What A Day - Shutdown, Swerved

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Just hours before the Saturday night deadline, a bill to fund the government through mid-November passed both chambers of Congress and was signed by President Biden. The bill – which ensures the federal government can keep paying its workers for about 45 more days –  included funds for natural disaster relief, but notably did not include any added funding for Ukraine.Senator Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving woman in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday night from natural causes at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 90 years old. Now, it's up to California Governor Gavin Newsom to choose her replacement ahead of next year's primary election, though he has promised to name a Black woman for the role.And in headlines: at least 13 people were killed after a fire broke out at a nightclub in the Spanish city of Murcia, New York City is still drying out after Friday’s round of heavy rain, and Beyoncé's Renaissance tour could be coming soon to a theater near you.Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked 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/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday 

It's Monday, October 2nd. I'm Trevelle Anderson. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And this is What A Day, with another fun fact about Donald Trump's fraud trial in New York. Yes, we just learned that the judge used to be a cab driver. So, you know, who knows? Maybe Trump is going to go for a long, long ride. Or maybe when someone tells you that judges are extra smart and that's why they get to be judges and they're not cab drivers. It just means that it's the look of the draw, you know? On today's show, New York City is still drying out after Friday's round of heavy rain. Plus, Beyonce's Renaissance tour could be coming soon to a theater near you. But first, the government has not shut down. Not yet, at least. We told you on Friday's show that it seemed like we needed a miracle for this type of outcome. And apparently somebody's deity of choice

picked up the main line because just hours before the Saturday night deadline, a bill to fund the government through mid-November passed both chambers of Congress and was signed by President Biden. In addition to ensuring that the federal government, which is our country's largest employer, can keep paying its workers for about 45 more days, the bill also included funds for disaster relief. Yeah, this is a surprising and welcome piece of news. I think we all thought this was a pretty done deal. But how exactly did this new deal come together? To keep things short, because this is kind of a long winding tale and journey, let's just say

that folks got tired of the so-called Freedom Caucus in the House. That's the group of absurd far-right Republican representatives that basically were holding the government hostage, I'd say. They were committed to forcing a shutdown if they couldn't get their way, their way being increased provisions for border security, no more money to support Ukraine against Russia, and perhaps most consequentially, 30% cuts in government spending, which Democrats would have never voted for. And so, a group of slightly less absurd Republicans who wanted to avoid a shutdown,

they got together Friday night to figure out a deal that could pass the chamber with Democratic support, circumventing the so-called Freedom Caucus altogether. The continuing resolution that they came up with is what ultimately passed both the House and the Senate. Notably, while it did not include any cuts to government spending and there weren't any problematic border policies as part of it, the bill did not include any added funding for Ukraine. Though that was something many Democrats wanted, they settled for a bipartisan pledge from Senate leadership to, quote, work to ensure the U.S. government continues to provide critical and sustained security and economic support for Ukraine.

That commitment is according to a statement from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and four top senators on the Senate Appropriations Committee. It's a really bad sign when Mitch McConnell is like one of the reasonable Republicans on a deal. You have not mentioned Kevin McCarthy. He has basically been like letting these far-righters like run the show, but obviously something has changed. So what's going on there?

Yeah, so I'm sure we all remember that back in January, Kevin McCarthy went through what felt like a million rounds of votes to become House Speaker. A million. I loved every one. It was a lot. Let's every one. It was a lot.

Let's be real. It was a lot. It was ups, it was downs, it was theater, it was camp, and I loved it. It was. Well, that was because of those far-righters who McCarthy ended up cutting a deal with that now allows any one member to motion that he should be removed from the post for a vote to happen. And so he's really been trying to appease these fools and their hyper-conservative ideologies all year, and initially was basically advocating for a forced shutdown alongside them. But here's where that miracle came in, because McCarthy ended up doing some back-channel finagling that got this continuing resolution passed. And so now, Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, who is

one of those foolish far-righters, he is planning to attempt to oust McCarthy this coming week. I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week. I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy. Look, the one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. He lied to Biden. He lied to House conservatives. The only way Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out. Okay. So that was Matt Gaetz on CNN's State of the Union Sunday. So it's looking like the chickens might be coming home to roost for McCarthy in this regard.

