Part One:
COVID-19 IS FAST BECOMING A WOMEN’S ECONOMIC CRISIS.
That is the title of Emily Peck’s article in HuffPost. Women have been hardest hit by the current pandemic. Before it began, women comprised 49% of the US work force. But women lost 55% of the jobs lost (in April) as businesses shuttered to prevent the spread of Covid-19. For the first time ever, American women faced double-digit unemployment (14.7% in April). It’s even worse for Black women (16.4) and Hispanic women (20.2%).
In addition to higher unemployment, women suffer the majority of job losses. They had been holding the least desirable jobs and the lowest paying; and now even those bad jobs are being lost. Women workers are apparently the most expendible. And, as the last hired, they’re the first to be let go.
In society in general, women are the care-givers. And this crisis focuses on care-giving. Women comprise a majority of our essential workers – caring for children, the elderly and the sick in those scary, dangerous service jobs at hospitals and nursing homes. At the same time, even at home, women are the ones providing extra care for their elderly parents and their children.
Even when women are sheltering at home, after being laid off in higher numbers, they receive lower levels of sick leave, family leave, and child care compared to their male counterparts (even as they do the majority of the work).
Not only are women shackled with these double or triple burdens, they’re not provided with any relief (or pay) for this “women’s work.” Congress’s (second) COVID-19 bill contained a sick leave policy that omits 82% of American workers. The Democrats had proposed robust coverage (2 weeks if sick with covid-19; 12 weeks of general paid caretaker/sick leave). But after a vigorous opposition from the Senate & White House, the final legislation carved out the largest corporations (500 employees) – which was half the companies in the US – and then carved out the companies with 50 employees or less (the employer can choose to exempt itself)!
As if this weren’t parsimonious enough, the Dept of Labor – run by Antonin Scalia’s son – wrote interpretive rules that weaken this sick leave policy even further. In carving out health care workers, DOL defined the exclusions very broadly – anyone who works at drug store, or a janitor at hospital is denied the right to this relief from the pandemic.
Part Two:
WHAT HAPPENS IF TRUMP LOSES THE ELECTION AND REFUSES TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE?
Our guest, Steven Rosenthal, asks this scary question, and the answer is very disturbing. One can easily imagine Donald Trump playing out this hypothetical in November.
A review of American history quickly turns this picture from mere speculation to horror. Long before Bush v. Gore, in 1876, the presidential election was extremely close between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel L. Tilden. The electoral college could not resolve the election, so it went to the Congress, where debate and decorum were again insufficient. The belligerence and potential violence got so bad that President Grant – who was not running for reelection – started planning to impose martial law. Holy you-know-what*#@&*!!
We discuss whether this (or something worse) could happen again in 2020. At least Ulysses Grant was not on the ballot to succeed himself. What about Donald Trump, who not only has the obvious conflict of interest, but who also has openly discussed a variety of dangerous military and aggressive actions both in this country and around the world?
The 2020 election will add even more questions that could instigate conflict. As just one example, if voting by mail occurs (assuming we even have a Postal Service in November), we could face any number of unanticipated disputes – about the electoral process at various locations, about legitimacy of ballots and votes, about results – that will need to be resolved. We don’t even know how the coronavirus will affect our ability to exercise our right to vote without jeopardizing our lives. And now Jared Kushner says he can’t guarantee that the election will even take place on November 3.
