What A Day - Now That's What I Call Climate Chaos

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Extreme weather is taking a toll around the globe, with intense storms battering parts of Europe, and historic drought revealing long-submerged relics in other regions. China is also wrestling with one of its hottest, driest summers on record.A bitter recall campaign forced Chesa Boudin, San Francisco's progressive district attorney, out of office in June. But critics of his replacement, Brooke Jenkins, say her new policies are troubling.And in headlines: a car explosion killed the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, Singapore will repeal a law that bans sex between men, and Rep. Liz Cheney said former Vice President Mike Pence should testify before the January 6th committee.Show Notes:Vote Save America: Fuck Bans Action Plan – https://votesaveamerica.com/roe/Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

it's monday august 22nd i'm erin ryan and i'm josie duffy rice and this is what a day where we're concerned about being deleted from hbo max even though our show was never even on hbo max i feel like an early 80s episode of sesame street i know so relevant so beloved and yet underappreciated by the people that matter. On today's show, the daughter of a major Putin ally was killed in a car blast, plus a win for LGBTQ activists in Singapore. But first, a song of fire and flood. And I'm not talking about that new Game of Thrones prequel series about a kingdom where everybody wears very fancy wigs. I'm talking about the ways climate change is

manifesting before our eyes. Europe is currently facing its worst drought in years. In Germany, shocking photos of the Rhine River show that the once mighty waterway has shrunk to barely more than a trickle. And I'm only being a little hyperbolic, Josie. In some places, the river is only 30 centimeters deep. That's nothing. That's like a human forearm. It's not very much. In addition to all the requisite headaches that come with water shortages, this is also causing trouble for the movement of goods. In recent weeks, cargo ships were forced to carry lighter loads than usual in order to make it down the Rhine. Now, the water is so low that some ships can't even make the trip while running empty. And over in Serbia, the Danube River is so low that wreckage of Nazi vessels from World War II are now visible.

Under normal circumstances, the wrecks are well below the surface of the water, but now 20 of them are exposed. Okay, so exposure of Nazi vessels, what does that mean? Well, it's not good. The exposed wrecks are not only dangerous to other ships because, well, they're in the way, but these newly resurfaced wrecks also contain Nazi bombs that could explode. Josie, just to repeat, Nazi bombs that could explode. Josie, just to repeat, Nazi bombs that could explode. That means there are environmental hazards for people who live on the banks of the river in Romania and Serbia. Southern Europe, meanwhile, was pummeled late last week by intense storms with winds hitting up to 140 miles per hour at some point.

At least 12 people have died in Italy, France, and Austria, including three children. 140 miles per hour is so intense. China is dealing with a drought and a heat wave of its own. Temperatures as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit have wiped out crops in central China, and the water in the Yangtze River is dangerously low. In Sichuan, the drought has dried up reservoirs normally used to generate hydroelectric power. As a result, places like offices and shopping malls are being ordered to turn off air conditioning. Factories don't have enough electricity to run.

According to authorities, people in some rural areas will soon face drinking water shortages. It's gotten so bad that China is planning to seed the clouds over areas suffering from drought, hoping to induce rain. Great idea. Messing with nature got us into this mess. I'm sure that messing with nature even more will get us out of it. At the same time, other parts of China are getting hit with flooding and mudslides, displacing hundreds of people from their homes. And extreme weather in northern India has turned deadly,

where monsoonal flash floods have killed at least 40 people. Seeding clouds, Nazi bombs, 140 mile per hour winds. where monsoonal flash floods have killed at least 40 people. Seeding clouds, Nazi bombs, 140 mile per hour winds. Like these are things in a YA apocalypse novel. Why is this happening? Climate scientists believe that all this is happening because of human driven climate change, as you probably guessed. And while extreme weather events are experienced most intensely by the people who are directly

impacted, there are like further reaching implications of all of this. And I feel like not a lot of people think about those. Exactly. So extreme weather events driven by climate change also impact the global supply chain and the global economy. Dry waterways means barriers to shipping. Dead crops and shattered factories means there isn't anything to ship in the first place. On a large scale and over a long period of time, everybody on the planet is impacted by extreme weather events.

