What A Day - Con Census

Episode Date: October 19, 2020

In the US, we’re now seeing uncontrolled spread of coronavirus as parts of the country get colder and people prepare to gather for the holidays. On Friday, the CEO of Pfizer said his company won’t apply for emergency vaccine authorization until late November at the earliest, which appears to be the nail in the coffin for any vaccine getting approval by election day. After SCOTUS ruled that Trump could shut down the census count last Tuesday, the court agreed on Friday to review Trump’s plan to omit undocumented immigrants for the purposes of determining congressional seats. Civil rights groups are already suing the administration over the latter plan, which would further entrench systemic racism in how marginalized demographic groups are represented. And in headlines: Bolivia voted yesterday in an election that could signal the future of socialism in the region, Colorado battles historic wildfires, and a probiotic, problematic yogurt shop in Colorado.Show Links:"What the Supreme Court’s rulings mean for the 2020 Census and Trump’s attempt to exclude the undocumented from the count"https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/what-the-supreme-courts-rulings-mean-for-the-2020-census-and-trumps-attempt-to-exclude-the-undocumented-from-the-count/2020/10/17/5d299b98-0f71-11eb-8a35-237ef1eb2ef7_story.html

It's Monday, October 19th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we feel compelled to remind everyone that the Beach Boys who played at the Trump event yesterday are not the Beach Boys we all know and love. Yeah, it's a big coca no for me. It's true. Way down in coca, no thank you, choice.

On today's show, where things stand with the census, then some headlines. But first, the latest. Right now, what we're about to go into, Chuck, when I was on this show last on September 13th, we had 33,000 cases reported that day. You may recall I warned that we were going to see a very dark fall. Friday, we had 70,000 cases, matching the largest number we had seen back during the really serious peak in July. That number, we're going to blow right through that. And between now and the holidays, we will see numbers much, much larger than even the 67,000 to 75,000 cases. Wow. So that was Dr. Michael Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota on Meet the Press yesterday. He also said, quote, the next six to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic.

I have no mindset to hear that noise, so we're just going to act like it didn't happen. But he was specifically referring to the fact that last Friday, the United States recorded over 70,000 new COVID-19 cases, the highest since July, when a massive wave of cases was hitting Florida, Texas and Arizona. Many experts have been concerned for a long time about this exact moment. We now have uncontrolled spread as parts of the countries get colder and people keep gathering for the holidays. That's right. And there isn't just one exact reason that experts have pinpointed as to why this surge is happening now. There is a sense of pandemic fatigue that we all have that has set in for both the U.S. and Europe, which is also seeing a major uptick in cases. And here, at least, the bargain was supposed to be that people and states would collectively do all that they could to slow the spread and get something in

return from the federal government that could assist all of us in returning to a state of normalcy. And ha ha, that, of course, has not happened months in. Not at all. No. And there's also some evidence that the massive Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota in August may have seeded some infections across parts of the Midwest that are experiencing outbreaks right now. So in other words, the thing everyone predicted would happen happened. But here are a few other important things about the surge. That day with the 70,000 plus cases saw single day records in states like Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Ohio, according to tracking from The New York Times. And when you look at the actual numbers in places like the Dakotas, it can be deceiving because those populations are smaller.

But their per capita cases in those states are estimated to be as bad as some of the summer surges that we saw elsewhere. And then in the more rural communities in these states, resources can be more scarce, and hospitals may be farther to get to for certain types of care. And what's extra concerning about how this recent uptick has progressed is that the country never really pushed the baseline down. Like it just keeps plateauing at various high levels and then leaping up again. So while now we have much more testing than we did earlier in the year, and a lot of the cases are among younger people, it's hard to say where this third peak, as some have called it, goes in the winter months ahead. Yeah, I'm not disappointed. I'm just mad. Well, meanwhile,

