What A Day - Return Of Barack

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

Last night was the third night of the Democratic National Convention, featuring marquee speeches from VP pick Senator Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama. Overall, programming was more focused on issues, with segments on immigration, climate change, gun violence, and more. New coronavirus antibody data from nearly a million and a half people in New York City showed an infection rate of 27 percent, ranging significantly depending on neighborhood.And in headlines: a Native American man faces federal execution despite tribal objections, Apple is worth 2 trillion, and Germany will introduce a dog-walking law.

It's Thursday, August 20th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Ratzak, and this is what a day where we're still stuck in the Philadelphia Museum where Obama did his speech. Yeah, everyone who was hidden here left and we're fully locked inside now. There's a good chance that all these statues and artifacts will soon come alive. See, that's what I was afraid of. On today's show, it's night three of the DNC, then the latest on the coronavirus, and of course, some headlines.

So let's get into the Democratic National Convention. Last night featured marquee speeches from the VP pick Senator Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama. And before that, in the first half of the night, the convention focused on a lot of dire issues facing the country. There was a package on gun violence featuring a powerful speech from former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, as well as personal individual stories from others who have experienced gun violence and taken action on the issue. There were also segments on immigration, climate change, domestic violence, and more. Overall, it seemed to be more policy heavy with, for instance, a segment about the Violence Against Women Act, a major legacy point for Biden that was part of the 94 crime bill. Yeah, and it's definitely not something I expect to see anything about at the RNC next week. But thematically, there was also a section on groundbreaking women that included speeches from Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

with references to Shirley Chisholm, who was the first black woman to run for the Democratic Party nomination. Harris also referenced many of those women as well as her own mother in her speech. That's right. So let's actually get into the Harris speech. She officially accepted her nomination for vice president. It was a historic moment, of course. She's the first black woman and the first Indian American woman to be on a major party ticket. So here is a clip from her speech. And I'm so inspired by a new generation. You, you are pushing us to realize the ideals of our nation, pushing us to live the values we share, decency and fairness, justice and love. You are patriots who remind us that to love our country is to fight for the ideals of our country.

In this election, we have a chance to change the course of history. We're all in this fight. You, me, and Joe. Together. What an awesome responsibility. What an awesome privilege. Yeah, so this was towards the end of her speech where Harris seemed to be embracing a kind of not-me-us mantra going into the last months of the election. Akilah, overall, what were your reactions to everything that she said? Well, I definitely cried. I don't think I was alone in that. A lot of people online were saying how they were surprised to be emotional about it, and

I was too. But I think, you know, growing up in Kentucky in a place where Mitch McConnell was in office my entire life, it just didn't occur to me that like a black woman could ever have something like that, could wield that kind of power, could be on a national stage at that level. So it was just really, I think, amazing. And then, you know, compound that with the fact that she brought up Breonna Taylor, who, you know, as we know, has still seen no justice. And just knowing that we're not going to get that from other leaders. And, you know, it took me back to the primaries where she was always talking about black mortality rates. It's

just she represents a segment of this country that is so overlooked. And so I think that I was really blown away. And she also just, you know, didn't ignore young people, which I think a lot of the complaints and cynicism we see online are from people saying, you know, like, this is an old party. And, you know, they're so out of touch and like, yeah, OK, everybody who's running for office is old. But like what's really, I think, exciting here is that she emphasized that she is changed by the younger people in the party who actually show up and vote and protest in the streets. And so I think it was just more moving than I expected it to be. Yeah. And I think that I think that's definitely something that, you know, I heard from you and

other people throughout it as it was going on, for sure. And to the point of the kind of generational nature of all of it, it's sort of interesting here that you have Biden back at the top of the ticket and 12 years ago, you know, it's this flipped position where he's the person giving the speech that Harris was giving tonight. And now she has this kind of amazing and kind of scary opportunity really to sort of be the person that might pick up the mantle here in the future as the younger generation of this party compared to Biden. And also looking at, you know, 2008, the amazing thing that struck me was, at that time, they're talking at that convention about pulling people out of a recession, they're talking about economic issues that they

need to address. And 12 years later, we have a very different situation, but we have quite a similar situation. And Harris was speaking to a lot of that as well. And on the point that you were bringing up about sort of nodding to this protesting against police brutality and systemic racism, Harris and President Obama both did that in their speeches. And it definitely does seem like a way to engage those younger voters who weren't necessarily with Biden during the primary. And it's going to be something really interesting to see, I think, for some of those people you're talking about who may have been skeptical. You know, how do they engage with this? How does she continue to engage with it? And where does that all go from there? Right, for sure. Well, that leads us to President Obama's speech. And here is a clip of that.

