The World and Everything in It - July 27, 2020

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

Pro-life causes continue to bubble up in the lower courts and they take many different forms. We’ll talk about two recent cases.

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: That’s ahead on Legal Docket.

Also on the Monday Moneybeat, trends in the economy look to be a mixed bag. 

Plus, the WORLD History Book: 25 years ago this week, the dedication of a veterans memorial in Washington, D.C.

And our editor in chief on what we’ll never know about George Floyd.

REICHARD: It’s Monday, July 27th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

ROUGH: And I’m Jenny Rough. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Republicans set to unveil coronavirus relief package » Republicans are set to unveil their proposal today for the next coronavirus relief package. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said it will include another federal boost to jobless benefits but it won’t extend the $600 per week benefit. 

MEADOWS: We are going to be prepared on Monday to provide an unemployment insurance extension that would be 70 percent of whatever the wages you were prior to being unemployed. 

It may also include more direct stimulus payments to Americans, but with a lower income threshold to receive them. 

Based on early reports, Democratic leaders have already vowed to reject the GOP plan. They say it won’t do nearly enough. 

Meantime, at least one state in the Sun Belt says it’s making progress in beating back the recent COVID-19 surge. 

New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said the infection rate has largely leveled off, and hospitalizations are down. But she said the number of daily COVID-19-related deaths have not yet followed suit. 

GRISHAM: Our death count is still way too high. And these mortality issues, these are people’s loved ones, right? Every single time I have to announce that we’ve lost someone in New Mexico, it is the most painful experience. 

More than 600 people have now died from COVID-19 in the state. 

Grisham blasted the federal response to the pandemic, saying we have no national strategy to combat it. 

Hurricane Douglas lashes Hawaii » Hurricane Douglas lashed the Hawaiian Islands last night and this morning. It moved into Hawaiian waters Sunday evening as a Category 1, packing sustained winds of 85 miles per hour. The storm is also drenching the islands with driving rain. But Honolulu resident Scott Silva said the storm surge was what had many on edge. 

SILVA: The people that live on the water, yeah, that’s when they get a little bit scared for sure—especially if it’s high tide, you know, if the surge comes during the high tide, then usually there’s some flooding on the coastal properties. 

Officials issued hurricane warnings Sunday for Oahu, Kauai, and Maui while a hurricane watch was canceled for the Big Island. By the time the storm passes, some elevated areas of Hawaii could receive as much as 15 inches of rain. 

Hanna batters Texas Gulf Coast » Meantime, in Texas, a day after roaring ashore as a hurricane, Hanna lashed the Gulf Coast on Sunday. Heavy wind and rain flooded streets, destroyed boats, and knocked out power across the region. 

Downgraded to a tropical storm, Hanna passed over the U.S.-Mexico border with winds near 50 mph. It unloaded more than 12 inches of rain on parts of South Texas.

Protests turn violent in several cities » AUDIO: [Sound of protests]

Protests turned violent in several cities over the weekend. 

In Portland, police declared a riot early Sunday morning after demonstrators breached a courthouse where federal agents were standing guard. 

Portland Police said some people climbed over a fence surrounding the courthouse. And threw objects at law enforcement officers, “and shot mortar style fireworks at ground level that were exploding near others.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Sunday…

WOLF: They are arriving every night, using city streets and city parks. They’re coming armed with rocks, bottles, baseball bats, power tools, commercial grade fireworks, and targeting that violence on federal courthouse and federal law enforcement officers.

Rioters also set a dump truck and other objects on fire. 

Officers responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. 

Similar incidents occurred in Seattle, where rioters forced police to retreat inside a police station. Demonstrators also vandalized two courthouses in California. 

In Richmond, Virginia, Police used tear gas and flash bang devices to break up a crowd after some set fires and assaulted officers. Police tweeted a photo of rocks, batteries, and other items the department said demonstrators threw at officers. 

