What A Day - I Don't Get No Relief

Episode Date: July 30, 2020

Rent is due next week, but we still don’t have a new relief bill to extend federal unemployment assistance and eviction protections. Negotiations have stalled, with Senate Republicans, the White House, and Democrats far apart in negotiations. Federal agents will withdraw from Portland after a deal was reached between Oregon’s governor and the Department of Homeland Security. When this will happen is unclear, but it’s clear that state troopers will replace them. And in headlines: retail workers are left to enforce mask rules, Snapchat’s terrible diversity numbers, and Madonna’s bad IG post.

It's Thursday, July 30th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What The Day, where we want all tech CEOs to know we're developing an app that will make them obsolete. Yeah, it's like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google rolled into one with a little bit of Netscape Navigator. On today's show, negotiations over the next relief bill continue and federal officials agree to a deal to withdraw from Portland. Then some headlines. But first, the latest. Mr. Zuckerberg, in 2015,

Facebook reported high and quickly growing rates of video viewership on its platform. Based on these metrics, news publishers fired hundreds of journalists, choosing instead to boost their video divisions. In 2018, it was discovered that Facebook had inflated these metrics and had known about the inaccuracy several years before Facebook publicly disclosed this. Mr. Zuckerberg, did you know that these metrics were inflated before they were publicly released? Congressman, no, I did not. And we regret that mistake and have put in place a number of other measures since then to make sure that we... And do you realize the harm that this caused journalists across the country? Congressman, I certainly know how important it is that the metrics that we report are accurate. That was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg taking questions from Congressman Gerald Nadler

during yesterday's antitrust tech hearing, which was pretty weird at times, like when Mark Zuckerberg had to remind a congressman that Facebook isn't Twitter. Also, he was chewing a bunch. He was like eating breakfast, I guess. Zuckerberg also took questions about Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and newly released company email show that the purchase was made to, quote, neutralize a competitive threat. And lawmakers also pressed Amazon, Apple and Google on the power they wield in e-commerce, the App Store, and search. The New York Times was tallying up responses from CEOs during the hearing. Collectively, they argue that their companies are not that big nine times and that their

companies are good for America 24 times. We'll have to see whether any of this testimony leads to regulatory changes. More on that as it develops. But Gideon, let's get into the pressing issue of the day. Yeah, so that is the state of the pandemic in the United States, which is still awful with multiple databases showing that the country has lost more than 150,000 people to the coronavirus and average daily deaths across the nation are creeping back up again. This death toll far surpasses some early projections months ago, and it didn't need to happen. And not as if people need the reminder, but the end of the month is right around the again. This death toll far surpasses some early projections months ago, and it didn't need to happen. And not as if people need the reminder, but the end of the month is right around the

corner. Rent is about to be due, and we still don't have a new relief bill to extend federal unemployment assistance and eviction protections that tens of millions of people have been relying on. And if that wasn't enough on its own, there is the remaining question, or rather many questions, about going back to school. Yesterday, the Miami-Dade County public school system in Florida joined a number of other large districts, including those in Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles, in deciding to initially open online only. Miami-Dade is the fourth largest district in the country, and it's, of course, in a state where the governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, has pushed for reopenings. Yeah, I mean, this country has a lot of work to do on tons of fronts, to say the least.

But returning to the issue of unemployment and pending evictions, we still don't have a relief bill. But where do the negotiations stand? Well, they've been a mess and they are a mess. And outside of the news being grim about a lack of progress they've made on this next relief package, the other news out of the Capitol was that Texas Republican Rep and anti-masker Louie Gohmert tested positive for COVID-19, leading to a bit of a scramble to figure out all of his possible contacts, of which there could have been many. Gohmert, whose advice should generally not be listened to, went on to ponder that maybe masks themselves actually led to his infection, saying, quote, it is interesting and I don't know about everybody, but when I have a mask on, I'm moving it to make it comfortable.