To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be better, in so many ways, you are this country's dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, it's a given, a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, your system of self-government can be harnessed to help you realize those convictions for all of us. You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better place. You're the missing ingredient, the ones who will decide whether or not America becomes

the country that fully lives up to its creed. That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. Right. So that was part of the Obama speech where, you know, he's also kind of hitting on those similar themes. He's talking about the mass movement against systemic racism and police brutality that we've seen across this country this year and said that everybody that is involved holds the keys for pushing politicians further and determining the future. So in other parts, he also spoke about President Trump as a threat to democracy itself, saying that Trump would tear it down if, quote, that's what it takes to win. So, Akilah, what did you make of his message? I mean, Obama is just such an expert speaker that it was, I mean, I think effective from beginning to end on the point of like going after Trump and even alluding to the fact that he seems to have no morals and will do whatever it takes to win, dividing us further. I don't think I've ever seen a president go after,

like a former president go after a sitting president so directly, so bluntly. And I certainly think that this is the most direct Obama has been about Donald Trump, you know, this late in the game. At one point he said, you know, for close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work.

That kind of echoes what Michelle Obama said earlier in the week. He's had the time to prove he's up to the task. He just isn't. You know, he reiterated that he has no interest in finding common ground, which, again, like I think we all are living through that. Right. And, you know, he also just made the very succinct point that Donald Trump hasn't even grown into the job. And it's because he can't. It's not that he just won't. He truly cannot. He is incapable of being a leader in this country. So I thought that was really, really just impressive and I think sort of awe-inspiring. But also, he spoke about the importance of voting and how Donald Trump has done everything in his power

to stop us from voting. I know that Kamala Harris has often said, you know, ask yourself why they don't want us to vote. So that messaging was just couldn't be more of the moment with everything that's happening with the Postal Service. Yeah, for sure. And I think also, too, like in that and in all of the speeches that Obama has given about Trump and the way that he seems to be thinking about it. He's sort of reckoning with like what all has happened and what all has been damaged from his own presidency. And this election is in part about that, too, with another example being that the ACA Supreme Court case is happening around Election Day. So you have these like two things going on at once where he's saying it is this election and it's also the future.

But right now there are very present things that people can and should be aware of. And to the point of the comparisons between his speech and Michelle Obama's, I don't know if they conferred or sent each other notes or something. But it was also fascinating that they both sort of acknowledge at different points, like, maybe it is that some people are so upset and had it with government that they won't listen to us. But, you know, just this idea that they had faith in people possibly doing that. I thought overall it was just much more of a stark vision of where the country is than some of the idealism that has characterized these conventions before. But, you know, it seemed

to be where we're at. So, Akilah, any final thoughts on everything else? Yeah, I would just say, you know, definitely watch the speech from Gabby Giffords, watch the speech from Elizabeth Warren. I think all of the speakers last night did a really great job of just really setting up what the challenge is for our country going into the election. I think a lot of times people are just like, this is wrestling. There's one side versus another. That's it. But that's clearly not, that's not what it is. And so those speeches were excellent. But yeah, there's just one more night to go. And tonight we're going to be hearing from Joe Biden as he gives his acceptance speech. So tune into that with us at crooked.com slash convention. Plus, you can join Pods of America for a live pre-show starting at 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern to relive the week's highlights and the most memorable moments of past conventions.

Again, that is crooked.com slash convention. Let's move on to some updates on the coronavirus, which again is overhanging everything right now. Yeah. So the U.S. is seeing about 40 to 50,000 new cases a day. And what's remarkable is that actually represents an improvement from where we were in July, though, of course, it's way too high. Deaths which are lagging new cases are still above a thousand a day and have been for the last month or so. Florida, one of the hardest hit states, just passed 10,000 deaths yesterday. And it's all just a stunning toll that hasn't inspired any sort of plan from the federal government. Right. And so that's the current national picture of where

things are. But looking backwards, which is important to sort of understand all of this, and zooming in on New York City specifically, we got some new antibody data yesterday from the city's health department. What's the overall significance there? Okay, so this is the biggest set of data that we have so far on infections in New York City. It's almost a million and a half samples that are included. So overall, the city showed an infection rate of 27%, but it ranges significantly depending on which neighborhood you live in. One zip code in Queens, ironically called Corona, had an infection rate of 50%, whereas Park Slope, which is a wealthy majority white community in

Brooklyn, had an infection rate of 13%. And that variation is repeated across the city, where infection rates largely track socioeconomic differences. So Corona in Queens, for example, is predominantly Hispanic and has a lot of people who work in construction, restaurants, and other service jobs, many of whom had to go to work throughout the entire pandemic, raising their risk of infection. And on top of that, researchers think that transmission from person to person at home, especially in large households, was a big factor there. Yeah, it's really stark when you look at a map of the city and sort of where all the cases are. So the other big element here is what this could actually mean for herd immunity in New York.

