What A Day - Turkey Confrontations And Opioid Reparations

Episode Date: November 27, 2019

Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal probe of opioid makers and distributors, a type of investigation that’s usually reserved for drug dealers and cartels. We discuss how this might develop. It’s Thanksgiving week! We remind you of the main points you need to know to emerge victorious from every turkey day scuffle in our “What A Day Thanksgiving Issue Round-up And Political Brawler’s Handbook.” And in headlines: Mayor Pete feels op-dread, the return of Mark Sandy, and Melania gets “Be Bested”-d by children.

It's Wednesday, November 27th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, the Bob's Burgers Thanksgiving episode of News Podcasts. H. John Benjamin, you're the king. Today's episode is our last for the week. We'll be back next Monday, but we don't want to leave you hanging going into Turkey Day. So on today's show, we'll tell you how to win at Thanksgiving and bring you some headlines.

But first, a new criminal investigation of opioid makers. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that federal prosecutors have launched a criminal probe of opioid makers and distributors. The investigation aims to decide whether pharmaceutical companies intentionally allowed opioid painkillers to flood communities. This sort of criminal investigation is usually reserved for drug dealers and cartels, so this is pretty major. If the investigation results in criminal charges, it could be the biggest prosecution of drug companies that have allegedly contributed to the opioid epidemic. Akilah, what are the companies that are involved in this

and how far has this investigation gone already? Yeah, so six companies have confirmed in regulatory filings that they received grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York. There's probably more, but we do know about Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries,

McKesson Corp., Amnial Pharmaceuticals, Malincrod, and Amerisource Bergen Corp., Amnial Pharmaceuticals, Malincrod, and Amerisource Bergen Corp. They could have better names. Yeah, without a doubt. This is a criminal investigation instead of a civil one. On the show, we've talked about the big civil case involving Purdue Pharma, where the company paid a $270 million settlement in its legal battle against Oklahoma. Teva also agreed to pay that state $85 million. Now, shortly after those settlements, Purdue Pharma filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. What makes this case different than all those other ones? Yeah. So according to legal experts that the Wall Street Journal spoke with,

criminal charges require prosecutors to prove an effort to willfully and intentionally avoid requirements like reporting signs, you know, like suspicious orders, for example, that could indicate the drugs were being used for non-medical purposes under the Controlled Substances Act. Whereas civil charges can be brought to executives and companies for failing to report those signs passively. In other words, the attorneys general have to prove these companies intentionally hid the red flags about how the drugs were being distributed and misused in communities across the country. Earlier this year, when federal prosecutors filed similar but smaller criminal cases in Manhattan and Ohio against a pharmaceutical distributor and a couple executives, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Berman said, quote,

Executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking. Wild. Yeah, wow. So this is a big deal, and it's part of a movement towards reparations for communities that have dealt with this opioid crisis. But what comes next? Yeah, that's a really good question. To your point about this being a move towards repairing what's been lost, you know, more than 400,000 Americans have died from overdoses from legal and illegal opioids since 1999. That number comes from some federal statistics. So obviously millions of dollars won't be enough, right? Several of the companies being investigated have already tried to reach settlements in the $48 billion range. But if the 90 settlements from Big Tobacco are any kind of indication, we should be looking in the hundreds of billions of dollars range.

Much of the money won against Big Tobacco, unfortunately, went to budget gaps in different states rather than to, you know, rehabilitation and crisis services. So there's a lot to pay attention to with the money, how much of it is coming and where exactly the funds will go at the end of all of this. Right. Of course. And if you want to learn more about the opioid crisis and how it's being handled, and also a comparison to how the crack epidemic was addressed, check out another Crooked podcast, America Dissected with Abdul El-Sayed. That would be episode number five. A lot of you will be heading home today for Thanksgiving, a day of heavy foods and heavier conversations. A lot of families argue on Thanksgiving.

It's just a fact. You may love your second cousin but hate her beliefs, and after three plates of cooked bird destroys your inhibitions, someone's going to say something they can't take back, and it could turn into a real Rian Johnson presents Knives Out situation. True. Personally, my family is pretty spread out,

so it's hard to get everyone in one place to actually have a SmackDown or a knife fight if the day calls for it. Right, and for me, my family is as blue as the deep blue sea, but if yours is more of a purple, Barney the Dinosaur-colored family, you might be in for some very tense discussions, and What A Day wants to make sure you're prepared.