And I can't help but wonder if that puts some germs in the mask. I personally can't help but wonder what information this man is taking in. This has now apparently led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to want to make a mandatory mask policy for members on the House floor. Yeah, it seems pretty overdue. Yes, indeed. But on the relief front, the two parties are pretty much miles apart at the moment, with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows saying that the benefits are indeed likely going to just expire on Friday because nothing is going to get done in time. Yesterday, President Trump effectively threw up his hands on all the negotiating about the broader bill

and said he wanted to opt for a smaller package that would focus on the eviction moratorium and unemployment insurance. A smaller bill is something that Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell do not want to do. The Republican Senate bill also doesn't have anything on the evictions moratorium. So interesting, I guess, that Trump brought that up. Yeah, it seems like he listens to our show, maybe. I don't know. One of the things the Senate bill does have, though, is billions of dollars for an FBI building. So what? Yeah, that's it. And yesterday, Trump again demanded for that money to stay in the relief package. The long story short backstory here. Some of the money is for the construction of a

new FBI headquarters and was requested by the White House to be included in this bill. Then when the bill was released, initially McConnell didn't seem to know that that had actually made it in. And then when he was asked about it, deferred questions to the White House as to why it was that in a package that is meant for coronavirus relief, this was in there. There have been many concerns that this push for the new FBI building is meant in part to prevent a competing hotel from being built in place of the old FBI building that is near Trump's hotel in D.C. Yes, a lot to unpack there for a later date. But long story short, now a bunch of Republicans don't

want it in the bill. And Trump keeps pushing for it. Meanwhile, the money that is desperately needed for Americans to stay afloat remains in limbo. Oh, man, this country really, really just doing everything incorrectly. Well, if that wasn't enough to so obviously demonstrate all of the massive problems. Later this morning, we're going to get new numbers on just how much our economy shrank from April through June. That's right. So economists are expecting the report to say that GDP fell at a wild annual rate of 35% in the second quarter, which is historically bad.

If that's the case, though, and you average it with the first quarter, we would be down 10%, which is still historically bad, but important to put that in context. You know, maybe that shakes some urgency into people, or maybe it doesn't, and nothing will. In any case, let's move on to another story we've been tracking out of Portland. All right, so there's finally a little bit of good news coming out of the absolute chaos and militarized occupation of Portland. Federal agents will be withdrawing after a deal was reached between the governor and the Department of Homeland Security. The only problem is the mixed messaging of when this might happen. Oregon Governor Kate Brown said the agents would leave downtown today and then the city soon after. But acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said the feds would pull back from Portland, quote,

should circumstances on the ground significantly improve as state troopers move to protect the courthouse. So there's really never been a better time to use that gif of Oprah saying, what is the truth? All involved agreed that these federal agents will be replaced with state troopers. So yay, different cops. Great. And one hallmark of these protests has been a tactic that can only be described as a kind of kidnapping. We've seen it in Portland and now also in New York. Yeah, that's right. So you probably saw the video of that protester being shoved into an unmarked van in New York City earlier this week. The arrest was done by city police, not federal agents, so that's a little bit different from Portland. The NYPD has now

released the protester after she spent the night in custody. Nikki Stone, an 18-year-old trans woman, was in the midst of a 24-hour Black Lives Matter protest when she was thrown into a van by undercover cops. The footage was shared widely, and the NYPD took no time playing up their victim status on Twitter, complaining about rocks being thrown at them. And then they went on to defend the tactic by saying something that I guess they thought was good, but is definitely not good, that they have been using unmarked vans forever. They tweeted, quote, The warrant squad uses unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects.

Stone was allegedly wanted for damaging police cameras near City Hall. I wonder if they throw police officers in vans when their body cameras break or malfunction and they end up hurting someone. A lot to think about. that is sweeping the nation. Thousands of people across the country are receiving mysterious packages of seeds from China. The USDA has warned everyone not to plant them or throw them away. And the leading theory is that the seeds are part of a brushing scam, which is when companies send people items they didn't order and then write five star reviews on their behalf. I personally have not gotten my seeds yet. So another, you know, injustice. But Giddy,

what do you think is going on here? This is very clearly the plot of Little Shop of Horrors. It is time, I think, for both of us to call this out as what it is. These are coming from outer space. They are being planted here to turn into Audrey 2s across the country and take over. We know recently that there have been reports about UFOs and unmanned vehicles. I might sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but I think I'm just naturally putting two and two together. I think that you're spot on. There's no world where like, this isn't something greater than