President Trump held a rally in Wisconsin over the weekend as the state undergoes one of the country's worst outbreaks, and the White House task force has recommended against large gatherings there. Another thing Trump has been doing is talking about how quickly vaccines and treatments will be available, but Gideon, will they even be quick? Yes and no. So overall, I would say this is one of the better comparative pieces of news and all of the bad news that exists, that scientists and medical professionals have a better understanding of how to treat COVID-19. And the speed with which a vaccine is being developed is pretty amazing so far. All that being said, there is no silver bullet on the way as quickly as the

White House would have you believe. We've talked about drug and vaccine trials being suspended for safety concerns, which is good, but obviously delays a politically expedient rollout. And on Friday, the CEO of Pfizer said that the company wouldn't apply for an emergency authorization of its vaccine until at least the third week of November. So by my math, that appears to be the nail in the coffin

for any vaccine getting approval by election day. We here at WOD knew that this probably wasn't going to happen, but just saying. The CEO maintained that the company would still have some preliminary information by the end of October about whether the vaccine works, but they need more time for safety and manufacturing info. And Pfizer, as we talked about,

is one of the four different companies that is in late-stage clinical trials in the U.S. The other three, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna, had been saying that the end of the year was a likelier goal in knowing efficacy, but both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have temporarily paused their trials here due to safety issues. Definitely important to figure that out before going any further. So in short, these are moving along at a quick speed, but not the speed the White House is talking about or wants. Yeah, the other consistent part of the COVID story in the U.S. is how little the federal government has done to help people financially since the spring. He talked about the relief bill last week, but there was a new update on it over the weekend. So let's touch on that quickly. Yes. So House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that a deal needs to be reached with the White House within 48 hours, so Tuesday, in order to get something passed before Election Day. But of course, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is putting forward smaller packages that the Senate plans to vote on independently this week. So even in a world where House Democrats and the White House agree to

something in record time after going back and forth, it does not appear that their compromise would get passed in the Senate. So what is new? But moving on, and speaking of kind of sudden deadlines, the US Census, which was supposed to continue through the end of October, was cut short last Tuesday. We mentioned this on the show quickly, but didn't get into all the details. So, Akilah, what gives here? All right. Prepare yourself because it's honestly just a bunch of bullshit. So thank you for preparing. Court ruled that the Trump administration could shut down the census count even after a lower court ruled to extend the census deadline for obvious COVID reasons that likely leaves people

uncounted, particularly vulnerable and hard to reach populations. Then on Friday, in a separate but related move, the Supreme Court agreed to review President Trump's plan to omit undocumented immigrants for the purposes of determining congressional seats, which also goes against a lower court order that blocked this. Those arguments are going to be happening on November 30th. All of this because the White House wants to rehash their vendetta against immigrants. And I know that's a harsh way of saying it, but really, why would the Supreme Court need new considerations about counting undocumented immigrants after they struck down the immigration question on the census as unconstitutional already? And how can they even possibly determine who is undocumented since, again,

that question did not appear on the census? These are all great questions here. And so what exactly is the White House argument then? That's unclear, but it seems to just be politically motivated. On the cutting the count short, they know that if the census count is closer to accurate, the states Trump tweeted were going to hell,

we get more money than the states that have more cows than people. Officially, though, they're saying that they can't extend the counting because then states won't be able to meet their deadlines of handing over their population totals to the White House. And here's where it gets political again. If states don't meet their deadlines, that could mean Trump doesn't have time to fulfill the plan he laid out in a July memo to omit undocumented people from the apportionment process. And on omitting undocumented people from apportionment, obviously the Trump administration has a vested interest in getting Amy. Segregation can be part of a healthy work environment. Coney Barrett approved to the Supreme Court to further their oppressive agenda.