In Austin, Texas, someone shot and killed a protester who was also reportedly armed. And another protester suffered a bullet wound in suburban Denver.

Regis Philbin dies at 88 » Iconic TV host Regis Philbin died over the weekend at the age of 88.  

He co-hosted a nationally syndicated talk show for 23 years—Live! with Regis and with Kathie Lee—later Regis and Kelly.

PHILBIN: Thank you very much for these great years together. God bless you all, and I hope I see you again real soon. Thanks everybody! 

Philbin heard there signing off during his last episode as co-host of the show in 2011. 

Philbin also hosted the wildly popular prime-time game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and coined the popular catchphrase, “Is that your final answer?”

His three daughters and wife of 50 years, Joy, survive him.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: battles over abortion in the lower courts.

Plus, Marvin Olasky on the life of George Floyd.

This is The World and Everything in It.

JENNY ROUGH: It’s Monday morning and a brand new work week for The World and Everything in It. Today is the 27th of July, 2020. 

Good morning everyone, I’m Jenny Rough.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Hey, Jenny, welcome to the co-host seat!

ROUGH: Thank you, Mary! Glad to have a chance to do this.

REICHARD: There’s a purpose behind it. This week you and I and the team launch Legal Docket Podcast!

ROUGH: Yes, I’ve been talking about the “upcoming” podcast to family and friends for so long. It’s hard to believe the day’s almost here! Ten episodes of behind the scenes at the Supreme Court. A deep dive into a handful of cases. The people, the facts, the decisions and what they mean for us.

REICHARD: And Jenny, let me say this: you and I both graduated law school, passed the bar exam and practiced law for a while. And we learned a lot during this process.  

The weight of my own ignorance threatens to overwhelm me at times.

ROUGH: Ditto. And we had some adventures along the way, didn’t we?!

REICHARD: We did.

So, be listening for the new Legal Docket podcast in your podcast feed. Let us know what you think. Depending on how it goes, maybe we’ll do it again next summer!

ROUGH: Now, on to today’s Legal Docket. 

First, some good news for a Christian adoption ministry in New York. 

New Hope Family Services can proceed with its case against a state agency that threatened to shut it down. New Hope’s placement policy prioritizes opposite sex, married couples. But the state agency claimed the policy violates state anti-discrimination law.  

The appeals panel said the state may have shown hostility to New Hope’s religious beliefs in violation of the Constitution.

REICHARD: A foreseeable collision between religious liberty and the SOGI laws, the sexual orientation and gender identity statutes. 

Now, on to lower court skirmishes going on over abortion. 

The Supreme Court ruled this past term that abortionists need not have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. That’s a rule other ambulatory surgical centers require, but the majority five justices didn’t decide the case on medical grounds. Instead, they cited the undue burden on a woman seeking to abort.

ROUGH: Something similar happened this month in Maryland. A federal district court judge stopped the Food and Drug Administration from enforcing safety rules on drugs that induce chemical abortion.

REICHARD: The Christian Medical and Dental Associations denounced that move. To learn why, I called up Dr. Jeffrey Barrows. He’s vice president for bioethics and public policy for the organization. He is also a physician of obstetrics and gynecology. 

I started by asking him about the medications in question.

BARROWS: There’s actually two of them. Mifepristone and misoprostol. And they were both initially approved in 2000 by the FDA. But fast forward to 2011, there were a lot of reports of significant complications coming in, including over 2000 adverse events and 14 deaths and over 600 hospitalizations.

Because of those significant complications, the FDA decided in 2011 to put in place what is called a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy or REMs.

BARROWS: What that is extra requirements for the prescribing of certain drugs. And when it came to the medication that it causes abortion, what the FDA put in place was that the person prescribing had to have the ability to assess the duration of the pregnancy directly. In other words, see the person in person. Be able to diagnose what’s called ectopic pregnancies. That’s a pregnancy that’s outside of the uterus, most commonly in the tube. And then thirdly the ability to provide surgical intervention in cases that needed it, because that was a common cause of a lot of the complications that had been occurring.

