What A Day - Born In The USMCA

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

House Democrats have reached a deal with Trump on the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, which will replace the artist formerly known as NAFTA. We discuss what that means.  A new report shows that Greenland’s ice sheets are melting fast. To get technical, they’re now melting in dog years.  And in headlines: Spygate 2, SATs, and Trump appoints himself President Of Judaism.

it's wednesday december 11th i'm akilah hughes i'm gideon resnick and this is what a day the time person of the year of daily news podcasts gideon since it's your birthday i think the person of the year to be you when people talk about me i get uncomfortable he's blushing. On today's show, we've got articles of impeachment, we've got a new NAFTA deal, and we've got a new report on the melting ice in Greenland. And then, as always, some headlines. Let's start in D.C. House Democrats announced on Tuesday that they had reached a deal with the Trump administration on a new North American trade agreement.

The United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA, replaces the artist formerly known as the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. And Gideon, the timing of the announcement couldn't be more interesting. Yeah. So the weird thing about the politics of what was happening in D.C. on Tuesday is that this gets announced coinciding with the introduction of articles of impeachment against President Trump. So obviously it gave the administration and Republicans the opportunity to tout a success right before an election year. This was something that Trump had wanted to do for a long time and left some Democrats confused as to why members of Congress would let this happen as it did. Yeah. And the timing does sort of encapsulate this ongoing theme that the Democrats have been talking about. The argument goes that they can legislate and investigate at the same time. Here's part of what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to say to reporters. What do you say to those who wonder

how you can say that President Trump is an existential threat to democracy on the one hand, but also work so closely with his administration to get something like this done, which is such a priority for them as well? I would say that we came a long way from what he originally proposed, what he originally proposed. And there are some people who said, why make it look like he has a victory? Well, we've we're declaring victory for the American worker and what is in this agreement. But we would never not any one of us is important enough for us to hold up a trade agreement that is

important for American workers. Right. So as Nancy was saying there, the deal has a number of concessions from the White House in the new trade agreement. Like what, Gideon? Like what? Well, so Democrats said that they were able to get an agreement to remove a particular rule that was set on pharmaceuticals. Originally, certain drugs were going to be protected from generic competition for up to 10 years, which would have impacted the cost of prescription drugs. Basically, the way that it works is sort of like if there is no competition for these drugs and, you know, pharmaceutical companies can sell them for whatever cost. I see. That got removed and Democrats said that they added more enforcement to make sure that Mexico is following moved on this when they did because they got the go-ahead from big labor unions. Yeah, I think that was sort of the writing on the wall. The AFL-CIO, the country's largest labor federation, they signed off and endorsed the deal.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka tweeted on Tuesday, quote, Make no mistake, we demanded a trade deal that benefits workers and fought every single day to negotiate that deal. And now we have secured an agreement that working people can proudly support. So Democrats were happy. Trump was happy. Unions were happy. Are they all going to join hands and sing? We are the world now. We are somebody's children. We all are. Indeed. Not just yet.

One prominent AFL-CIO member, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, quickly voiced opposition to the agreement, and other unions were pretty noncommittal about the whole deal, according to a report from Bloomberg. But the United Steelworkers did back the deal as well. All that being said, at this point, though, the deal is moving forward. After the House likely passes it, it'll go on to the Senate. So what else do we need to know about what this deal is specifically proposing? So the full text of the revised agreement is expected to be released soon.

And then a House floor vote is set for next week. Potentially also hilariously right around the time they would be voting on impeaching the president. The duality of man. But here are some of the sort of mainline things that people should know about the deal. More car and truck parts made in the United States to qualify for zero tariffs. A car or truck would need to have 75% of its components made in Canada, Mexico, or the U.S. That is up from a prior 62.5%.

So if they just add the windows. Yes. I don't know what 75% of a car is, but okay. Yeah, windows would qualify it, I think. As we mentioned, change laws in Mexico to make it easier for workers to unionize. Canada opening its milk market to U.S. farmers. Yum.

All right, my fellows in Winnipeg, get ready for some sweet, sweet Ample Hills ice cream. Wait, in Canada, they have their milk in a bag. Do they? I'm pretty sure that's the thing. Like you purchase it. It's enough. It's like a Capri Sun.