For his part, though, McCarthy is welcoming the challenge. Here's what he said in response on CBS's Face the Nation. Yes, I'll survive. You know, this is personal with Matt. Matt voted against the most conservative ability to protect our border, secure our border. He's more interested in securing TV interviews than doing something He wanted to push us into a shutdown even threatening his own district with all the military people there who would not be paid Only because he wants to take this motion. So be it bring it on

Let's get over with it and let's start governing broken clock twice a day Kevin McCarthy We can all agree Matt Gaetz is just a clown. He's the clowniest of the clowns. Clowniest of the clowns. That said, right, it is still too soon to tell if Gaetz will actually get McCarthy unseated. He definitely have to get a sizable amount of Democrats to join that vote. But some reports are saying that considering how polarizing a figure McCarthy is, literally anything is possible. So we will definitely be keeping our eye on this

story, especially. Anyway, and other news about Congress on Saturday night, Dianne Feinstein's body returned to San Francisco after her death. At 90 years old, Feinstein was the oldest member of Congress and had been in the Senate over 30 years, where she had a pretty controversial history. She was often kind of a confounding figure in the Senate. For example, she pretty disappointingly supported the Iraq War, but then spearheaded the investigation of CIA torture and misconduct. Recently, though, she had become most well-known, arguably, for staying in office far too long, right? Even after her cognitive decline was evident to not only her colleagues, but the public. She actually cast her final vote on Thursday, just like hours before she died. Which is, to be clear, a really kind of like problematic note that like you were working

literally as you were dying is basically what that amounts to. It's very American. Well. Congressman. They're one of us. Yikes. Dark. So Feinstein's death means there is a single senator representing the most populous state right now.

What happens now to make sure that that seat is actually filled? Yeah. So there will be an election for Feinstein's seat next year. But in the meantime, California Governor Gavin Newsom has to appoint an interim senator for this seat. And this is, cannot underscore enough, not something he wants to do. He has said this publicly. He does not want to have to appoint a senator to the seat. And his reticence makes a lot of sense. As the San Francisco Chronicle put it, no matter who he appoints on an interim basis, Newsom is going to tick off someone. And the reason for this goes back to three years ago when former Senator Kamala Harris became vice president. Newsom had to appoint someone to the other California Senate seat, Kamala Harris' Senate seat. He appointed then California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, and many were frustrated that he didn't appoint a Black woman, given how rare Black women are in the Senate. In response to this backlash about the fact that he appointed someone who is neither Black

nor a woman to Harris' seat, Newsom promised to appoint a Black woman to Feinstein's seat if it were to open up. Now, that exact thing has happened. And so now he's under a lot of pressure to fulfill his promise. Which seems, you know, fairly easy given how many qualified Black women there must be in California. I remember all of the articles after Kamala was elected about these are, you know, seven Black women that Governor Newsom can appoint.

And obviously he went in a different direction. But why is this decision so controversial now? The reason is because of the upcoming election in 2024, right? So there have been a lot of calls for him to appoint Representative Barbara Lee, a very popular representative in California. And recently Newsom said that he would not choose her as the interim replacement. Lee, a Black woman, is running for Feinstein's Senate seat in the upcoming election. And so Newsom said in early September that he wouldn't appoint her because he doesn't want to get involved in the primary.

He kind of feels like he'd maybe be stacking the deck for her. And he doesn't feel like that would be fair or that's the implication, right? Lee then made a statement that she was, quote, troubled by the governor's remarks and noted that Black women have carried the Democratic Party and basically said, like, he doesn't seem to actually be interested in appointing, like, the best person for this seat. The implication, obviously, being that that would be her. So he won't appoint Lee, but is he still expected to appoint a Black woman? Yes. So actually, as of recently, on September 10th, he said, quote, we hope we never have to make this decision, but I abide by what I've said very publicly