That's why we're presenting the What A Day Thanksgiving Issue Roundup and Political Brawler's Handbook. Beautiful and accurate. Sounds about right. We're going to run through some topics that are likely to come up at Thanksgiving this year and give you some cliff notes on how to win them. Now, it's super important that you treat each disagreement with your relatives with patience and empathy, but it's also important that you absolutely suplex them. You decimate their egos and leave them loudly

telling your grandmother that they'll never come to Thanksgiving again. You need to dominate your little cousin Billy, who has flung mashed potatoes into your hair all night. Exactly. The most important thing about arguing with family is winning at all costs. So the first topic that's likely to come up is impeachment. Maybe you have an uncle who thinks Trump's Ukraine scandal is not an impeachable offense. Here's what you want to say. First, what Trump did is textbook. The Constitution defines impeachable offenses as treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Reasonable minds have disagreed so far as to whether Trump's actions specifically constitute bribery, but an actual crime is not necessary as the basis for an impeachment to take place. Generally speaking, impeachable offenses are actions a president takes

to abuse his or her powers of office or violate public trust. Second, Congress has historically identified misusing the office for an improper purpose or for personal gain as grounds for impeachment. And one could easily argue that the actions that Trump took with holding military aid from Ukraine in order to get an announcement of a public investigation into a public rival is an example of misusing the office for personal gain at the very least. Third, if your uncle thinks it's not impeachable because Trump did eventually unfreeze the aid and before any investigation was announced, remind him legal at the very least. Third, if your uncle thinks it's not impeachable because Trump did eventually unfreeze the aid and before any investigation was announced, remind him legal scholars have

argued that an attempt at bribery constitutes bribery all the same, according to the interpretation of it in federal law. Oh, and by the way, the aid was released only after Trump was made aware of the whistleblower complaint, according to new reporting on Tuesday. If you've said all this and your uncle still isn't convinced, your instinct will probably be to just move on and smooth things over by talking about how much food you're eating and how tired it's making you. Resist that. Instead, put your hands deep into the wet foods on the table, whip them around like egg beaters, and just yell to let your family know you are fully unhinged and will not stop making a mess until you are declared the winner of this argument.

And if all else fails, threaten to flush yourself down the toilet. And that is exactly how you win an argument about impeachment. Great job, Akilah. Thank you so much. Okay, the next topic that's likely to come up is climate change. For the uncle who says those George Soros commies are making this shit up, just remind everyone at the table that the UN published its annual assessment of climate change on Tuesday and said that emissions need to decline by 7.6% every year over the next decade for the earth to remain relatively stable. Then also cut them off from the damn old wine.

But maybe also your weirdly outspoken libertarian teenage nephew thinks it is real, but that it's too expensive to deal with. In that case, here's what you want to say. One, actually the cost of not dealing with climate change is too expensive to deal with. In that case, here's what you want to say. One, actually, the cost of not dealing with climate change is too expensive. A new working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that if temperatures continue to rise at the rate they are rising today, the US stands to lose up to 10.5% of its GDP by 2100. I don't want to hear the how are we going to pay for that type stuff about the Green New Deal or any other plan. What else are you going to spend money on that is more important than the damn earth? Two, climate change isn't just expensive, it's potentially a systemic economic

risk. For the first time this year, the Federal Reserve is starting to make preparations for what could happen if a power outage were to shut down electronic payment systems and banks experience runs on cash, as well as other risks presented by mass weather events brought on by climate change, like when banks and Federal Reserve cease to exist above water. Three, it's not just sensible young Americans and humans with brain cells that want to deal with this to, you know, make sure we can still breathe in 50 years. More than 2,000 businesses and investors, you know, those groups who devote their lives to the soul-sucking capitalistic enterprise of money accumulation,

have signed on to the We Are Still In pledge to urge the U.S. to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement. They even seem to want to try and stave off a Mad Max future where Elon Musk controls the entire water supply. If your nephew still isn't convinced by all of this, you'll want to pull out the fake master's degree in climate science you brought to Thanksgiving just for this purpose. Nail it into the wall directly above your nephew's head with feeling, grazing one blonde cowlick. Then cue the actor you hired to play the role of America's tree czar to come in wearing funeral clothes to say the environment is dead and your nephew killed it. And if all else fails, threaten to flush yourself down the toilet again. Yeah, and that's how you win an argument about climate change. And the last topic that's bound to come up at this year's Thanksgiving is

student loans and the possibility of debt forgiveness. Most millennials and Gen Zers are pro, but maybe your aunt's lonely neighbor who is way too outspoken for a person who barely got invited to this Thanksgiving says, I paid my student loans off myself when I was your age. You should too. Here's what you can say. One, the cost of going to college has doubled since 1989 after adjusting for inflation. That's eight times faster than wages have risen in the same period. For what 50-somethings paid to go to Harvard University, we could go to Subway Sandwich University. Two, even if boomers think young people deserve to suffer in debt, they should care about their own boomer peers.