But a decision about whether or how they're even going to count undocumented people in regards to the census after the election seems like wielding power before it's even been bestowed. You know, you learn new things every day. I did not know she also had those middle names. But lawsuits are expected over the apportionment scheme, right? Like this is an unprecedented move in this country to not count people simply because of citizenship status. So is this even legal? Well, civil rights groups don't think so. And they're already suing the administration over this. But re-legality, no one has a clear answer on that. But I just want to reiterate that removing undocumented immigrants from apportionment or promised community funding would be unprecedented in U.S. history. According to a Pew study this summer, if undocumented immigrants are not counted, it's going to change how many representatives each state is allotted and could affect electoral college votes per state. The research found that if they do end up being excluded, California,

Texas, and Florida would end up with one less electoral college vote, and Minnesota, Ohio, and Alabama would end up with one more, compared with what they would have gotten with no adjustments. So when we talk about systemic racism, this is what we're talking about. People who pay more than $750 goddamn dollars in taxes not seeing that money returned to their communities because the president would rather us not know how many people are actually in our country. But we've also said on the show before that, one, funds are allocated to communities based on population size, and two, that the average age of people of color in America is much, much younger than white people. The average white person in America is 58.

The average age of Hispanic people in America is 11. So the Trump administration's proposal effectively dooms black and brown children to have less funding in their communities than older, whiter places in the country. It's about sinking their futures, and it's disgusting. It absolutely is. And I know you've said already that we're unclear on how they can count people who weren't forced to reveal their citizenship status on the census, but has anyone proposed anything? So the government hasn't said how they would go about it, but a former Census Bureau chief demographer, fancy word for a person who studies demographics and the changes that they create,

wrote in a court filing that, quote, the clear implication is that it would not be the Census Bureau that would compute the actual apportionment, but presumably someone at the White House. The risk to an accurate and fair apportionment, but presumably someone at the White House. The risk to an accurate and fair apportionment is enormous. So if it's up to the administration that brought you several waves of a contagious virus, children in cages, state sanctioned police brutality, no new infrastructure and ruthless self-enrichment to decide where the money and votes will go, I think that we'd

probably be right to be worried. The Washington Post has a really great article on all of this, which we will put in our show notes. And that's the latest. It's Monday WOD Squad, and it feels so good to be back. For today's Tim Check, thank you. Wow. Warm welcome. But for today's Tim Check, we're back on the COVID fraud beat. A rapper called Nuke Bizzle was arrested on Friday for obtaining more than $1.2 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits. And the arrest came after he posted a video on YouTube where he bragged about the checks and said, quote, you gotta sell cocaine. I just file a claim.

The song is called EDD, which stands for Employment Development Department. So Giddy, obviously we're not defrauding the state government, but if you do get arrested someday for something you rap about in a song, what's it going to be? I think one would be the amount of those like little, like individually wrapped caramels and candy that I took in Kroger, like just walking up and down the candy aisles. That's fair. One of the bigger crimes that I've probably committed is when you get like the bag to weigh it out, right? Like you fill it with gummy sharks. You're getting like, you know, maybe some chocolate covered espresso beans if you're feeling like really crazy as a child. And you can eat like literally half of it before you actually weigh it and then pay for it. And so

yeah, you know, I'm narking on myself right here right now. I don't even need a wrap. It doesn't even have to come out. I have in my life rang things up as bananas because i was too lazy to look up the number and it's the cheapest way to do it so that's not my answer but i'm just saying you know we all have our ways yeah and if you're a child like you can't be exposed to like open tins of gummy worms and sharks and not be expected to at least dabble a little bit you know yeah it's the gateway drug it's the gateway drug of any Kroger. For sure. It seems wrong to allow that.

But same question for you, Akilah. If you're putting something into a song about a crime, what is it? I think that the crime that I would probably stupidly admit to in a song and hear also on the podcast, which I'm just now realizing we are doing. I would probably talk about all the songs I tried to download on LimeWire and all the computers that I had to figure out how to get the virus off of. I can't tell you how many times I opened a computer in safe mode because the thing that I thought was behind these hazel eyes by Kelly Clarkson ended up being just like a crazy virus. So yeah, it's a weird rap song.

I don't think it's a hit song, you know, but I definitely think I would, I would own up to that. I think that's, yeah. I mean, you know, in the event that you or I or both of us did do those kinds of things and it made it into a song, I think it would be, I think it would be a big song. I think it would be better than EDD.