on a consistent basis. I have to say that is like not an enthusiastic, like, yes, I'm thrilled to appoint a Black woman to the seat statement, but it does seem like he's been pretty unequivocal and his dedication, his willingness to appoint a Black woman to the seat. And, you know, he said he hopes he never makes a decision. That was like three weeks ago. That hope has been dashed, right? All of this being said, right as we were gearing up to finish this episode, Governor Newsom's office confirmed to multiple news outlets that he plans to appoint LaFonza Butler to fill Feinstein's seat. Butler, a Black woman, is currently the president of EMILY's List, a national organization

dedicated to getting Democratic women elected to political office. She's also openly gay, so this would make her the first out person of color to serve in the United States Senate. Now, Newsom hasn't made the decision public just yet, but we'll be sure to follow this story in the days ahead. But that is the latest for now. Let's get to some headlines. At least 13 people were killed and several others injured after a fire broke out at a nightclub in the Spanish city of Murcia yesterday.

Officials say it started around 6 a.m. local time and quickly spread through adjoining nightclubs. A cause for the fire was not immediately clear, and investigators are still looking into where exactly the fire started. But according to a spokesperson with the Spanish National Police, the majority of the victims were found at the Fonda Milagros nightclub. Authorities warned that the death toll could rise as the search through the wreckage continues. Murcia's city government has declared three days of mourning for those who died. It's the deadliest nightclub fire in Spain in more than 30 years.

In 1990, 43 people were killed when a fire broke out at a club in the northeastern city of Zaragoza. Nearly 30 years after the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, a Las Vegas man was arrested and charged with his murder last Friday. Dwayne Keefie D. Davis was indicted by a Nevada grand jury on one count of murder with a deadly weapon, plus a sentencing enhancement for gang activity. Prosecutors said Davis wasn't the gunman, but called the shots to have Shakur killed. Under Nevada state law, someone can be charged with a crime,

even murder, if they help carry it out. Davis, who was ID'd as a suspect early on in the investigation, is the last living person from the group that allegedly conspired to kill Shakur. He also admitted in interviews and in his own memoir that he provided the gun that was used in the 1996 drive-by shooting and that he was in the passenger seat of the white Cadillac that drove up alongside Shakur the moment he was shot.

Davis is due in court later this week. I want to say, we've seen a lot of headlines saying, now we know who killed Tupac Shakur, and we explicitly don't, because nobody is claiming that this man arrested for murder committed murder. Nobody is claiming that. And I just want to remind everybody that arresting people for murder when they did not commit murder is a kind of incongruous and abusive thing to do for prosecutors in power. And so are gang enhancements. So that's what I have to say about this. The streets of New York City turned into raging rivers on Friday after the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia dumped more than seven inches of rain on the city in less than 24 hours. New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a

state of emergency by mid-morning on Friday, and Mayor Eric Adams told residents to shelter in place and stay home. But for many New Yorkers, even home wasn't safe as water inundated many ground and basement-level apartments. Videos posted on social media showed flooded subway stations and highways, submerged cars and buses on the streets, and the flooding even reached LaGuardia Airport, where travelers were forced to wade through several inches of water inside one terminal. While the water has now mostly subsided, the need to address the city's aging infrastructure is far from over. With human-driven climate change making storms like this more powerful and more frequent,

experts warn that New York and other major cities need to rethink how to adapt to extreme weather. A Tennessee judge has ordered the end of the conservatorship between former NFL player Michael Orr and the Toohey family, both subjects of the Oscar-winning film The Blind Side. Orr filed a lawsuit in August after he discovered earlier this year that Leanne and Sean Toohey never legally adopted him as a teenager, despite what he was led to believe. Instead, he was put under the conservatorship in 2004 when he was 18, which meant that Orr could not sign any contracts, handle his own finances, or even make medical decisions on his own. Orr also alleges that the Tooheys profited off of his name and were paid for their involvement in The Blindside.

