Episode 30 - C'mon, Plan!

In this week's episode of Fate of the Union, Franklin covers various states all of a sudden having a change of heart in now letting businesses reopen.  Furthermore, President Biden is off to a rough start in terms of coronavirus response - - in that he has none.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome everyone to the fate of the union podcast, a weekly review of the biggest issues in national politics, given it from a conservative perspective, the show also periodically address current true crime cases from across the country. If you like, what you hear, please hit subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Now let's talk about the fate of the union. Welcome back everybody to the program here at fate of the union and the main topic of conversation this week is what I'm sure a few people may have gotten a sense of, even if not keeping up with news and some of the actual explicit orders coming out from certain States, but nevertheless, many States are now starting to open up. Uh, even some of the more locked down States are allowing restaurants and businesses to operate, even at a, say, 25% capacity. I believe that's the case in Michigan and California, but still allowing them to operate in some something resembling a normal operations, albeit at lower capacity, Michigan, for example, this past weekend allowed for bars and restaurants to operate at a O B it's severely reduced capacity. But of course the first thing that comes to mind for us is timing of all of this. Wouldn't, you know, it that Michigan, which had at least been getting attention as one of the States, depending on which media outlet you check up on either being the most restrictive in their shut downs or on the other side of the coin, the most forward-thinking and protecting its citizens the most in just how severely businesses were shut down and restricted in their operations. Yet the very weekend after now, president Biden is inaugurated and fully installed with his vice president to take over in the white house. It just so happens that now Michigan, and again, others are starting to open up. And of course the first thing that comes to mind is the politics of the shutdown are really rearing their ugly head once again. And right now it's particularly transparent, even for a group of people who haven't been especially secretive about this since the very beginning of the shutdowns back in may, we've seen statements from, again, Gretchen Whitmer Whitmer from Michigan and even officials like Gavin Newsome from California and Andrew Cuomo from New York, really stressing the importance of businesses and the need to operate at some capacity because simply put there's a, an access, if you will, for the protections that we need to have against the spread of the virus, but juxtaposed with the needs of the business and ensuring that a certain number of individuals in the country retain employment both through and after the pandemic subsides. And we start to resume more and more what looks like normal American life. However, this is the very scenario that had been presented really from the get-go. For example, we spoke must be back in the fall at this point when Republican Senator Ron Johnson proposed a hypothetical in that you'll remember that he analogized the situation of COVID and just kind of the general goings about, of normal everyday life and analogizing it to driving a car to and from work. Now, if you look at the statistics driving a car to and from work, uh, could very well pose bodily harm. It could pose a deadly threat to you. If you look at the statistics over one year's time, yet we calculate those risks. Of course, those commuting every day, a lot of those people don't go very far and even regardless of the distance, many of those people know the routes like the back of their hand at this point. And in any event are confident enough in their abilities to travel to and from work where the risk of getting into a car accident, let alone a deadly car accident is you kind of take on that risk. So subliminally it's subconsciously sure. You're aware that you need to be careful on the road and watch where you're going, but it's not as if you're going about your morning commute and your sort of white knuckle, just deathly afraid of the accidents that could come on the road. And similar here with COVID. There had to have been a breaking point where we say we're going to be as careful as possible, but we cannot jeopardize the normal aspects of American life. Many of which people rely on for their very wellbeing, again, that being a job, their business, and getting drawing a paycheck every week. And here we are months later, and all of a sudden certain Democrat officials in the heads of, again, some of the more shut down States have a kind of coming to the light moment in realizing supposedly the needs of businesses across their respective States. And it's an interesting position here for conservatives, isn't it? Because the end result is we certainly like to see more businesses opening up and trying to give these business owners, at least a fighting chance, at least let them battle on and try to make ends meet here instead of shutting them down completely. But we still can pose the criticism that a we're at a level that is still likely to not succeed. You saw David Webb over the weekend on Fox news, uh, proposed. And I think he's right that for many restaurants they need to operate at really, at least 35%, probably 40% to retain at least most of their workers meet, uh, commercial rent every month pay their overhead and inventory stock their goods to sale to sell it their customers. So 25%, we can certainly propose it. That's still not good enough. We need to give them, uh, these business owners a better chance there, that, of, of surviving COVID and really let them operate at again somewhere about 40 or really 50%. I think that's a really easy, uh, regulation for business owners to follow is just simply cut your normal capacity of say your restaurant or bar in half. That's a really easy, uh, estimation for a lot of business owners to make. So the capacity is the first criticism, but again, the glaring criticism is the second one. And then we are months too late at this point. And you would have to imagine that very many businesses in the States really wished they would've gotten these statements six months ago, or we're allowed to operate according to these executive voters, again, at least six months ago, if not earlier. And they very well may still be around right now. Instead they were really from a business sense, held hostage as they just watched on and hoped for the best. But I could only imagine that the hope was fleeting as the months went by and they had to watch their dark dimly lit restaurants, essentially grow dust and cobwebs over the summer for, for lack of business and really for a period of several months there, there were some States were allowing restaurants and bars to operate simply on takeout. I know that was the case briefly, uh, in New York, although in New York now they are operating at a reduced capacity for indoor dining. So we are happy to see that con on the conservative side to see business owners fight on and really give it really all they all they've got at this point. They don't have much of a choice being put in this position after all these months, but we still have to, again, demonstrate that this is so politically transparent

