What A Day - New Executive Order

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

Trump signed a bunch of executive orders and actions over the weekend that he presented as a fix to our economic problems. But the reality is much less transformative. We explain what his actions do (cut unemployment) and what they don't do (protect renters from eviction).ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, is planning to sue the Trump administration over its ban on US companies doing business with the app. The executive order against TikTok also bans US dealings with WeChat, another Chinese-owned app.And in headlines: a massive oil spill in Mauritius, protests in Beirut, and Amazon goes to the mall.

it's monday august 10th i'm akilah hughes and i'm gideon resnick and this is what the day your favorite wap that means wholesome ass podcast yeah i mean it's okay if you have another interpretation but that's the one that we're definitely using yeah wad is a wap for sure folks oh yeah wap WAP for sure, folks. Oh, yeah. WAP. On today's show, what's next for TikTok in the United States, then some headlines. But first, the latest. Starting with coronavirus, the United States passed 5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases over the weekend. This comes as schools grapple with reopening plans and Congress has let emergency unemployment assistance and federal eviction protections expire. Now, over a week past

deadline and with Republicans unwilling to come to an agreement with Democrats, President Trump signed a bunch of executive orders and actions that he presented as a fix to the economic problems that we're dealing with. But it wasn't really that. So let's go through these and what they actually do. Let's do it. All right. So outside of the possibility of legal challenges here in the future, what is new on that front? There is a lot less substantively in the stuff that Trump signed than what he said. So let's begin with unemployment. There had been all this back and forth over the $600 in weekly federal unemployment aid that Democrats wanted to extend. And on Saturday, Trump said his administration is going to initiate a $400 weekly payment, which of course is better than nothing but less than the $600. But there are a few important catches here. For one thing,

according to the president's memo, $300 of that is coming from the federal government and the other $100 is coming from states. Now, why does that matter in this case? One of the immediate questions was whether financially struggling states would actually be able to do this. And for example, Ohio's Republican Governor Mike DeWine said he didn't know if his state could cover it at the moment. Trump is also calling for the federal portion of the money to come from DHS's disaster

relief fund, which is normally used for hurricanes and other natural disasters. Yeah, it seems like Trump didn't learn anything about preparedness from this whole COVID thing. And it is predicted that, you know, this hurricane season is going to be really terrible. But, you know, just just noticing things. That is correct. Just noticing. So the plan is to take around $44 billion from that disaster fund and use it for unemployment payments through December 6th, if it lasts that long or until the money runs out. But the Washington Post crunched the numbers and found that the money covers less than five weeks of aid for the estimated 30 million people that are unemployed in the country at the moment. Also, per the Post, the federal aid seems to only apply to people getting more than $100 from state unemployment, conceivably leaving out a lot

of people with lower incomes who might need it most. And finally, there's a real lack of clarity on just how quickly this could even get up and running. It is possible, for instance, according to experts, that there would have to be some new system for states to administer this. And there are certain impediments to actually distributing benefits that aren't authorized by Congress. Yeah, we love more uncertainty in a pandemic where we have literally no certainty. But Trump also claimed he would protect people from eviction with an executive order. Seems like there's some pretty big holes in that, too. Yes, there are indeed. So on that point, the big thing here is that Trump's executive action didn't reinstate the federal eviction moratorium that was in the CARES Act.

In fact, it only told HHS and CDC to, quote, consider whether that kind of ban is needed, kicking the can to them. His action also doesn't directly come up with money to help people in these scenarios, rather tells Treasury and HUD to look for those funds. More kicking. 27% of people missed their rent payment in July already, according to a new survey from the Census Bureau, and more than a third expect to miss their August rent. Now, the CARES Act moratorium was only a partial fix to all of this as it only applies to renters in federally subsidized units. All right, so let's keep going. Then there's a

payroll tax part of this. It was talked about as a tax cut, but it's actually just a deferral? That seems to be the case. So the fine print seems to say that if you make less than $104,000 a year, you won't have to pay payroll taxes from September through the end of the year, but they're going to be due later. And Trump would actually need Congress to change the law around this to actually do a permanent cut. So that is what he's calling on them to do. But because the 6.2% tax goes towards Medicare and Social Security, that push for making this permanent would logically impact that, which raised many alarm bells for folks like the AARP. So again, the president breaking a promise not to touch those two crucially important lifelines in the future. And cutting payroll taxes is something that even other Republicans in Congress did not support, which, spoiler alert, is why it didn't make it