Over the last five years, the largest increase in student loan debt in the U.S. is among 60 to 69-year-olds, nice, who have experienced a 72% increase in their loan balances. Helping to pay for their children or grandchildren's tuition has left many having to tap into their retirement savings or Social Security payments. And three, while the older generation talks wistfully about the days they spent being broke on hate Ashbery, writing poetry and eating cigarettes, they should remember young people are way more broke today. In 1989,

when boomers were in their 30s, they owned 21 percent of all U.S. wealth. Today's millennials own three percent of the wealth. That's according to new data from the Federal Reserve this week. If you say all this and the neighbors still won't quit, your next move is to toss a magic smoke bomb on the ground. And as you disappear into the haze, tell your family that this was all just another one of your devilish plans. And you use mind control to convince them that it is Thanksgiving 2019. But really, there hasn't been a Thanksgiving for 30 years. And if they want you to stop your tricks, they should leave the house at once. Then, when they all leave, send them a group DM saying,

I'm flushing myself down the toilet right now. And that's how you win an argument about student loan forgiveness. Okay, this was fun. But remember, though we may fight a lot during Thanksgiving, at the end of the day, we should all be happy just to surround ourselves with the people we love. During a holiday that is beyond problematic, where we eat dry bird that we don't eat at all during the rest of the year because it tastes just okay. Enjoy your break. Happy Thanksgiving from what a day. And if you really can't handle

your fam, look up your local food bank and get involved. And now to some ads. Last week, we told you about ladder, the high quality workout supplements used by star athletes like LeBron James, who I'm sure you've heard of. Well, there is more Ladder to climb. So let us tell you about their sale, which is their only sale of the year, 30% off sitewide on Black Friday. Get hype. What are you excited to buy, Gideon? I'm probably going to hit that whey chocolate protein again and maybe go nuts with a bundle if I can keep all my Thanksgiving food down on Thursday when I go to the gym. Yeah.

Okay, fair. So I have never tried pre-workout, but since their ingredients are like high quality, I'm like, I'll try it out. You know, anything to give me that energy to leave my car and enter the gym would be ideal. Literally the hardest part. Well, all Ladder products are backed by their 100% satisfaction guarantee. So if you're not happy with your purchase, they offer full refunds within

the first 30 days. Yeah. So visit ladder.sport.com on Black Friday to get 30% off and free shipping. That's ladder.sport.com for 30% off everything starting Black Friday. Climb that ladder. Did you think that we were done talking about Black Friday? Because we are not. Akilah, do you have a plan for Black Friday? Yeah, you know it. So I have this short list on my phone of where I plan on shopping. And the top of the list is Nordstrom Rack, which you probably should have expected, because you know I love the rack. Yeah, it's really true. It's honestly the first thing that you say whenever we see each other, whenever you walk into the office, just exclaiming Nordstrom Rack, and everyone's turning around like, what?

Yeah, this isn't a Nordstrom Rack, this is Cricket. Well, maybe people need to learn how to say hello back to me in the language I speak. All right, well, anyway, my plan is I'm getting a bunch of towels, slippers, a third robe, a phone case, some travel size keels. All right. All right. Cool. So Nordstrom Rack is going all out for Black Friday. You can take an extra 50% off clearance items on Thanksgiving and Black Friday plus free shipping with no minimum spend. Yeah. And after Friday, it'll be 30% off clearance through Cyber Monday and the free shipping lasts through then too. North Jumrak. It's where it's at. Black Friday. And now back to the show.

Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Mayor Pete responded to criticism he received after comments he made about black students in poor communities eight years ago went viral. In that 2011 clip, he said children in lower income minority neighborhoods don't know anyone that, quote, personally testifies the value of education. Woof. This made a lot of people mad, including Michael Harriot, who wrote an essay for The Root titled Pete Buttigieg is a lying motherfucker. Harriot later wrote that Buttigieg reached back out to him on Tuesday, saying, quote, he mostly just wanted to listen. Buttigieg has been lacking support amongst black voters despite his recent booty bump

in Iowa. Tuesday brought testimony from the one they call Mark Sandy, an official at the White House Office of Management and Budget. He revealed that two of his colleagues resigned over concerns about aid to Ukraine being held up. Stay tuned for more on our impeachment coverage next week. First Lady Melania Trump got booed on stage yesterday by an audience of middle schoolers and high schoolers near Baltimore.

Let's take a listen. Yeah, well, apparently the audience stayed booing through her entire five minute speech. Melania was there to promote her initiative on issues affecting children, which is aptly named Be Best, which if that's the best she could do with the naming convention, yikes. The students also probably weren't too happy with her husband calling their area a, quote, disgusting rat and rodent infested mess either. Looks like Melania got be bested by children. And those are the headlines. That's all for today.

And remember, we'll be out the next two days and back on Monday. So don't contact me. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Give us a rating, pass the pumpkin pie, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just the sodium content in a can of gravy like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash newsletters. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick.

And that's why my cousin Bartholomew will finally see that I'm right about Medicare for All. What A Day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn 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.