But then just over a week ago, this federal judge says he doesn’t think these precautions are necessary.

BARROWS: In fact, in his ruling, he felt that the in-person requirements for abortion pills presented a substantial obstacle to patients, making them unconstitutional. So with one decision, a nonmedical person put aside these FDA requirements that were in place for the safety of patients. And as far as I know, this is unprecedented. I don’t know of anything like it.

So these FDA safety rules are stopped for now. I asked Dr. Barrows, what is the problem is for women who used these chemical abortion drugs.

BARROWS: There are several serious side effects, especially if the patient has not accurately timed their pregnancy. In other words, I practiced OB GYN for many years. I know there’s a significant percentage of women that come in and they’re not really sure when their last menses was. So the date of the pregnancy is not really known all that well, and that’s absolutely critical when you’re prescribing this medication. So if it’s prescribed and the pregnancy is a little too far along, there’s a markedly increased risk of significant complications, such as infection, and a lot of bleeding.

There is another major complication—ectopic pregnancy.

BARROWS: That happens about one in 80, one in 85. And those are life threatening. And so what this judge did in this case is to allow this medication to be prescribed via telemedicine without in-person prescribing at all, thus putting the patients taking it at greater risk.

One consolation is this injunction is temporary. But Dr. Barrows is concerned.

BARROWS: The judge in this decision did say that this was a temporary injunction against the FDA rules and said that they would be no longer valid 30 days after Health and Human Services says that there’s no longer a pandemic in the United States. 

My greatest concern is that pro abortion forces will seek to make this a permanent injunction against the FDA. It means this decision was not made on the basis of medical grounds. It was made on the basis of some legal grounds, and it just increases a vastly increased risk for the patients that are taking this medicine. So, I’m very, very worried that this might become a trend.

On the other side, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say the FDA restrictions aren’t medically necessary and don’t advance the health and safety of patients. 

But that rather begs the question as to why the rules are there in the first place. 

The two-drug combo accounted for 39 percent of all U.S. abortions in 2017. That’s according to court documents.

Lastly and just briefly today, another abortion battle of a different sort in Texas. 

Quite a technical dispute, but an interesting one. 

The Supreme Court in 1973 decided in Roe v. Wade that abortion was a “privacy right” under the 14th Amendment’s Due Process clause. But under Texas state law, abortions were illegal then, and that law remains on the books to this day. Roe meant only that the abortion ban couldn’t be enforced. 

So here’s the technical aspect. Some pro-lifers in the state have said publicly that abortion is illegal in Texas. That prompted pro-choice groups to sue for defamation.  

Now, truth is an absolute defense to defamation. So the pro-life advocates are now suing to protect their free speech rights. They claim those defamation lawsuits filed against them by pro-abortion groups are only meant to silence them. 

I called up Erick Kaardal with the Thomas More Society. He represents the pro-lifers.

KAARDAL: Yeah, it’s real simple. You know, you have pro-life activists stating that you know, this is horrific, that abortions are occurring in Texas. You know, it’s a crime and then the, pro-abortion forces are saying that’s defamation, you’re calling these people criminals. And, you know, in Texas, according to the law, you know, abortions are a crime. So it’s true. Now, it’s also true that under Roe v. Wade and the precedence that those laws aren’t enforced. So they’re not going to be convicted as criminals, but the bottom line is that this is cancel culture trying to cancel out, you know, pro-life speech. And now all of the battlefields are about whether pro lifers can transmit their message publicly, to their children, uh, the left, the pro-abortion forces want to cancel speaking about these issues. So far awhile anyway we’re going to have to fight on First Amendment grounds so we convince the public that we’re right on these issues relating to pro-life.

Kaardal is asking to consolidate all eight cases in order to achieve a uniform ruling one way or the other.  

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket.

JENNY ROUGH: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: The Monday Moneybeat!