into their bill. And if you are currently unemployed, this is not a benefit for you, really. Okay, and the last one is on student loans. So are they gone finally? Are we done? Am I good? That would be nice. But alas, this is something at least. Trump's order waives interest on student loans that are held by the government until the end of the year and allows for delayed payments until December 31st. So that was set to expire at the end of September. And that's the overview of where we're at. But what happens next here? You could see court challenges over Trump's use of executive orders. You could see issues with the rollout and the implementation. But the bottom line from experts and people that were sort of

talking about this, analyzing it, appears to be anything more extensive in scope is going to have to go through Congress. That includes aid for small businesses. That paycheck protection program expired over the weekend. Stimulus checks that people got earlier in the year, money for state and local governments, and more. So we will keep track as always. But now let's jump into another ongoing story about an app we all know and love. It is TikTok. Ah, yes, it's TikTok, my favorite app for learning to dance for 15 seconds at a time. Well, following Donald Trump's ban on U.S. companies or individuals doing business with TikTok,

a ban which goes into effect after 45 days, plus pressuring the company to sell to a U.S. company by mid-September, and a more bizarre request to get a cut of the deal, the Chinese-owned app is planning to sue the Trump administration as soon as tomorrow. Their argument is simple. This kind of executive action is unconstitutional

because it failed to give the company a chance to respond. They also plan to allege that the administration's justification that TikTok is harmful to U.S. national security is baseless, and that's according to a source that spoke to NPR. TikTok's owner ByteDance maintains that they do not share data with the Chinese government, but critics say it's naive to think the Chinese government doesn't have some kind of access. Right. And so the onus here could be on the Trump administration to back up their claim. And our collective memory is long enough to remember the time those meddling TikTok kids trolled Trump's infamous Tulsa rally. Yeah, I mean, if we get a new president,

those kids should definitely get medals of freedom for saving actual Trump supporters from their urges to attend a rally in the middle of a pandemic that we are in the middle of. But Rhee, some company, is looking to buy TikTok's U.S. business. Last week, rumors swirled that Microsoft was potentially interested in acquiring the app. And over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter is in preliminary talks to combine with TikTok. Microsoft is still an overwhelming frontrunner, though, with nearly 17 and a half times the cash on hand as Twitter for such a deal. But, you know, Twitter has been trying to bring back Vine for years, so maybe there's still a chance. Yeah, back at it again at Krispy Kreme. Broader context here, though. Tensions between the U.S. and China are already high amidst a trade war, a pandemic, embassy closures and a new Hong Kong security law. So if a president getting rid of the most popular app

in the app store in an election year seems weird, it's also only the latest in this pile on. Yeah. And there's reason to believe that this latest Trump administration mandate could extend to other Chinese owned companies that operate here. Trump's executive order also bans another Chinese owned company, Tencent. If you haven't heard of it, maybe you've heard of the messaging and payment app WeChat, which they own. Tencent also has a partial stake in the makers of Fortnite, League of Legends, and Call of Duty. How the ban will affect WeChat or the companies behind those games is uncertain, and some experts think that uncertainty is the entire point. And on the antagonizing China bit, U.S. Secretary of Health Alex Azar is currently in Taiwan. He's the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit in at least four decades, which is a much longer

story, but the cliff notes are that it legitimizes Taiwanese sovereignty and, you know, China claims the island as its own. And so China has already threatened to have some unspecified countermeasures. All right. We're going to keep up with this avalanche of news here, but that's the WOD Squad. And for today's temp check, we're talking about a new single that captured our country's hearts and minds this weekend. It is W.A.P. from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, which hit number one on the U.S. Spotify charts and broke the record for the biggest music video debut on YouTube ever. Not everyone was a fan of the song, though. Conservative commentators were shocked by Megan Cardi's lyrics,

with California congressional candidate James Bradley tweeting that it made him, quote, want to pour holy water in his ears and feel sorry for future girls if this is their role model. So Giddy, did you like WAP or did you react like James Bradley? I did not react like James Bradley. That is kind of a funny tweet, though. Not in the way that he thinks it is. No, I liked it.

I liked it a lot. I thought it was really funny that the music video version, which is like the only one that I heard, made it somehow seem more explicit. Yeah. And like every other word was like a lot more, like if they had just said the actual words that I think that they were saying, you know? And it reminded me a lot of like when you turn on

like TNT or TBS and they're doing like the Scarface on network television thing or like Big Lebowski or something. And they're doing like the Scarface on network television thing or like Big Lebowski or something. And they're clearly they're clearly like cursing every other word and everything that like Al Pacino Scarface is saying is like, yeah, it's pineapple. And you're like, he's not saying why would he be saying pineapple? It's completely not the words they would be using.