Orr claims he never received any money from the movie himself, even though it's about his own life story. The two of these have denied the allegations, so the judge overseeing the case even said that in her career,

she had never seen a conservatorship agreement reached with someone who is not disabled. I have to say, this movie never sat right with me. The politics are weird, and I am not surprised

to hear this news at all. I will just say, Sandra Bullock plays a white savior very well. Mm-hmm. And finally, move all the way over Taylor Swift because another concert film may be hitting the big screen this year. AMC Theaters is in talks with the one, the only, Beyonce Gisele Knowles-Carter to release a Renaissance World Tour movie in December. Sources familiar with the project said Beyonce's talent agency CAA has been telling studios and streaming services to get ready to bid on the project that's been in the works for years now. It's set to feature scenes from Queen B's tour that began back in May, along with some documentary-style footage of how Renaissance came to be and what went into

designing the tour's dazzling visuals, choreography, and set pieces. The film will also include the long-awaited visual Renaissance album that fans like myself have been dying to see ever since the album came out. And the news comes after the Renaissance tour made its final stop yesterday in Kansas City. It's estimated to have raked in a total of $560 million in ticket sales. I cannot express my joy about this enough. I still watch Homecoming on Netflix like multiple times a month. As you should. I'm super excited about this. Beyonce told us a few months ago that we were the visuals,

and she was correct. We are the visuals. I pray that there is no concert footage of me at that concert, because I don't think I was holding it together, like, excellently. So, Beyonce, if you're listening, please leave me out. Yeah. And those are the headlines we'll be back after a short break to catch a ride on the hippest trip in america it's monday wad squad and we want to

kick this week off with a new segment that we are callingoo! If you're a long-time listener of the show, you've been with us through a lot of historic moments for organized labor. From the first ever Amazon Warehouse Worker Union in Manhattan to the end of the second longest Hollywood writer strike, we've been here to give you all the important info and context you need

to stay in tune with workers across the country who are standing up for themselves. Yes, but sometimes there are just so many stories out there that we can't even fit them all into our show, which is, by the way, great news. That means the union train is really moving. So to break down a few worker victories we saw over just this weekend, we are joined by our producer, Raven Yamamoto,

who has been following the Labor Beat all year long. Raven, you angel, welcome back. Oh my god, thank you. Oh my god, this is what my third time on the show. I feel so special. Happy striketober also. You are so special. Striketober. Happy striketober. Yeah, yeah. That only kind of works because strike doesn't really sound like oct, but I love it as a vibe. Yeah, no, no, absolutely. Yeah, that's what I was going for. Yeah. All right. So as we all know, I'm an entertainment girly, and I know we saw some developments in the industry over the weekend. Can you tell us about some of those?

Yes, I sure can. So the first was that the Actors' Equity Union, we love them, we stan, has filed with the NLRB to represent Broadway production assistants. So for a bit of background, production assistants or PAs, Trayvon, you probably know this, are some of the few non-unionized workers in the Broadway industry. It's very rare to come across someone who works in Broadway who isn't part of a union, but these folks aren't. And so we're talking about roughly like 100 people who work behind the scenes on shows that we all know and love to prepare materials for rehearsals, run errands, basically anything that has to do with stage management. And these are folks who are usually paid by the hour as opposed to salary from before a show

starts rehearsals to the show's opening night. So for that stretch of time from starting the entire production process to getting it to the finish line. So a lot of these people like are essential to the productions that we all know and love, and they wouldn't be finish line. So a lot of these people are essential to the productions that we all know and love. And they wouldn't be able to put on a lot of these productions without them. Yeah, this is very exciting news. It is. You know, I want everybody to be unionized. Why not?

Since you're forcing people to go to this point to get the support, the pay, the resources that they are due. Unionizing for everyone. Shout out to the PAs on Broadway. Absolutely. What's the other story you have? So another development we saw over the weekend was in the world of competitive reality TV, my favorite.

So folks who work in post-production for The Amazing Race have officially unionized with the Motion Picture Editors Guild. So these are the editors, assistant editors, who sort through hours and hours and hours of footage and make it watchable for folks like us. They're also, most notably, the transcribers who caption the show and make it accessible, which I'm sure you can imagine is super fun and not hard at all. So according to The Hollywood Reporter, the producers of the show voluntarily recognized the union on September 23rd. Labor contract was finalized last Wednesday and the union ratified the agreement the next day. So super quick,

super easy win. 10 out of 10, no notes. Wish this was more common when we talk about stuff like this. So yeah. Absolutely. I wish it was more common. I'm curious though, what pushed these workers to unionize now? I love The Amazing Race. I've watched almost every season. I know that they're on the 35th season right now. But why now? So many seasons. So many seasons. About how many years I've been alive.