like tomato or corn seeds, right? Does corn have seeds or is it just the kernels? This is telling you how much I know about farming, which is not enough for the apocalypse that is coming. But all I can say is I believe you. I mean, I am willing to at least follow this logical line of thinking and then maybe get some seeds of my own. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. The truth is out there. It's a good moment either way for us to pick up farming in the event of continued global apocalypse. So on that point, Akilah, would you plant the seeds if you get them?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm going to take, this is like a poorly quoted tweet from my friend Kara. But yeah, I was only put on this earth to plant the seeds. Like, weird, mysterious seeds. And I promise to do exactly what the government said not to do and plant them. Like, what else would I do with the seeds? Just throw them away? There's enough trash on earth. Let me plant some things. Let me make something grow, even if it's a scary monster plant. And just like that, we have checked our temps. Everybody stay safe. Maybe plant the seeds, but just outside, not inside your house, you know, just in case there's some fumes or something. I

don't know a lot about plants. And we will check in with you all again soon. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Major retailers across the country have now instituted mask rules in their stores. But in most cases, the responsibility of enforcing those rules falls to retail staff. That can, of course, lead to dangerous confrontations like an incident in Manhattan earlier this month when two men physically assaulted Trader Joe's employees who asked them to wear masks. One employee was even taken to the hospital. Companies like Walmart, Lowe's, and Walgreens are trying to avoid these kinds of confrontations by telling employees not to prevent massive customers from entering the store. Some managers are suggesting that more security guards should be brought on

to handle this enforcement. Yeah, I don't know how this helps elderly people who are shopping there, or even me if I'm picking up my prescriptions. Like, really drop the ball, guys. All right, well, Snapchat revealed its first diversity report to the public yesterday and things did not look good only 33 of the company's workforce is women seven percent is latinx and a measly four percent of employees are black this might explain why the company has had to apologize for multiple racially insensitive filters including one for this year's juneteenth that let users smile to break free from chains. Let's not even get started on how all the beauty filters whitewash your face.

This is the first time in years that Snapchat has chosen to share the stats with the public. Last month, CEO Evan Spiegel even told employees he didn't want to share the numbers because it would perpetuate the stereotype that tech companies aren't diverse. Quick heads up, Evan, you already perpetuated the stereotype by doing it. For its part, Snapchat set deadlines to double the number of women and people of color in its company. Oh, I still cannot believe that that filter happened. I can't believe it, but I can't believe it. On Tuesday, we got another clue into who might receive the coveted vice president's rose from presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. A photographer for the Associated Press snapped a shot of Biden's handwritten notes at a news conference, and they included a bullet-pointed list about Senator Kamala Harris. It read,

Do not hold grudges. Campaigned with me and Jill. Talented. Great help to campaign. Great respect for her. Yes. Also great reason why your penmanship should be as bad as possible. I am proud to say that if someone took a picture of my notes, their only takeaway would be that person needs a Oh, wow. All right. So Madonna has always been a boundary pusher, first in pop music and now in medical misinformation. The singer posted a hugely popular Breitbart video to her Instagram on Tuesday, which features a doctor saying hydroxychloroquine is the cure for COVID-19 and people shouldn't wear masks. The same video was shared on Twitter by Donald Trump and Don Jr. in a prime example of horseshoe theory,

which basically says that the far right and the far left can both be mad stupid. Trump praised the internet famous doctor at a Tuesday press conference describing her statements about hydroxychloroquine as, quote, spectacular. He didn't know or didn't mention that this doc has also warned about the health risks of having sex with witches and dreams and claims that scientists are working on a vaccine to stop people from being religious. I want to go to sleep for a very long time. Back to Madonna, though. Instagram eventually removed her post, which said in its caption that a working coronavirus vaccine is being

suppressed by people in power. Madonna, I don't think anyone needs your public health takes. Weirdly, though, I do want to hear Dr. Fauci cover Like a Virgin. Ugh, it'd be amazing. Yes. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, try to read our disconcerting handwriting, and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading, and not just Madonna's scandalous coffee table book from the 90s like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And remember to not hold grudges. Yeah, it's bad for your health. It is.

Cast those grudges away on a piece of paper that a photographer takes a picture of. What a Day is a Crooked Media production. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan 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 Kshaka.