Oh, I don't like that. Yeah, no, not for me. Bag milk. I gift them something. I do not need anything in return. No disgusting Canadian milk bags. You perverts. And then finally, there are increased environmental protections. For example,

Mexico agreed to enhance monitoring of illegal fishing. And all the countries that are involved in the broader agreement agree to no longer subsidize fishing of overfished species. So that's with the intent of leading to less pollution and overfishing. Right. We have to protect our fish. They are pure of heart. They wish us no harm. And that is true universally. Yeah, absolutely. Fish are friends. And in rare cases, they can travel across the world to find their son if they need to. So in short, Trump is going to say this is a big win after campaigning on NAFTA being the worst trade agreement ever, you know, put together in the country and winning with Midwestern states using that argument in 2016. Democrats are going to say it's a big win for all the concessions that they were able to earn.. Democrats are going to say it's a big win

for all the concessions that they were able to earn. But we are going to say it's a big win for WOD listeners to talk about trade at their upcoming holiday parties. Enjoy yourselves out there. Climate change is very real and happening at a rate faster than scientists previously thought. According to 89 scientists whose work is published in a new report in the journal Nature on Greenland's ice sheets, the ice is now melting not two times as fast or even four times as fast, but seven times as fast as it was in the 1990s. That means the amount of ice that used to take a week to melt now takes one day. Akilah, what else did we learn from this report? Well, we learned that since 1992, the sea level has risen approximately one centimeter due to the ice in Greenland melting,

which might sound pretty minimal, like, okay, so the tide's going to come in a little higher on my ankle, who cares? But further digging made this sound like the dire mess that it is. So one centimeter of sea level rise equates to seasonal annual floods that will affect roughly six million people. So, you know, we hear about sea level rise a lot. It can feel a little abstract. Here are some sort of concrete examples of what that would mean. So floods are a huge problem for infrastructure in the planet. Right. The destruction of bridges and roads can add to the human toll.

If the flood happens near a nuclear power plant, like in Japan back in 2011, that could also pose major risks. Major flooding disasters can create climate refugees. Look at Kivalina in Alaska. It's an island that's about to disappear. Dark. Yeah. Crops can be destroyed, creating a food shortage.

The water supply in some areas can get polluted, which could lead to diseases and epidemics. And sometimes wild animals and mosquitoes get displaced. They end up in flooded areas. Nobody wants more mosquitoes. And beyond the bottom tier of, you know, the hierarchy of needs, flooding wrecks local economies because budgets allocated for things like education and public projects end up being used instead for these recovery efforts. So it's not great overall. Right. for things like education and public projects end up being used instead for these recovery efforts. So it's not great overall. Right. And it seems like every week or even every day, there's another report telling us that the climate is actually far worse off than scientists actually thought. So what are the implications of

this report on Greenland? Yeah. So Greenland's ice sheet is the world's second largest body of ice. This is after Antarctica. And the melting there is currently the biggest contributor to sea level rises on Earth. That's why Greenland gets tracked so closely by the scientists. The projections that came out of this report are more dire than the UN's chief climate science body thought. So that basically means that what the UN considered to be the high-end scenario for climate problems is actually the likely scenario, and that they now have to come up with a new high-end scenario, which is a terrifying prospect.

Yeah, absolutely. So this high-end scenario existed before. Now it's the scenario. So what do we think that the future looks like? What do people think that the future looks like? Yeah, so the projection is that by 2100, there's going to be an additional 16 centimeters rise in sea levels worldwide. So that's like half a foot

roughly. So if that were to happen today, that would impact 96 million people with flooding. But that's today. You know, we can't account for other impacts that will probably happen from climate change. You know, population rises or dips, other natural disasters that will probably factor into the total population that could be affected. So yeah, the future of humanity is a little scary if things don't change and quickly. Right. I mean, the best thing that people can do, I think, is to keep paying attention to it, keep urging action on it, support science and science journalists, even when these stories may not lead the nightly news. One site worth checking out is grist.org. It's a nonprofit organization covering climate and sustainability stories. Their mantra, don't freak

out, figure it out. Yeah. And on that note, probably the biggest thing we can do to figure this out is to make the environment a voting issue at every level on the ballot. I mean, do you want a candidate that's going to take action to protect the planet? Or do you want a candidate that's going to complain about low flush toilets? People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once. They end up using more water. So EPA is looking at that very strongly, at my suggestion. Okay, so I'm just going to say it. If I had a toilet that I had to flush 15 times for the water to go down, around time 10, I'm just going to go outside and be like,

this is where we poop now. Yeah, I mean, honestly, you know, he's making a point. Like, you shouldn't be flushing that much. Yeah, you shouldn't have to flush it that much. Okay, well, yeah. Vote for candidates who believe in climate change and will actually do something about it. And now to some ads. Hey, Gideon, what's your favorite perk from working at Cricket?