That's crazy. It's so good though, Josie. You gotta tune in. I'm starting from season one and I will be done when I'm 70. But Raven, why now? Why are they unionizing now? Yeah, so I had the same question.

So I don't watch The Amazing Race, but knowing that you do, Trayvon, this is much the amazing news for you. You've probably noticed, right, that the episodes are a little longer than they used to be. I know the first episode was, what, this past week? And that's because the show recently switched to a 90-minute episode format for the first time this year

as opposed to their usual one hour. So when you think about it, that's the opposite of what happened to Drag Race. So it's easy to see why the show's post-production team pushed to unionize now. A longer show means longer hours for them. And I don't know. I mean, if I was asked to put out more content for the same pay, I'd want to make sure that my time and my work isn't exploited. So can't really blame them.

Makes sense. Okay, so shifting gears from entertainment, there's also news of a massive strike in the healthcare industry that could happen this week. What is going on there? Yes, so this is a big one. So over the weekend, the labor agreement between Kaiser Permanente and thousands of their healthcare workers across the country expired, but no new deal was reached as of our record time. The coalition of unions that represent these workers told Kaiser that they plan to strike

from October 4th to the 7th, so this Wednesday to Saturday. So we could see the largest healthcare strike in US history in a couple days. Doctors and registered nurses won't be a part of the action, but I mean, we're still talking 75,000 employees. So nursing assistants, technicians, and other support staff who service

nearly 13 million patients. So kind of a big deal. Yeah, that's a huge deal. So what are some of the demands that these workers have for Kaiser that aren't being met? So workers are seeking better pay, like in most instances where people are bargaining for a new contract. Specifically, though, they want a 6.5% increase in wages over the next four years. Kaiser has only offered them 3%, so they're still pretty far apart on that matter when it comes to being at the bargaining table. But the other big issue is staffing, right? So healthcare workers just don't have the numbers they need to support their

patients and are asking the company to hire more people to lessen the load. I mean, like a lot of folks have spoken out about how it's like unbearable, the amount of patients that they see and have to, you know, schedule so far from the moment that they seek care because they don't have the capacity to do it. And so the end result, like I said, is usually longer wait times for people who are seeking out this kind of care and need it pretty desperately. So it's as much of a problem for the workers as it is their patients. And so they're standing up to save basically the healthcare industry and really just make sure that everybody is taken care of, including themselves. And so what is Kaiser saying about all of this? So Kaiser maintains that it's negotiating in good faith, which, you know, has been contested by the

unions that are involved in this contract. Meanwhile, the company has said that it has contingency plans in place in the event of a work stoppage, should it happen. And Kaiser Hospitals and ERs will stay open, but Kaiser itself has warned its members to expect some disruption. So that's kind of the update there. We'll see what happens. We will see what happens. Raven, thanks so much for coming back on the pod. We really appreciate it. Of course, thank you for having me. I can't wait to come back.

One more thing before we go, it's Banned Book Week. And we just want to say how messed up it is that we need something called banned book week. You can show your support for authors and librarians by shopping for new merch from the Crooked store. They've got Are You Afraid of the Books? tees that are perfect for spooky season and newly refreshed Free the Books merch. So whether you're a bookworm or just someone with a personal hatred for Ron DeSantis, we've got you covered. Book it over to crooked.com slash store to shop. That is all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, take a breather from watching C-SPAN all weekend, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just Beyonce concert movie rumors like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Trevail Anderson. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And happy Striketober. We'll take it.

We can make it work. But we might need to re-workshop the name. I'm with you, Josie. Yeah, but we'll re-workshop it when everybody finishes striking. Absolutely. When everybody gets back to work. Absolutely. Well, today's a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producers, Itsy King-Denia, Raven Yamamoto, and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers.

And our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.