Episode

5/23 Broken Supply Chains: Baby Formula Shortage & Trucker Abuse w/ David Dayen

May 23, 2022

Sam and Emma host David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect, to discuss his recent piece in the Intercept “BLOWING THE TRUCK WHISTLE: A Carbon Dioxide Delivery Driver’s Long Journey to Expose Airgas”, on one of many examples of the US’ failing infrastructure. Sam and Emma begin by previewing tomorrow’s primaries in Texas and Georgia, also touching on the news of Ginni Thomas’ encouragement of overturning the 2020 election, US aid to Israel largely contributing to the destruction of US aid to Gaza and Palestine, and the chaos of NYS redistricting. Then, David joins as they first walk through the recent baby formula crisis in the US as the first example of our failing infrastructure, diving into the recalled production from Abbott labs – which produces approximately 20% of all formula in the US – and assessing what makes baby formula production different than other supply lines, with 98% of it actually coming from domestic production. Next, they discuss the similar problems we’ve faced since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, from PPE at the start of 2020 to the semiconductors that stunted countless industries of production when Taiwan shut down, and look at the elements of the US and neoliberal economies that set the stage for these failures, from centralization and emphasis on efficiency to a lack of resiliency or redundancy for any future crisis. Next, they walk through the state-by-state monopolies which guide the production of baby formula in the US, of which Abbott holds 34 states and DC, and how the US’ thoughtlessly structured welfare programs set the system up to fail. They wrap up the interview by covering David’s new piece and what we can learn from the failure of the trucking and shipping industries to self-regulate, and why, as always, the repercussions were shifted to fall on the wage laborers.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma dive deeper into the IDF’s murder of Palestinian-American reporter Shereen Abu Aqleh, as well as the lies Israel has told surrounding it, and look at AOC’s response to the US’ continued aid to apartheid. John from San Antonio and Brody from Dallas dive into tomorrow’s primaries, giving expansive insight into Jessica Cisneros’ race against Cuellar, Sandy from Ontario covers some Canadian election previews, and Dan from WA discusses Israeli extremism. Bill Cassidy goes to the Harvard School of Public Health to remind students to control for only caring about white people, Randy from WA discusses having children, and then the entire news cycle becoming impending disasters, from the CTC rollback to student loan forgiveness and baby formula shortages, plus, your calls and IMs!

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