MARY REICHARD: New claims for unemployment benefits rose for the first time in nearly four months. Week over week, the number ticked up from 1.3 million to 1.4 million. And that ends a steady decline from a peak level of nearly 7 million in late March.

ROUGH: Continuing unemployment claims—that is, those remaining on jobless benefits—have continued falling, though. That peak was 25 million people the first full week of May. That number has dropped dramatically to just over 16 million.

REICHARD: So where do we stand on the jobs recovery as the economy slowly opens back up? Here to talk about that and more is financial analyst and advisor David Bahnsen.

Good morning, David.

DAVID BAHNSEN, GUEST: Well, good morning. Good to be with you.

REICHARD: I know from hearing you week after week, you really are looking for the new claims number to drop below 1 million—and even then, that’s way too high—but now that the number is climbing again, how concerned are you?

BAHNSEN: Well, it is a mixed bag and you alluded to both of the data points that make it so. There’s no question that the claims on an initial basis moving higher by roughly a hundred thousand has to be considered a concern. And I would say a pretty big one, but I’m going to tell you in a second, why I think it happened. But then on the other side of it to ignore the fact that continuing claims not just dropped about a million, but dropped significantly more than had been anticipated. There’s a couple of nuances that make this more complicated, but just to kind of use a round figure explanation of what happened: you had about 1 million 300,000 or 400,000 people that had lost their jobs in the last week or so. And you had about a million, 300,000 people, or so who found a new job or got their old job back. And so the total number is offsetting in that way. But the reality is that you have to question why four months after the initial lockdown, we’re still having on a weekly basis, a million plus people that are filing unemployment.

I think that there are hundreds of thousands in that count that are old lay offs that are just now getting around to filing. And another hundreds of thousands that are delayed claim processing from various states. And I believe that what we’re dealing with now is not the initial shock and awe, the shutdowns of March, April, but folks who maybe had been hired back or people who were just kind of furloughed and we’re hoping to be back in it. It continues to be the very lowest income segments of the economy that are struggling from it, which both is a larger source of sadness on the social and cultural implications, but then less of a source of distress to the overall economy. It’s one of the big reasons why housing is still continuing to surge new applications, new purchases, new activity, homebuilder confidence, all of those things in the wake of unemployment. Because at this point, the unemployment has been very constrained within lower income segments.

REICHARD: So a mixed bag on jobless claims. I’m curious where you think things stand on Capitol Hill about another round of economic relief or stimulus because for many people, depending on where they live, the $600 unemployment bonus ended on Friday and for more people, the benefit expires at the end of July. What’s your read on the politics of that?

BAHNSEN: Right? So I think it’d be helpful for, for listeners to clarify that nothing was ever done and nothing is being done that changes the state unemployment funds, which is largely where unemployment insurance has always come from. This $600 a week has sort of been a bonus. So there is a huge political pressure to address this in the next round of stimulus. And I think politically I can pretty much tell you, there’s almost no chance that they’re not going to end up doing something about it. Secretary Mnuchin showed his cards this week, they plan to basically reduce it to $400 a week and then go down from there. I’m still hoping the final bill will limit that to people that can show what their wages were beforehand. I don’t think they should be paying people more than they made and not because I’m trying to be stingy or because I’m trying to drive a certain, you know, principal necessarily, although I’m always a big fan of doing that, but that’s not really my point here. My point here is economically it’s disincentivizing for people to go back to work if they can make more money to not work. And so I think that is corrosive to their soul and I think it is completely damaging to the employment dynamics of our economy. They’re going to get something done.

But as I’ve been saying to clients, and I hope everyone understands, a final bill’s gonna end up coming, and a final bill is going to be something that makes everybody happy and everybody unhappy.

REICHARD: Accountability should matter here. What’s the big story of the market this week?

