know. And then before

we go, any other state-level props we need to highlight? Yeah, we got one more for now. So in Florida, voters are deciding whether to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Currently, the minimum wage in the state is $8.56. It's wild. Amendment 2 would ratchet it up to $15 over the next six years. Obviously, we would like that to happen faster, but it's something. The Fight for $15 movement, which began around 2012 with workers pressuring businesses like McDonald's and Walmart to raise wages, has been super instrumental on this issue, and a number of other states have already passed laws to raise their wages to $15, including New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California. The minimum wage doesn't always get a lot of national attention, but it did come up in last

week's presidential debate. Biden backs raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, whereas Trump was arguing that it should be left up to the states and that raising it would hurt businesses. The evidence doesn't totally back that up, and some research has found that it can actually be pretty good for employers. A little bit more context, though. Adjusting for inflation, the federal minimum wage is actually at a historic low. It's down 30 percent since its peak buying power 50 years ago. According to Pew, two thirds of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. And during the debate last week, wages was the most searched topic in 44 states. So clearly people are thinking about this and it's an issue that Floridians get to vote on. So go do that. And that's the latest. It's Thursday WOD Squad. And for today's temp check, we're talking about some

cartoons that are coming back around. Yesterday, a reboot of Tiny Toon Adventures was announced for HBO Max and Cartoon Network. It's called Tiny Toons Luniversity, and it involves the Tiny Toons going to college to learn how to become professional toons. This comes a few weeks after Hulu announced the reboot of Animaniacs, which is also a cartoon executive produced by Steven Spielberg. So giddy, the The tunes are coming back. Will you be watching them? And which ones do you want to see resurrected? I think I'll probably give both of these a spin for old time's sake. I feel like

any sort of modern update, the Loonaversity got me thinking of it like an older Hey Arnold, perhaps. Like what are the Arnold kids in the neighborhood up to these days? Does Eugene have a different sort of haircut nowadays that he had to readjust for college because it looks like a can? Yeah, that's my first instinct, I think. Yeah, you would want to see the Hey Arnold kids caught up. Also, I'm just now realizing or remembering that the Tiny Toons Adventure theme song says that they earned their tune degrees at Acme University. So I'm wondering

if this is like a prequel to what we saw as kids. Interesting. Yeah, that would change the whole game around. Frankly, I just got that was an inception that you just did. And my brain is still dealing with that. I'll be thinking about it for for a while but akilah so besides these two which i assume you're in for a million percent yeah a million percent what other tunes of this variety would you want resurrected i mean if we're going from specifically this era you know i think that they already have a billion updated batman cartoons or x-men ones but those were really great back then but one that I think was pretty slept on was Freakazoid. I think it was like the same vein, the same animation style. It was very funny. And I'm like, bring back Freakazoid. Like we liked it. And I think the kids are at home.

They have time to get, you know, into the deep cuts. Yeah. It's also right. Like they've been through everything else at this point, you know, because the Marvel extended universe exists now. So give them something bizarre that they can talk about at school. And isn't he blue also? They've been through everything else at this point, you know, because the Marvel extended universe exists now. So give them something bizarre that they can talk about at school. And isn't he blue also? Yeah, he's straight up blue. Yeah, that's another plus, you know. Exactly.

It's good for the kids. It's good for their imaginations. And just like that, we checked our temps. Stay safe. Be a cartoon if that's a possibility for you. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Tens of thousands of people in Poland came together yesterday for a nationwide strike

to protest the highest court's decision to ban almost all abortions. It was the sixth straight day of protests in the country, which began soon after the ruling was made. Women led the marches, but a variety of groups, including farmers and a coal miners union, banded together to oppose the government right on. Many demonstrators wore a red lightning bolt, which has become an adopted symbol of the movement. A lot of public anger has been directed towards the Catholic Church, which is a huge deal considering that Poland is extremely religious. Activists vandalized church facades, staged walk-ins at churches and were confronted by police and nationalist counter protesters in front of Catholic shrines. And even before the latest ruling, Poland was considered to have some of

