What A Day - Between Iraq And An Earth Quake

Episode Date: January 8, 2020

Iranian forces launched ballistic missiles against two military bases in Iraq that house US troops. Stay tuned today for the White House’s official response.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to more forward with impeachment without hearing witnesses. We discuss what might happen as we roll on towards the bottom of impeachment valley.  Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez filed a state of emergency after the island was hit by a series of earthquakes that have left 300,000 homes and businesses without water. And in headlines: FB deepfakes, Bloomberg’s big game, and the tale of Sonos and Goliath.

It's Wednesday, January 8th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, a safe space for fans of Rascal Flatts to organize a party bus for the Farewell Tour. What is Rascal Flatts? Is it like an app? Is it like a place? A restaurant? A vacation destination? An idea? Maybe.

On today's show, earthquakes in Puerto Rico, an update on our impeachment purgatory, and then some headlines. But first, the latest on the crisis between the U.S. and Iran. Iranian forces launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against two military bases in Iraq, we learned on Tuesday evening. Now, this comes after a U.S. drone strike that killed Major General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last week. As of this recording, here are some things we know so far. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper met with President Trump after the strikes against those bases. There weren't immediate reports of Iraqi or American casualties, but officials are still assessing the situation. Iranian officials said that the strikes were in response to the killing

of Soleimani. That's as far as we know at this moment, but things could develop as the day progresses. The foreign minister of Iran said in a tweet that the country does not seek escalation or war. Now, President Trump hasn't spoken yet, though he tweeted last night that he will be making a statement today. In that same tweet, he also said, quote, all as well, and quote, so far, so good, which, honestly, much better than we're going to bomb the shit out of them. Yeah, I mean, I guess the bar for good couldn't be any lower, but all right. This story is moving, and we will keep you updated as it progresses. And now for an impeachment news blast.

Oh, spicy. All right. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he plans to move forward with the impeachment trial for President Trump without committing to hearing more evidence or including testimony from more witnesses. There are not too many nice things to say about Mitch, but by God, he is consistent. That he is. Now, this comes after news earlier in the week that former National Security Advisor John Bolton would be willing to testify if subpoenaed. That obviously perked up the ears of every Democrat in Washington, D.C. They were hopeful that that meant another witness could give testimony before many Republican senators were given the opportunity to just rush an acquittal

out for the president. So basically McConnell is punting and saying, OK, maybe witnesses at a later date. But come on, man, we weren't born yesterday. Yeah, exactly. So McConnell is saying here that he wants to move the process along, of course, and cited the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, the last one in our country's history, as precedent for how these things should be done. In Clinton's case, the Senate trial got underway without a decision on whether to call witnesses. It just started. So we should take a moment here to go over exactly how that Clinton impeachment trial worked, since McConnell is citing it as precedent for what he's doing right now. One of the major differences at that time was that the Senate had a lot more information about the investigation overall. And one of the major reasons for that is that the Trump White House

has gone all out to keep documents and testimony away from investigators. Now, because they had all that information at that time during the Clinton process, it was a lot more bipartisan, the vote to actually move it along in the Senate. All 100 senators were down with the rules. This time, of course, all or almost all the Democrats are expected to oppose this McConnell plan. Yeah. And meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has kept up the world's most consequential game of keep away by not giving over the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Yeah. I mean, Pelosi is able to run the show in the House, of course. But at the end of the day, it's McConnell who is in charge of the Senate.

So this is probably going to end only one way at some point. But here he is describing how he wants the first phase of the Senate trial to actually look. We have the votes, once the impeachment trial has begun, to pass a resolution essentially the same, very similar to the 100 to nothing vote in the Clinton trial, which sets up, as you may recall, what could best be described as maybe a phase one, which would include obviously the arguments from the prosecution, arguments from the defense, and then a period of written questions, because remember, senators are not allowed to speak during the impeachment trial. So basically written questions submitted to either the prosecution or the defense through the chief justice. Now, that's a lot of mumbo jumbo that we'll get into later, you know, on the actual Senate trial rules on an upcoming show.