So don't tell yourself you can simply move to rural Ontario and escape the worst of it. Can't go Alice Munro and get away. It's coming for everybody. And also apropos of nothing, I'm not sure Canada wants most of us. I wouldn't want me either. However, if you are Canadian and listening to this, please want me because I need you. Okay, let's switch gears here from climate change to criminal justice. As we mentioned last week, George Gascon, the district attorney of Los Angeles,

survived a recent recall attempt funded by tough onime reactionaries. It was a better fate than that of Chesa Boudin, the former District Attorney of San Francisco, who was recalled in June after a well-funded and intense effort to paint him as the source of San Francisco's issues with crime. Boudin and Gascon are what have been described as quote progressive prosecutors. It's a wide umbrella, but it generally means someone willing to say like, hey, maybe all of these people should be in prison. That makes the tough on crime contingent pretty irate. Boudin was replaced by an interim district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, who actually used to work for Boudin, but quit to support the recall campaign against him. Now, my expectations for Jenkins were not high, honestly. I didn't expect her to be like some great reformer. But

Erin, I am still a little taken aback at just how many concerning choices she's made in like her first very few weeks. There is so much double crossing. And it's not like cool double crossing, like in succession. It's like frustrating double crossing. This is like real. This is real. These are people's real lives. But so much has happened in such a short period of time, just about a month and a half since she's been in office. And some people may be thinking, well, that's not that long. Give it time.

But that's almost why this stuff is worth mentioning because it's a lot to go wrong in a very short time. Yeah, exactly. So let's start with a recent issue about her getting paid money when she said she was a volunteer. This sounds not even like succession. This puts us into like Real Housewives territory. It's not cool to do it when you're not elected.

It's double plus uncool if you're an elected official. Yeah. So this is pretty wild. Jenkins claimed that she volunteered for the effort to recall Boudin and that she had quit her job to do so because it was so important to her. This was like a whole narrative, right? But it turns out that she was actually paid $153,000 to be a consultant for a nonprofit that shares an address and basically a name with the recall effort. So Neighbors for a Better San Francisco paid her, but she volunteered for a group called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy.

Oh my goodness. Okay, so I did some napkin math. Yeah. And I divided $150,000, we'll just say, we'll just make it even, with the average income in the US, which is about $31,000. She made 4.8 times the average income volunteering? I just suggest to everybody that next time you do a volunteer thing, you ask for. You really need to lean in. Lean in. Know your worth. Know their worth. Advocate for yourself.

That's an insane amount of money. It's really, really, really wild. And it's wild to say, like, you're doing this just out of your own conviction. An editorial in the San Francisco Examiner called this a, quote, thinly veiled lie and said it's the, quote, latest example of the prosecutor's troubled relationship with the truth. And I want to remind everybody she has been in office merely weeks. Yeah. I believe that people can grow.

Yeah. But I also think it's not a great start. This started so early on. So can you remind us, like, what happened during her first week? I think from the very first meeting in office, a lot of people got the sense that perhaps this was not going to be a very smooth transition. So according to the San Francisco Chronicle, multiple people there described the first meeting as, quote, horrible, uncomfortable, and at times insane. I won't get too far into the details, but notably, she did not seem to have many policy ideas or goals. The only thing she kind of made clear in that meeting, apparently, was that she wants to crack down on drug crimes. She wants harsher punishments for drug crimes.

You know what? We are living in an era of reboots. I gotta say, that sounds to me like a reboot. I think I've heard this before. It is the worst possible reboot. As we all know, the war on drugs was famously successful. I mean, the drugs won. The drugs won. The drugs won. Leading with that tough crowd. Then a week later, she fired 15 people in the office. Now, on one hand, it's her office now. You get to fire people. You get to hire people, whatever.