BAHNSEN: In the stock market? The stock market story for about a month now has been an unbelievable persistence. As the media has driven home a dynamic of a much less fatal and a much less severe increase of coronavirus. And I think it’s an absolutely stunning and very encouraging resilience in capital markets that as the hype and the panic around what’s really been a very, you know, concerning growth in cases, but nevertheless, clearly cases that are not leading to the same level of hospitalizations, of ICUs, of intubations of ventilator use, and then ultimately a mortality that the market has not been as concerned about that. 

The second story going on in the market is that the market is holding in there, doing okay. And yet you do see those big tech companies that have been driving so much of the stock market’s performance, kind of turning the other way. And so I believe we’re in early innings of what will be a paradigm shifting moment for the us stock market, where the big tech names four or five, six names that have led the market for quite some time, not just through COVID, but really for several years, we’ll end up getting repriced to revalue, do a more reasonable level, and yet other parts of the market will still get their due. So we’re, we’re living in interesting times. 

REICHARD: David Bahnsen, financial analyst and advisor. Thank you for your insights again this week.

BAHNSEN: Thanks for having me.

MARY REICHARD: Today is Monday, July 27th. You’re listening to The World and Everything in It and we’re so glad you are! Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

JENNY ROUGH: And I’m Jenny Rough. Coming next: the WORLD History Book. Twenty five years ago, a forgotten war gets its own monument in Washington, D.C. 

Plus, Israel’s parliament passes a law declaring Jerusalem as its capital.

REICHARD: But first, 80 years ago today, the debut of one of Warner Brother’s most iconic characters. Here’s Paul Butler.

CLIP: MERRIE MELODIES THEME MUSIC

We begin today in 1940, during the early days of the golden age of American animation…

A team of illustrators, animators, and writers are on their way to making Warner Brothers Entertainment one of the most successful studios in America. Their cartoons have already introduced a handful of memorable characters like Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd:

CLIP: Be very, very quiet…I’m hunting rabbits…

But on this day 80 years ago, Warner Brother Studios releases its first full-length cartoon featuring what would become its most popular character—brought to life by veteran voice actor Mel Blanc.

CLIP: What’s up doc?

The animated short A Wild Hare introduces audiences to the bold and brash, smart alecky, grey and white rabbit with a Brooklyn accent: “Bugs Bunny.”

CLIP: What do you mean a rabbit? You know, with big, long ears. Like these? Yeah. And a little white fluffy tail. Like this? Yep…

Since his debut, Bugs Bunny has appeared in more than 150 cartoons. He’s been featured in more movies than any other animated character in American history. Bugs Bunny is one of only 12 fictional characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

CLIP: Aw, come here. No listen doc. Don’t go spreading this around, but confidentially…I AM A RABBIT! 

Next, on to something much more weighty—40 years ago this week on July 30th, 1980. Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, passes the Jerusalem Law. 

The legislation officially makes Jerusalem the country’s capital city. As such, the law also declares Jerusalem as the seat of the government: including the president, the Knesset, and the supreme court. The Jerusalem law also calls for the protection of the city’s holy places and allocates special funds and grants for the Jewish development of the city. 

The United Nations responds a month later by adopting UN Security Council Resolution 4-7-8 by a vote of 14 to 0. The U.S. delegate abstained from the vote. The resolution declares the Jerusalem law “null and void” and demands member states withdraw their diplomats from the city.

Most countries chose Tel Aviv, the second largest city in Israel, as the site for their embassies instead. In 1995, the 104th U.S. Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, setting a deadline of May 31st, 1999, for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. However Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama all deferred the move.

In 2017, President Donald Trump announced plans to finally do so.  

TRUMP: It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. 

On the 70th anniversary of the creation of the modern State of Israel, the United States opened its embassy in Jerusalem. 

AUDIO FROM CEREMONY: Our feet are standing in the gates of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel…

In the two years since, more than 10 other countries have followed suit. 

And finally, 25 years ago, on July 27th, 1995: the dedication of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Veteran Tom Clayton made the trip to the nation’s capital for the ceremony: 

TOM CLAYTON: It was called “the forgotten war” because people forgot it, period. And so with this monument, memorial, everything that we have up here, it’s to remind us … remind us what we did and also not to have it happen again.