So look forward to that. But again, as we said before, when McConnell cites the Clinton trial as precedent, it doesn't total, it's not a total one-to-one precedent overall here doesn't always work because impeachment is just so rare. Like there's, you can't have just situations where you stack them next to each other and say, these are the same. So all that being said, there could obviously be a resolution soon. And this strange, ambiguous situation between the two parties could come to an end. But the overall deal is this Republicans want to limit the trial. And Democrats still think that they can try to put a squeeze on

them. They point to developments like the Bolton news to say, hey, pump the brakes on this. Maybe other people have more stuff to say. And if nothing else, Democrats are hopeful that they can get Senate Republicans on record saying that they don't want more information about what the president is accused of. If they vote no, then they can point to that around election time for these potentially vulnerable incumbents. Yeah. And those are people like Senator Susan Collins in Maine and Senator Cory Gardner in Colorado. So there's going to be a lot of pressure on them. Yeah. We'll see how it all plays out. And we'll talk to you soon for our next impeachment news blast. Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vasquez filed a state of emergency with FEMA after an

enormous 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit the island on Monday and a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the island on Monday, and a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday. That quake was quickly followed shortly after by a 6.0 aftershock. Authorities say that Puerto Rico's power plants have been damaged and that power has been shut off as a protective measure. 300,000 homes and businesses are without water. It's the worst earthquake to hit the island in 102 years, but you might not know that because elected officials and the news media have been pretty quiet so far. So quiet. I mean, like most people, I found out about the state of emergency in Puerto Rico through social media. It was on Twitter. And Americans are without power after a string of damaging earthquakes that have leveled homes, tourist destinations, and more. And only a couple of the biggest news sites in our country

even had it on their front page. So while obviously the Trump administration has been explicit in their indifference to those citizens, our media has also neglected their duty to prioritize this. So let's think about this. If a city in Texas was dealing with landslides following a massive earthquake, it would be getting coverage. It would be on the front page everywhere. Yeah. Well, in Puerto Rico's southern city of Ponce, that is exactly what's happening in crickets. Right. And for some context here, Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory of about 3.2 million people. Earthquakes are a threat as it's situated between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. But what's difficult now is that the island is still recovering from Hurricane Maria. Many of its buildings aren't up to code. And we have an administration that either willfully or not has avoided helping

these American citizens in the same way that they do for those on the mainland. Akilah, can you talk a little bit more about that discrepancy there? Sure. So here's just one statistic. According to a November New York Times article, since 2017, FEMA has only funded 190 long-term recovery projects in Puerto Rico out of more than 9,000 requests. So for comparison, in that exact same time period, 3,700 projects have been funded in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Harvey.

So just one more time for the tally. It's 190 versus 3,700. And when FEMA was asked about this, their officials said a lot of the problem lies with the system that Washington uses to pay for recovery assistance. Local governments or charities usually front the money to at least begin construction and then get reimbursed by FEMA. But the island's economy has been struggling and hurt even further by the hurricanes, meaning they are relying heavily on donations. But how can you get donations if, you know, their natural disasters aren't making front page news? It's maddening. Basically, the aid funding can't get kickstarted at all. Right.

And even beyond the FEMA stats, the differences in treatment from politicians is glaring. The image of Donald Trump throwing that roll of paper towels at the Puerto Ricans in the wake of 2017's hurricanes comes to mind. As of our recording, Donald Trump hasn't even tweeted his usual thoughts and prayers. And it's literally the least he could do. It's the dry hump of a gesture and he can't do it. And yes, this was even before the military base strikes that happened yesterday. I'm angry that you put dry hump and Donald Trump. I'm sorry. Good morning, giving a rhyming pattern in two sentences. But that sort of leads to my next question about

statehood. Puerto Ricans have no representation in Congress, no electoral power. And so there have been groups that have advocated for statehood in the past. It's obviously a complicated situation. But for now, at least Puerto Rico has to rely on others to take up the mantle in Congress. So what is happening in that regard? Like, what are we actually hearing from members in Congress about the state of emergency? Yeah, well, like I said, Donald Trump hasn't said anything. Ted Cruz hasn't said shit, even though Texas has a lot of natural disasters, so you'd think he would know better. Marco Rubio did tweet out in Spanish that there has been a request for aid. And Mike