the strictest abortion laws in Europe. The CEOs of Google, Facebook, and Twitter faced another round of questions from senators about their content moderation practices yesterday. The hearings were meant to focus on Section 230, a law protecting companies' abilities to monitor their own content, but Republicans seemingly just wanted to yell about what they saw as an anti-conservative bias on social media. Many of them were angry that Twitter blocked links to the unverified Hunter Biden story. It wouldn't be a real congressional tech hearing, though, without at least one senator who doesn't get it blowing up at a tech person. So here's Ted Cruz yelling at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Mr. Dorsey, who the

hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear? And why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC, silencing views to the contrary of your political beliefs? Let's give Mr. Dorsey a few seconds to answer that, and then we'll have to conclude this segment. Well, we're not doing that. Yeah, so I guess Ted Cruz really doesn't understand businesses. But anyway, Democrats, meanwhile, mainly focused on pushing companies to have more aggressive moderation to combat misinformation on

their platforms just days away from the election. Yeah, that all tracks to me, including Ted Cruz yelling. Scientists are working on a way to slow climate change while still allowing Americans to enjoy our national pastime of drinking fossil fuels. It's called solar climate intervention or solar geoengineering, and it involves reflecting the sun's energy back into space. Roland Emmerich, I hope you're listening. Basically, it's a high-tech way to tell the sun, hey, appreciate the warming, but we're actually all set for now. Yesterday, a nonprofit called Silver Lining announced $3 million of research grants

to develop the technology, which involves either shooting reflective aerosols into the upper atmosphere or shooting saltwater into the air to make clouds more reflective. Sure. Congress also funded research to the tune of $4 million last December. So the idea is that decarbonizing is a long-term goal we must do if we want to keep living. But while we're working on that, letting scientists be gods of the sky could save lives, species, and ecosystems. Scientists say they know with 100% confidence that this technology can cool the planet. What they don't know is if it'll do anything this podcast, and so now it must be true. In more immediate climate news, Hurricane Zeta made landfall in Louisiana yesterday as a Category 2 storm. It is the fifth named storm to strike that state this year.

Prayers up to Louisiana. And also, we're not doing Snowpiercer, scientists. All right, just watch the movie and come to your own conclusions. But I refuse to be on a train with Tilda Swinton. It won't happen. Swordfish, as we know, belong to an elite group of animals that have swords on their faces. But until now, most scientists have thought that sword isn't used for stabbings. Instead, the going wisdom was that swordfish use their so-called rostrums

to bludgeon schools of fish and for hydrodynamics while swimming. Over the past four years, this theory has been challenged after at least seven sharks washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with swordfish blades in their bodies. This marine game of Clue has one answer, and it's swordfish in the ocean with its own sharp face. The mystery gets deeper, though, because almost all of the blades were found in the sharks' heads,

indicating that swordfish are good at what they do, and they stab to kill. Still, as any marine biologist will tell you, you can't prove a hypothesis with just seven shark murders. So one research group in Spain is calling for anyone who has seen this behavior in the wild to contact them as they build out their theory. If you're a swordfish who wants to turn state's evidence, know that we can protect you, get you immunity and set you up in Florida with a new identity as a red snapper. Yeah, it's a new definition of sleeping with the fishes. And those are the headlines.

A lot of you have already voted, and that is amazing. You are the best, and we love you to death. But your job is not over. Take a few minutes out of your day, minutes that you'd otherwise be spending anxious about polls or scrolling through Twitter aimlessly or whatever it is, getting out the vote. Yeah, go to VoteSafeAmerica.com slash volunteer to find all your options to get involved between now and Election Day. Make these final days count, please. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, spray salt water in the clouds

and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just disclaimers on tweets that say this isn't real at all 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 be careful sharks. You don't have a weapon. You gotta be prepared.

You can't come to a sword fight with fins man. Not gonna work. Exactly. You're out of your league. Eh? Eh? Eh? Depth?

Eh? Oh, shit. Depth. There it is. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan 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 Kshaka.