That's for sure. Just, you know, no shots of Mr. Bizzle, but just putting that out there. Yeah, geez, Mr. Bizzle, maybe you have, like, lesser crimes, but just like that. We've checked our temps. Everybody stay safe, and we will be back with some headlines. Headlines. Bolivians took to the polls yesterday to vote for their next president. The election, which was delayed twice due to the pandemic, comes after last year's contested election that led former President Evo Morales to resign and flee the country amid mass protests and allegations of a coup. Voters are largely choosing between two candidates, Luis Arce, who is Evo Morales' former economics minister, and Carlos Mesa, a centrist former president.

Even though Morales is not running, the election is seen as a referendum on him and his leftist policies and could signal the future of socialism in Bolivia and around the region. Morales was the country's first indigenous president, and during his time in office, Bolivia's poverty rate fell from 60% to 35%. Yet in recent years, many of his supporters began to abandon him amid allegations of corruption and misuse of power, including his decision to run for a fourth term last year. The results of Sunday's election could take days to come in, and observers say that no matter the result, large swaths of the country are expected to be angry with the potential for violence. The largest fire in Colorado history flared up on Saturday amid warm, dry weather and high winds,

leading to evacuations in the northern city of Loveland. Most years, Colorado wildfire season ends in September, but this isn't like most years. It's actually way worse in almost every single way. A little over an hour away in Boulder County, evacuations were also ordered because of a separate nearly 10,000-acre fire, which began on Saturday. These fires are occurring as nearly 60% of Colorado endures extreme drought and in a year of intense fires throughout the American West. Climate change has made wildfires more frequent and more destructive.

Also in Colorado, a store showed that Froyo can be both probiotic and problematic by offering 10% discounts to Froyo customers who violated state law by entering without wearing a mask. The Durango, Colorado business is called Top That Frozen Yogurt. I don't know if that's how you're supposed to say it, but that's how I'm saying it. Top That. Anyway, and they apparently decided to encourage easier virus transmission because of their conservative values. They also offered a discount to customers who said Happy Columbus Day last week rather than reference Indigenous Peoples Day. Fun fact, all the customers who took that deal also ate their fro-yo all at once and got brain free so bad that they had to go to the hospital. I'd say it's a tragedy, but I don't feel bad for

them. Public health authorities in Durango are now deciding how to respond to top that anti-mask antics besides just going into the store and abusing the sample policy until they go out of business. This is absolutely going to be the next Goya for Donald Trump. I cannot wait. Last week, the world was captivated by the story of a geriatric lemur who was abducted from the San Francisco Zoo. Lemurs, as you know, are the skunks of the monkey kingdom. They like eating tamarind and live bugs. And like most animals, they absolutely hate it when someone tries to kidnap them. After being sprung from his cage, the San Francisco lemur Maki apparently got separated from his captor. That could have been the end of his story if it wasn't for a plucky five-year-old boy

who saw Maki in the parking lot of his preschool on Friday, pointed at him, and said, quote, There's a lemur. From approximately the second they're born, kids are trained to identify animals and know their respective noises. And at last, it seems like all that hard work has paid off. For his sharp eye and amazing brain, the five-year-old boy received a $2,100 reward for his school, plus free zoo membership for his whole family. The man who stole Maki has been taken into custody, which means our eyes are on the lemurs to see if any of them are foolish enough to revenge kidnap him and restart this whole

terrible cycle. You know, I hope that that little boy runs for president and he runs with that really old bleemer. And those are the headlines. Quick announcement before we go, our election video series with Complex is out now. I was part of a panel talking about the impact of the election on social justice issues. It was very entertaining and real. So check it out. It was. And I did a panel on the election and the economy.

Jamal Bowman, future congressman, was a speaker too. He said cooler stuff than I did, but it was great to be there. So check out Complex Conversations and Vote Save America out now on the Complex YouTube channel at youtube.com slash complex. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, look out for loose lemurs

and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the best by date printed on milk 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 don't incriminate yourself via music lyrics. There's better ways to incriminate yourself.

Yeah, that's not the good way to do it. Just write a song about someone else who's committing robbery. Not yourself. 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.