Yeah, exactly. I feel like, you know, Samuel L. Jackson with his mother-father snakes on this Monday to Friday plane. But yeah, I think it's hilarious. And there was another conservative whose name I forgot. And thank goodness for that, who said they accidentally heard it and they were very upset and concerned. I'm like, you don't accidentally hear and watch a full music video for this. You definitely pay attention and like watch it again. Yeah, you sought it out like every other red blooded American.

But do you think that this will go down in history as the greatest music video of all of them? OK, so I mean, it just depends on the definition of music video. It's not like Black is King didn't just come out, which is several music videos. But I will say definitely one of the most iconic music videos ever. I mean, come on. Lime Green and Purple is back. We have hit the weird part of the most iconic music videos ever. I mean, come on lime green and purple is back. We have hit the weird part of the nineties and I am into it.

Yeah. The, all of the, also like just the content that it created. Like I saw a thing with, um, like a scene from how to get away with murder that Viola Davis tweeted, where she is like in one of the rooms when the door opens. I just,

yeah, it's, it's very, it's very opens. I just, yeah, it's, it's very, it's very memeable. It's very, it's good. It's everything, everything about it.

Solid. Yes. Well, just like that, we've checked our temps. They are hot. Just like the new song of the summer. Stay safe.

And we'll check in with you all again tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. A massive oil spill in the Indian Ocean continues to grow despite efforts to contain it. It all started late last month when a cargo ship got stuck in a reef off the coast of the island nation, Mauritius. Last Thursday, the ship's oil hole was punctured and it began leaking out into the reef. Experts say that the environmental damage done by the spill might be irreversible. On top of that, the island's economy largely relies on tourism that the reefs bring in. The prime minister on Friday declared a state of emergency and called on the UN to help.

The government is trying to get a handle on the situation before the ship breaks apart, which would make efforts to contain the spill even harder. Just terrible. Protests in Beirut ramped up over the weekend as the city continues to deal with the aftermath of the explosion there. On Saturday, protesters stormed multiple government buildings and were met with military force. They were expressing outrage at how the government handled the explosion last week. Even before that, residents were already unhappy with Lebanon's corrupt political system and shaky economy. That's why demonstrators over the weekend called for Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his entire cabinet to resign. Diab instead

announced he would ask his cabinet to approve early parliamentary elections today, which is far from what protesters were asking for. Already, two ministers and four members of parliament have sided with protesters and quit their jobs. And yesterday, world leaders held a virtual conference to discuss what to include in a massive aid package. Well, if kids in Springfield, Illinois, thought remote learning meant they could wear hats in class like a bunch of hippies at Woodstock, they were wrong. The school district there said last week that the dress code will still be enforced despite the extraordinary circumstances. Those rules also forbid pajama pants, which I definitely do not wear constantly on work zooms, and shoes with wheels on the bottom, which students could argue will help them speed across their rooms if they

need to escape a cloud of coronavirus. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said schools across the state will be allowed to open this fall for in-person learning. The governor said last month that schools could hold classes if they are located in regions that have begun phase four reopening and show a 14-day average infection rate that's below 5%. That is now true for the entire state. Who is looking at people's shoes on Zooms? I'm asking America's teachers and faculty. In a few years, the beloved American pastime of getting lost in a department store on the way into the mall will be all but forgotten. Amazon is reportedly in talks with the largest shopping mall operator in the U.S. to turn

stores formerly occupied by Sears and JCPenney into fulfillment centers. Now, for Amazon, the locations of these stores and residential areas is ideal and could help them deliver products even faster than they do now. But for mall landlord Simon Property Group, the deal would offer security at a time when brick and mortar stores are failing, although Amazon is far from the perfect tenant. Their warehouses wouldn't draw much foot traffic to malls, unlike Sears and JCPenney, which in their heyday drew huge crowds of people not unlike myself ready to fight for the last bottle of CK1 cologne by Calvin Klein. Amazon has already made fulfillment centers out of a number of failed U.S. malls that e-commerce helped kill, which is a good preview of how Amazon will treat

us once it is finally able to make robots that do online shopping. I mean, look, I don't know. I'm excited for the teens that get to hang out in an Amazon fulfillment center after school in the future. Those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, abide by the dress code, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just maps at malls that say you are here, 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 I got dibs on the last cologne. I need it. Don't ask me why, I just want it. You will smell me through the Zoom whether you like it or not. What a Day is a Crooked Media production. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis.

Sonia Tun 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.