On the other hand, she was appointed, not elected. And she could theoretically be out of office as soon as November when the next election is. So, you know, 15 is like a pretty drastic number, right, for what could be a six-month appointment that nobody voted for you. But it's not just that she fired 15 people. It's who she fired that was really, really telling. She fired the liaison to the city's innocence commission. She fired the head of a unit that investigates police shootings. This is a woman who considers herself to be a progressive prosecutor. It's not looking good. Recently, one of the prosecutors in Jenkins' office resigned,

concerned that Jenkins is more focused on building political power than running the office, which she said in a publicly released letter. And all of this is combined with the fact that Jenkins has supported or instated policies that will mean a much tougher on crime environment. More drug users will be locked up. She's been openly dismissive of diversion programs in the past. She said she's leaning towards other pretty regressive policies, including being able to charge children as adults. Maybe the children are gifted. Maybe they're just especially gifted. Yeah. She's running in November, right? She is running in November. It's her first time on the ballot. She's running in some pretty good

candidates, including John Hamasaki, the former San Francisco police commissioner. Keep in mind that this is like a bigger fight that's happening across the country, right? So this is why this is relevant. We mentioned after Tampa District Attorney Andrew Warren said he would not pursue charges against those seeking abortions or the parents of trans children, he was suspended by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Warren has filed a lawsuit claiming that the suspension was a violation of his First Amendment rights. We'll see what happens there. But generally, there's a lot of pushback against quote-unquote progressive prosecutors, who many people like to blame for any increase in any crime ever. But as we've said before, the increase in crime that has happened across jurisdictions in

the country has happened in places with very tough prosecutors as well. Rural, city, red, blue. It might just be the pandemic. Anyway, this is a reminder to make sure that you know who is on the ballot for prosecutor and sheriff wherever you live. You still have a lot of time to ask them really tough questions, push for a better system than the absolute brutal one that we currently have. Better prosecutors are not a solution. They're harm reduction though. Harm reduction is important and it matters. That is the latest for now. We will be back after some ads. Now let's wrap up with some headlines.

Headlines. A car explosion on the outskirts of Moscow killed the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist Saturday night. Daria Dugina died at the scene, and Russian authorities are investigating the explosion as a premeditated murder. Her father, Alexander Dugin, is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and a vocal proponent of the war in Ukraine. Some allies of the family are pointing their fingers at the Ukrainian government, but an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied any involvement. Singapore will repeal a colonial-era law that bans sex between men. It's a huge win for LGBTQ plus activists. But during the announcement yesterday, Singapore's prime minister said the city-state would narrow the definition of marriage as one between a man and a woman. The move comes after other

Asian countries like India made similar decisions in recent years. Complicated, caveated win. Members of a Georgia grand jury will have to wait a little longer to be lulled into an angry sleep by the sing-song drone of Senator Lindsey Graham. A federal appeals court put a temporary stay on an order that would have required Graham to testify in the investigation, which is centered on efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. Graham had been expected to testify tomorrow as a witness for the prosecution, but yesterday an appeals court determined that his status as a federal lawmaker may exempt him from answering certain questions and kick the matter down to a lower court.

Prosecutors had planned to ask about a 2020 phone call between Graham and Brad Raffensperger, where Graham asked the Georgia Secretary of State to invalidate some mail-in votes to help Trump. And just a quick note here, Josie, I did not realize when I was voting for elected officials that I was voting for people who I nominated to not have to follow any laws at all. That's right. It's crazy that the Nixonian legal philosophy, if the president does it, it's not illegal, is now being like mission creeped down into the Senate. Yeah, it's a party platform now. The era of Liz Cheney unchained is finally upon us, so help us.

And the soon-to-be former representative from Wyoming kicked it off by sitting for an interview yesterday with ABC's This Week. Cheney is vice chair of the January 6th committee, so she was asked if former Vice President Mike Pence should testify before the panel when hearings resume next month.

Here's what she said. I would hope that he will understand how important it is for the American people to know every aspect of the truth about what happened that day. I know that she's saying the party line, but I find it hilarious. This like, I hope they have the integrity. We know they don't have the integrity. Cheney said the committee has spoken to Pence's legal team and added that anyone with information about the insurrection had a, quote, obligation to step forward. And as far as whether former President Trump would testify, she said it's a possibility, but left it at that. If they do want Trump, it's probably best to forego a subpoena and opt for a giant net, like maybe like a honey trap or something.