The memorial features walls of highly polished granite. Instead of names—like the Vietnam Memorial—more than 2,500 photographic images of support personnel are etched into its face. 

To the north is a smaller wall listing the 22 members of the United Nations that contributed troops and medical support to the effort. South Korean ambassador Hung-kee Lee spoke during the dedication.

HUNG-KEE LEE: It is imperative that we never forget the courageous contributions these fine men and women made to the advancement of democracy and the freedom of our nations. 

The memorial includes 19 larger than life stainless steel statues representing a platoon on patrol. Each of the military divisions are included. They are all dressed in full combat gear, and scattered amid low growing juniper bushes to represent the rugged terrain of Korea. Due to the highly reflective wall behind them, there appear to be 38 soldiers—a nod to the 38th parallel that separates North and South Korea.

Alfred Lawler is another veteran who attended the dedication ceremony.

LAWLER: I look back on this, yes, and I look back on what’s happened with the Korean community. It was well worth it when they see the results. 

The Washington D.C. park district reports that more than 3 million people visited the memorial last year.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

MARY REICHARD: Today is Monday, July 27th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

JENNY ROUGH: And I’m Jenny Rough. WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky now on George Floyd and second chances.

MARVIN OLASKY, EDITOR IN CHIEF: I try to reply cordially to every letter WORLD members send me. Last month I briefly apologized 20 times for a mistake I made, but with letter 21 something broke and I responded at greater length. Here’s what I wrote:

Thanks for your note. Yes, I was inaccurate to say George Floyd “by all accounts was a gentle giant.” Relatives, friends, and many news sources characterized him that way, but I should have said “by most accounts.” 

Some conservatives emphasized his drug arrests in Houston and a severe instance of armed robbery for which he rightly went to prison for four years. But I’d challenge your characterization of him as a “thug”: Floyd came out of prison in 2013 and seemed a changed man over the next seven years. 

Does it matter that Floyd grew up in Houston’s Third Ward in a housing project where kids sang “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Cuney Homes kid. They got so many rats and roaches I can play with.” Maybe not. 

Does it matter that Floyd was a tall boy in school and studied only basketball—so when he wasn’t good enough to go pro he wasn’t trained in anything? Maybe not. 

An old-timer once showed me around the Third Ward: A tough environment does not justify criminal activity, but maybe a person who grew up in one and messed up badly should get a second chance. 

Floyd after prison volunteered with a church that held services on the Cuney Homes basketball court. Does it matter that he set up chairs and a bathtub on the court for baptisms and let residents know about Bible studies and grocery deliveries? Maybe not. I don’t know how well he did in the Christian program that brought him to Minnesota, and when he died he did have some drugs in his system.  

But here’s what I want to get to: The story of David Pena, who as a young man did drugs, committed crimes, and gained a three-year prison sentence. Pena got out, founded Texas Reach Out Ministries, and as CEO of this organization for 30 years helped many inmates to walk a Christian path.

I went to one of Pena’s Bible studies in south Austin last year. A dozen ex-cons who had made recent professions of faith in Christ sat on couches and folding chairs. Pena, age 64, explained from his own experience that only Christ works. He was terrific—and he died early this month from COVID-19. That’s sad. What’s tragic is that George Floyd might have become a David Pena. 

Now we’ll never know. 

I’m Marvin Olasky.

JENNY ROUGH: Tomorrow: The Supreme Court recently decided that about half of Oklahoma is within a Native American reservation. We’ll tell you about the implications of that ruling. 

And, we’ll talk about why some products are still sparse on grocery store shelves.

That and more tomorrow. 

I’m Jenny Rough.

MARY REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Hey, great debut as a co-host, Jenny! 

ROUGH: Thank you! That was fun!

REICHARD: The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Apostle Paul wrote to believers: “We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.”

Go now in grace and peace.

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