Huckabee thankfully refrained from making one of his truly moronic Twitter jokes about it. But generally, it's been what it's always been. I'm not going to say that no Republicans are calling for help, though. Predictably, there's a bipartisan effort in both Florida and New York to get aid to Puerto Rico quickly, since there are large Puerto Rican populations in both of those states. But yeah, this is the kind of indirect representation Puerto Rico quickly since there are large Puerto Rican populations in both of those states. But yeah, this is the kind of indirect representation Puerto Rico has to rely on. There's far more support coming from Democrats, though. On the dim front, former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders,

and Cory Booker and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg have all tweeted about it and called for aid to be sent. If you want to help Puerto Rico and are in a position to do so, donate at HispanicFederation.org, which has been helping in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria in 2017. You can also donate to World Central Kitchen, which is run by Chef Jose Andres and provides meals to those affected by the disasters. And AmeriCares, an organization offering assistance to health facilities in southwest Puerto Rico, as well as deploying a mental health tax force for those coping in the aftermath. And now for some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Late last night, reports came in that a Boeing plane on its way to Ukraine from Iran crashed after takeoff due to technical issues, according to Iranian state TV. The plane was a 737-800, a different model from the 737 Maxjet, which has been grounded globally following two fatal crashes caused by a faulty software system. At least

170 passengers were on board. Later today, Virginia is expected to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, making it the 38th state to do so, a crucial threshold necessary to amend the U.S. Constitution. The Equal Rights Amendment would explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of sex and guarantee equality for women, which is not currently stated outright in the Constitution. Proponents believe the ERA would guarantee that states have to intervene in matters of gender-based violence and harassment, ensure protections for pregnant people and mothers, and guarantee equal pay. If Virginia does pass the ERA, ratification is not automatic, though.

Supporters will have to extend or overrule a ratification deadline that has passed and contend with five states who have withdrawn support for the amendment after they passed it initially. Facebook announced they'll be banning most deep fakes or videos that use artificial intelligence to distort content in a way that most people and all grandpas can't detect. Just kidding, grandpas. There's a lot of things you know about that I don't. For example, how to ever afford a home. Some deepfakes are still OK on Facebook as long as the content

is parody or satire. So I assume that funny man Mark Zuckerberg is in charge of deciding that. However, paid political ads that use deepfakes will be banned no matter what. Sailboat dad speaker company Sonos filed a lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, accusing them of infringing on five of their patents. This suit has been long in the making. The stage was set back in 2013 when Sonos gave Google access to Blueprints so that they could incorporate their new music service into Sonos speakers. Years later, Google rolled out their own smart speakers along with Amazon. Sonos says both companies use Sonos speakers. Years later, Google rolled out their own smart speakers along with Amazon.

Sonos says both companies use Sonos technology. This story highlights the tense relationships smaller tech companies have with tech giants, which basically have the power to make them or break them. As I read this off a Google Doc loaded in a Google Chrome browser window, I gotta say, I'm pissed off. Yeah, pissy. All right. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is putting down at least $10 million to buy a 60-second advertising spot during next month's Super Bowl. Not to be outdone, President Donald Trump is also buying an ad. When did the commercials become the worst part of the Super Bowl? Honestly, I thought I'd never say this, but bring back Puppy Monkey Baby. That crazy freak would be a huge step up from this.

We need you, pup. Monk Bay. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, meet us at the merch tent when Rascal Flats rocks Tampa, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just the novelization of the award-winning Joker movie 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 that's how you bring back the discourse on Puppy Monkey Baby. Show me your tweets. 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.

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