Louisiana's Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry is risking millions of lives in New Orleans as part of an effort to be quote unquote pro-life. Last Thursday, he successfully argued against $39 million in state funding for an infrastructure project that, when finished in 2024, would have protected NOLA against floods during storms. He did it in retaliation for the city council's directive that law enforcement should not enforce the state's abortion ban. That law bans a procedure without exceptions for rape or incest. Here is Jeff Landry at a recent meeting of the state's bond commission over that $39 million. You can't vow and swear, solemnly swear, to uphold the laws on one hand,

and then on the other, stand up say but i'm not gonna uphold that one it's absurd this idea these people are lying to you when they tell you that they are like constantly enforcing the law equally all of the time it sounds like a very good argument it is not happening no one is doing that in any party you can't there are so many laws it is impossible to do that it's absurd and if the idea of holding a whole city hostage to climate change over abortion infuriates you, it should, especially since that city was a site of one of the worst natural disasters in American history. And forecasters predict that there will be up to 10 named hurricanes that form in the Atlantic this year. And I also want to add, if you're somebody who

has absolutely no heart and none of these things resonate with you, New Orleans generates a ton of revenue for that state. And the way it generates revenue is by having people visit and having the people that live there go out and enjoy the several thousands of cultural offerings in the city. Like you flood New Orleans, you're cutting your head off to spite your face. You're like, take that face. Oh, crap. I cut my own head off. Also, an update on the thing that turned every 23-year-old on Reddit into Jordan Belfort for a month in 2021, meme stocks. Cursed phrase. The home goods store slash coupon mint, Bed Bath & Beyond, is one of the latest companies to get the meme stock treatment, and it's had a very crazy few weeks.

On August 1st, it was trading at about $6 a share, but by last Wednesday, a Reddit-fueled run had helped drive the value up nearly 300% to $23 a share. Then, after activist investor, another curse phrase, Ryan Cohen disclosed he was selling his massive 10% stake in the company last Thursday, but Bath & Beyond plummeted back down to $11 a share and could fall even further today. So all this is like a lot of numbers, but if you need more of a narrative to grab onto,

here's one that could make you jealous or despondent or ready for the class war or all three. When the stock was at its highest, one 20-year-old college student made about $110 million by selling his stake. Math major Jake Freeman had bought 6.2% of Bed Bath & Beyond in July after raising, are you ready, about $25 million from friends and family. That is a direct quote. And surely most of us know how it is to be able to ask your friends and family for $25 million. I could maybe raise $2,500 from friends and family.

I'm solidly at $25. That's about as much I'm getting. Before Freeman sold, this is my other favorite part of the story, he sent a letter to the company's board outlining his recommendations for how to turn their struggling business around. Referencing his holding company, he said, quote, Freeman Capital's plan for the realignment of Bed Bath & Beyond consists of two crucial legs, cutting debt and raising capital. I have taken exactly one economics class in my life and I feel like I could have told them that. Imagine working for Bed Bath & Beyond

and a 20-year-old comes in and tells you, hey, you guys should spend less money and make more money. Oh my God, we didn't think of that. Thank you so much. Anyway, if in the process of doing business, he acquired any extra 20% off coupons from Bed Bath & Beyond, please have him send those my way because I could use them. And those are the headlines. That's all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, send coupons of all kinds directly to us, tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just words engraved on the outside of recently surfaced Nazi boats like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe.

I'm Josie Duffy Rice. I'm Erin Ryan. And we'll get you next time, Lindsey Graham. I love that characterization of him as a sort of like breakfast cereal mascot. I know. He's like a boring villain.

He's got like sugar cereal vibes, but sugar cereal that you're like, I asked you for Lucky Charms and you brought me Lindsey Grahams. Right. Exactly. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Jazzy Marine and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Lita Martinez and Leo Duran.

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