You know, just the high name recognition, people clapping for me when I walk down the street, trumpets blaring as I turn the corner. You know, that is a nice perk that I also enjoy. But imagine if you got perks every time you spent money. Okay, I'm listening. All right. So it might not be puppies or snacks or people cheering your name, but with Drop app, every dollar you spend results in perks you can redeem later.

So here's how it works. All you got to do is link your debit or credit card to the secure app to start earning points every time you shop at one of Drop's partner brands. And they have all the brands. They've got Trader Joe's, Sephora, Glossier, hundreds more. And before you know it, you're gonna be ready to redeem your points right there in the app on gift cards for places like Starbucks and Amazon and my personal favorite Fandango because your girl likes to see movies. So Drop is giving Whataday listeners a special offer to help kickstart your holiday shopping. For a limited time, use code WHATADAY when you sign up for Drop via the App Store or Google Play and you'll receive a $5 gift card right away. That's half a cat's ticket.

That's right. Use WHATADAY to get a $5 gift card through the Drop app. Meet me at the screening of Cats. We are going to scream and cry together at those freakish monsters. Yeah. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is set to defend Myanmar against accusations of genocide at the U.N. The trial was petitioned for by the Gambia, a Muslim-majority nation that is taking the stand for other Muslim countries around the world. A U.N. mission has already found evidence of systemic violence against Rohingya Muslims in the country. So the purpose of this trial is to determine whether

or not to formally label it as a genocide. Suu Kyi was once a symbol for democracy and human rights when she publicly opposed her country's authoritarian rule. But now she's accused of standing by the same military she fought against. President Trump reportedly plans to sign an executive order today that will interpret Judaism as a race or nationality. And as a Jewish person hearing this, my current nationality is pissed off. The order could allow the government to withhold money from college campuses if they fail to combat anti-Semitism, which the White House equates with the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions or BDS movement against Israel. Critics say this new policy threatens free speech and defines criticism of Israel as synonymous with anti-Semitism. Anyway, if you didn't like Trump as the president,

you're probably not going to like him as the president of Judaism. A new lawsuit is challenging the use of the SAT or ACT as a requirement for admission to UC or University of California schools. The suit alleges that the tests are biased and don't reveal anything about a student's ability to succeed. Recent studies show that SAT scores have strong links to family income, meaning those expensive prep classes that wealthy kids take, yeah, they work. Score one for Princeton Review, score zero for Equality of Opportunity. The lawyer behind the lawsuit says the tests only exacerbate inequalities in the public school system.

Last month, Democrat Andy Beshear won the Kentucky governor's race in an upset, partly because he was running against Matt Bevin, a guy whose aura can only be described as Joe Pesci in Home Alone after Kevin Burns' hair off. Now Beshear is falling through on a promise he made during his campaign. He says he'll sign an executive order that restores voting rights to more than 100,000 people who were convicted of felonies. As of now, Kentucky and Iowa are the only states that deny the right to vote based on felony convictions.

I'm sorry. It's just such a visceral image of Joe Tassi being burned. Oh, man. Okay, well, you guys know that when there's big football drama, we at What A Day like to tackle it head on. That's why we were so intrigued by the Patriots' latest controversy where they admitted to violating league policy by filming the field during the Bengals-Browns game this

Sunday. The Patriots crew was there to film for an online series about a scout that was attending the game, but according to reports, they also recorded the Bengals' sideline for eight minutes. This wouldn't be Coach Bill Belichick's first attempt at amateur illegal filmmaking. He was fined $500,000 for filming the Jets in 2007.

The NFL is still deciding how they will respond, but the real crime here is if you do decide to spy on another NFL team, you should go to jail for choosing the Bengals. They are 1-12. It's like filming an intramural flag football team. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show,

make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, don't call me Shirley, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just a stack of job offers after your unconventional presentation found its way online and went viral,

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 why I'm adopting a fish and helping to reunite him with his family. Fuck. 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.