“The people who are called on to be nonviolent are the people with the ability to do the least amount of damage.” -- Ta-Nehisi Coates on Ezra Klein’s podcast
FOMO on Filibuster Reform FOMO on Peaceful Protest
Jacob Lawrence's "Immigrants admitted from all countries: 1820 to 1840—115,773." Also known as Panel #28 from Lawrence's "Struggle: From the History of the American People" series. (The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Peabody Essex Museum via AP
Beware the Ides of March. And March 4th and March 6th, apparently. The lower chamber of Congress was shuttered yesterday because of an active security threat, targeting Democratic House members. Before leaving town for the week, Nancy Pelosi and her caucus earned their paycheck, passing two potentially seminal pieces of legislation: H.R. 1 – an overdue framework for electoral reform, addressing campaign finance as well as ethics. It also passed HR 7120, better known as the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act which seeks to hold law enforcement accountable, banning chokeholds, stopping no-knock warrants – the kind that led to the murder of Breonna Taylor – and ending qualified immunity. Onto the Senate – where new challenges, and shenanigans, certainly await.
This week’s FOMO bears witness to searing testimony on race and Covid; is persuaded by a strategy to reform the filibuster; unsettled by an expert’s take on 1/6 and ongoing political violence; and fascinated by a proposal for a Great Migration of Black Americans to the South.
WHEN COVID MET #BLACKLIVESMATTER
I have long been a stan of STAT, the healthcare-focused newsroom set up by the Boston Globe nearly six years ago. In addition to the Kaiser Health News newsletter, STAT fills a vacuum where coverage is concerned. The publication recently launched its First Opinion podcast, as a platform for its op-ed authors – from practitioners to policy wonks to patients – to tell their stories beyond 750 words. For its second podcast it booked Lauren Powell, then Executive Director of Times Up Healthcare. She was originally commissioned to write an essay immediately following the death of George Floyd: “My nightmare: Covid-19 meets racism meets the killing of a Black person by police.” Ms. Powell shares what it’s like to experience the coronavirus pandemic in Richmond, VA – a site of historical white supremacy. She also seizes the opportunity to reflect on the Black Lives Matter protests and the intervening months since George Floyd’s murder. Another perspective which I found riveting appears on a recent Reveal podcast, Into the COVID ICU (in partnership with Kaiser Health News). We meet Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez, an immigrant who was the first in her family to attend university, and is a June 2020 graduate of Stanford now practicing on the frontlines at a hospital in Fresno, California.
MEND IT, DON’T END IT?
That legislation I touted above? Neither HR 1 nor HR 7120 stand a snowball’s chance in hell passing in the Senate, without changes to the filibuster. I’ve been reading and listening to many debates on this mechanism, which was intended to do two things – reinforce white supremacy and enable bi-partisanship in the Senate. The former is still in effect, while the latter? Not so much. If you don’t have the time to invest in Adam Jentleson’s fine Kill Switch, this conversation with Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa on their Gaslit Nation podcast will get you up to speed in less than 60 minutes. As long-time scholars of authoritarianism, Kendzior and Chalupa could not be better suited as interlocuters.
At the risk of being wrong, Jentleson’s theory of the case leads me to believe that the filibuster is not so much a switch as a dimmer. There are ways to reform the filibuster, not just end it. Jentleson suggests some tactics in the podcast, and others are beginning to join the fray. Last night historian Norm Ornstein offered three proposals in the Washington Post, his headline sure to make some apoplectic: Democrats can’t kill the filibuster. But they can gut it, Even freshman Senator Rafael Warnock is opening the doors of his imagination, suggesting that there should be a limited exception to filibuster rules for bills related to voting and civil rights, like, you know, see above.
NO, IT WASN’T BECAUSE OF ‘OPTICS’
Dr. Jason Johnson, academic and frequently tart political pundit, just launched The Word, a podcast under the Slate umbrella. For his first outing, White Nationalists in Uniform, he’s invited fellow MSNBC commentator Malcolm Nance, a national security and counterterrorism expert, to parse the 1/6 Insurrection, and expose the bonds between law enforcement, the military and white nationalist groups. The discussion was engrossing, too short for just 26 minutes.
THE REVERSE GREAT MIGRATION
What happens when two take-no-prisoners personalities collide? Either it’s a shitstorm or you get a whole lotta truth telling. In last week’s Black on the Air, Larry Wilmore has New York Times columnist Charles Blow as his guest. Blow has recently written the very provocatively titled, “The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto.” The book cover alone promises to send the “economically insecure” to a Promise Keeper meetup. What’s between the covers? An historical and data-driven look at the Great Migration of the 1950’s from the south to the north and west; a recognition that there are presently 1,200 majority Black cities across America, and that 90% of them are down south. Blow proposes that Black Americans move to these cities to consolidate power; he offers that such a demographic shift could flip 14 Senate seats from Republican control. It’s a fascinating discussion, so much so that I immediately ordered the book. Then again, I don’t miss a Charles Blow column – he suffers no fools. Now, he’s sharing a manifesto.
Speaking of the Great Migration, no artist is more associated with it than Jacob Lawrence. His retrospective at MoMA back in 1995 was unforgettable. What that exhibition didn’t include was Panel #28, the painting featured above. It hadn’t been seen for 60 years and recently resurfaced. The panel now joins a traveling show of his series, Struggle: From the History of the American People, on its last two legs in Seattle at present, concluding in D.C. this summer. If you can’t get to it, here’s a 360° tour.
#HIGHRISKCA
In nine days, the state of California will open access to Covid-19 vaccinations to a category that should have been included at the outset – those with high-risk disabilities and medical conditions. This open letter, jointly written and organized by the Disability Justice-League Bay Area was shared with me by Alice Wong. It offers best practices in terms
of accessibility and transparency. Let’s hope that the California Department of Public Health heeds them:
WOMEN’S WORDS