Yeah, so there's some debate in scientific community about the threshold to get to herd immunity, as in the percent of people who need to have immunity so that the virus isn't able to spread around as quickly. And some experts believe that you need rates around 70%, but others are really hoping that it might not be that high, especially if people are making other behavioral changes like wearing masks and distancing. They say this could be a reason that New York City hasn't seen a major second uptick in the cases since the spring, and all of that understanding is still developing, along with how long immunity even lasts. But that's the latest for now. It's Thursday, WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check, we're talking about some extreme weather out of Switzerland. A Lindt chocolate factory there had a problem with its ventilation last week,

which shot cocoa powder into the air and dusted an entire town with chocolate snow. The issue is under control now, but the pictures of Swiss cars covered in chocolate will last forever. So Giddy, does this make you more or less interested in living in the same city as a chocolate factory? Way more. This is like, this is the whimsical stuff you hear,

you know, in fairy tales about living in a city with a chocolate factory. I'm waiting for like Charlie Bucket and, you know, his grandparents to show up in this town. No, I like it. I think that compared to other things that could conceivably be falling from the sky in other parts of the world, volcanic ash, derecho winds and debris, this seems, I'll take it. Yeah, definitely an improvement although I am

confused about your memory of Willy Wonka the chocolate factory so many kids died that town was cursed but so when you hear this story Akilah does this fit with your mental image of what Switzerland is like zero percent so I have actually been to Switzerland. Oh, humblebred. I was in Zurich doing some business. And it is just a very expensive city. Everyone speaks English. The food is just like a buffet at an airport. And it's like $30 for spaghetti. It is, there is no chocolate snow.

I will say there is a lot of chocolate and cheese. But around day three of being in Switzerland, you're going to want a vegetable because your body's feeling it like i was so disappointed when the third night they were like you guys want to do fondue again i'm like please don't make us um so yeah no if anybody has these uh beliefs about switzerland let me just set the record straight it is not a beautiful chocolate factory town it's uh it's definitely more like any old business boring place you've been so you're describing it more with my like conception of like Dallas than I would think of how I typically think of it

it's like Dallas with more like cobblestone okay yeah so you know I'll take it perfect well just like that we have checked our temps they are warm like hot cocoa but not like too hot like we have a fever or something anyway everybody stay safe and we will check in with you all one more time tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. For the first time in the history of the modern death penalty, a Native American man faces federal execution over tribal objections. Lesmond Mitchell was

convicted for a murder and related crimes in 2001 and is scheduled to be put to death on August 26. Tribal officials from the Navajo Nation have sought to overturn the death penalty for Mitchell and have the authority under the Federal Death Penalty Act to decide whether or not their citizens can be sentenced to death for crimes committed against fellow Native Americans on tribal land. Mitchell's lawyers say that the government's intent to proceed with the execution demonstrates an ultimate disrespect for the Navajo Nation's values and sovereignty. Attorney General William Barr gave an update yesterday on the Justice Department initiative that sent federal agents to reinforce police departments in several cities. The initiative, named Operation Legend, launched in July and dispatched a thousand federal agents to cities including Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland to combat what the DOJ saw as violent crimes.

Trump announced the initiative while he was facing mass criticism for deploying federal agents to quell protests in Portland. Yesterday, Barr announced that nearly 1,500 people had been arrested under the new operation. Without citing any evidence, he said that 2020 could be a bad year for violent crime, hinting that it might be brought on by efforts to, quote, demonize the police. Many local officials have described the move to send in federal agents as a political stunt. Every once in a while, we like to shout out the little guy here at WOD. So that's what this next headline is about. Apple added $1 trillion to its value over the past 21 weeks, bringing its total to $2 trillion and making it the most valuable company in the world. If you assumed like me that

this was mostly due to the runaway success of The Morning Show, you'd be wrong. The real reason for Apple's recent growth has more to do with tech companies being seen as safe bets for investors as the pandemic totally upended the stock market. Apple has also increased sales of every one of its products this year with profits 12% higher in Q2 than they were last year in spite of store closures. Now I myself bought an Apple watch so I could track how much of my day I spent sitting in the exact same place. It's all of it, isn't it? Yes, 100%. Dogs can say many different things with their barks. They can say, I'm hungry, or I'm frightened, and soon they'll be saying, I'm moving to Germany, because the country is introducing a law that will

require residents to walk their dogs twice a day. Germany's agricultural minister says the rules are based on a new study which says dogs require a certain amount of activity and exposure to environmental stimuli. The study was written by tin board schnauzers, but that's not really the point. Germans looking to get around this law with half-assed walks are out of luck. The proposed Dogs Act would require walks to last one hour, giving German dog owners 120 minutes each day to reflect on the pleasures of owning a fish or a plant. Many Germans have already reacted negatively to the law.

They'll have plenty of time to express their opinion when they're serving hard time in dog jail. That's where they're all headed, if you ask me. Yeah, all dogs go to heaven. All bad dog owners go to dog jail. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe leave a review help us escape from this museum in philadelphia seriously and tell your friends to listen and if you're into

reading and not just dog laws like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at crooked.com subscribe i'm akilah hughes i'm gideon resnick and check out the morning show i mean if you want, it's kind of your call. We also have a morning show that you're listening to. So, you know. Our head writer is John Milstein and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kishaka.