Speaker 2: 10:27

After

Speaker 1: 10:27

All these months now wouldn't, you know, it, after president Biden had won the election back in November

Speaker 2: 10:38

And

Speaker 1: 10:38

Now is officially inaugurated. Now the heads of States know that any fleeting marginal chances in the courts of president Trump to overturn the election, or at least prolong a truly final decision on the outcome, the vote of the election is done. And over with now that that's definitively definitively concluded going forward now is the time where the States have all been backed up. So we'll keep an eye on what kind of chances business owners are getting Given these orders. And we can only wish them the best and going forward. And hopefully there's pressure from the business owners to stay on top of the state officials and really put pressure on them to open up even more and do so expeditiously. Like we said earlier, the optimal capacity, assuming that you're operating as some restriction would really hopefully be 50%. So we'll see where that is going forward, but that's kind of a brief update on where we are with the reopening efforts in various States across the country. Um, I assume everyone, uh, many people have been keeping up with this and I would encourage everyone to keep doing so and put pressure on your elected officials. Uh, if you were in a state where the reopening efforts are still not to your liking and still not to the point where it really gives business owners a fighting chance of surviving the shutdown orders. And now I wanted to switch it up a little bit and look at the more kind of macro view of the government response to COVID as we currently stand here in the last week of January. And that means we're going to look at the new incoming administration in their initial remarks and responses to where we are now with the virus we saw, some of the first remarks from president Biden actually are quite predictable, yet frustrating. And let's see why in some of his initial marks for the administration's response, he first did his usual, off-putting a standoffish come on. And that whole thing when asked about what he's going to do to fight the spread of the virus, not only that he went a step further to say that there's nothing that the federal government can do to change the trajectory of the virus for the next three months. Now that in and of itself admits to us that there is no real plan for the administration to deal with the virus. They are essentially throwing up their hands and saying, whatever happens to the next three months, that's what happens. And a bit of irony here is in the sense that if the Biden administration thought that this was albeit a transparent effort, but nonetheless, an effort to kind of throw the scent off their trail to kind of end any serious inquiry into their plans to battle the virus will the sadly ironic part to that is there really isn't any or many members of the media who were going to give his administration much of a, of a scrutinizing Clance. Anyway, you saw some of the other initial from president Biden and his administration really, he talks about what their favorite flavors of ice cream were. That's, that's really the, the brunt of the scrutiny that incoming press secretary Jen Sakhi has had to deal with in just this first week of operating as the, uh, as the spokesperson for,

Speaker 2: 15:20

For

Speaker 1: 15:21

President Biden. And just think for a second, although we all know the answer to this, this hypothetical, if president Trump had come out at any point during the virus and said really explicitly that, you know, well, the virus is going to do what it's going to do in the next three months. There's really nothing we could do to it. Just have to throw our hands up and see where we are three months down the road. We all would have expected. And in all honesty, it would have been just a file Blea brought upon the administration that that is a wholly inadequate response to essentially just give up. And that's appears at least at first glance from the Biden administration. That is exactly what they plan to do for the first three months. The result of that is that there will be by design, no serious inquiry into the administration's efforts to fight the virus or their plans going forward by that design. We're going to be somewhere around April ish before this administration apparently has a plan.

Speaker 2: 16:47

Yeah,

Speaker 1: 16:47

They had as good of a chance of winning the election as we heard from their campaign and had been beating the drum of COVID response all the while on the campaign trail. To the extent that president by nationally appeared from his, from his basement dwelling, then there really should be a plan ready and rearing to go here a week into the administration, especially after the results of the election were essentially finalized the day after, or at least, uh, within a week's time after election day in November, two months later. And the days following inauguration day here in January, that plan should have been rolling out and, and firing on all cylinders really. And yet here we are. And of course the mainstream media is none the wiser it's, it's really a moot point again, because they weren't going to seriously criticize any response from the administration anyway, but here, the response is that there is no response at least for the first three months. And of course, once anything resembling a legitimate plan, whether it be a good one or not comes in a few months time, the press will of course all fall in line and say that it is the second coming of the new deal in dealing with the needs of the American public. It is some kind of act of genius. And this is what we've, we're waiting for all these three months, regardless of what it is. And really regardless of the effect of any plan that is, that is, uh, outstanding from the Biden administration.

Speaker 2: 18:53

And

Speaker 1: 18:53

One final note here, uh, Paul of course continue to make commentary and update you all on the federal government and the Biden administration's response to COVID. I think a lot of people could at least, regardless of where you are on the spectrum, whether you are a very pro lockdown for a variety of reasons, or you're very anti lockdown for a variety of other reasons, this could be an ironically unifying moment for supporters of both sides in saying that the response we've seen from the administration so far is really totally unacceptable. For instance, if you're a pro lockdown, you should be thinking to yourself similarly to the lines that I proposed just a few minutes ago, we've been hearing about this plan for months. At this point, you were very confident in your wind and now you've secured that win. And not only that, you've had two months since election day to put the finishing touches on this supposed plan to deal with this deadly virus. And we're getting that it's still at least three months out. And from the right, you can say point to individual States that we spoke of earlier, at least giving beginning signs of opening up, we still would like to see those larger capacities, but nonetheless, beginning signs of opening up. Does the federal government have any position on this as a matter of law, as a matter of substance in say executive orders or certainly enactments of law, the federal government really should have very little to do with a response, uh, with the, with the exception of, of, of travel, uh, restrictions, certainly, uh, incoming and outgoings in and out of the country would certainly be under the federal government's purview, but you'd at least like to see what the position is here. Some guidance, some input that we've been hearing of all these months. So I think that it could be, uh, an oddly unifying moment in supporters of both sides saying wherever we are on our positions of opening back up, who we may disagree with each other, but your answer of essentially gimme three months is not acceptable. So we'll continue to see where the Biden administration goes forward. Hopefully there is a more solid plan or at least some kind of guidance see where this administration wants to go in its response to the coronavirus. But again, here's just a final note that I've been thinking about lately. And in terms of voicing your concerns to your local officials about opening up, I think there could be some ground to gain here and some real results starting to, to funnel in. If you put a kind of personal touch on it, a lot of you probably know local bar owners, uh, restaurants, mom, and pop shops down on kind of a main street area in town. Those people live in the area. Many times they live five, maybe 10 minutes away from the actual establishment that they operate, the actual business that they run. So there's a different kind of personal connection that they have with the community. And I think if you express that in and include details of that too, especially your local officials in trying to make a difference in reopening efforts, but also to friends and family around the water cooler of, for people who may be a little bit more pro locked down is that local businesses really have all the in Disha of being more capable or more incentivized to deal adequately with a virus point to a local example of, of a business where, you know, the staff hasn't had any infections, they haven't had to shut down on their own because of any scare of the virus. And that could be because the business owners know the people, they know their patrons, they have a personal connection. Now that's not to say that bigger chains, franchises would want to willingly spread the virus, but there's a different level of care. If you have a personal connection with the people that are coming in and out of your, if you can put specific facts, faces, and names to those potential patrons, I think that there could be more of a case to me that there's a more substantial incentive to make sure that businesses are sanitized or adhering to guidelines or being proactive about not spreading any infection to their customers. And I think if you can kind of put that personal touch to it and really provide albeit anecdotal evidence on a local community base, a few instances of that anecdotal evidence from a few people, if the community you add that on top of each other, and then you're speaking of a lot of examples, if a local official or people on the other side of the aisle saying, you know, I keep hearing about these local businesses and none of them seem to have any infections that, you know, they are operating a reduced capacity, maybe reduced hours, but they haven't been shut down lately. They're still open. So they must be doing something right. Maybe there's something to that. So that's just a little different approach to this. And, um, just a little bit different way of thinking about some of the, the opening efforts that have come to mind to me lately. So that just about does it here for fate of the union for this week. Um, I'm very happy to see that there have been a slight increase in the number of downloads to the podcasts and, uh, to see it gain a little bit more traction. I hope everybody who's been yeah. Listening, um, either more recently or a little bit, yeah. Farther in the past have enjoyed it thus far. Uh, again, my name is Franklin. I record the show here at fate of the union, but you can also follow us on Twitter at fate of the union underscore, uh, you'll see the Thomas Shelby logo I'm on the Twitter profile, but also on YouTube with they'll be shorter, uh, video segments. So encourage everybody to follow along there, but also, uh, drive to the podcast, leave a rating and review if you like, what you heard and we will see you next time on fate of the union. Thanks for listening to everybody. Bye bye.