Make It Plain MIP with Rev. Mark Thompson

History is captured in today’s episode as we hear the Judiciary Committee vote to approve the reparations bill, H.R. 40, advancing it to the floor of the House of Representatives. The panelists discuss the GOP’s strategy to obfuscate the discussion on reparations with a mention of “packing the court,” or more accurately known as expanding the court. You’ll hear the historic vote as well as initial reactions from the panelists as they focus on the next big question: what happens now?

Panelists: Kamm Howard, National Co-Chair of NCOBRA; Kennis Henry, Chairperson of NCOBRA Legislative Committee; Reverend Dr. JoAnn Watson, Senior Pastor of Westside Unity Church; Dr. Raymond Winbush, Director of the Institute for Urban Research; Nkechi Taifa, Founder & Principal CEO of Taifa Group LLC; Dr. Ron Daniels, President of the Institute of the Black World Conference; Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr, Professor of Africana Studies, Howard University

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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On April 14th, for the first time in history, the House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the reparations bill, H.R. 40, which would establish the commission to study reparations proposals. As the bill was getting marked up on Capitol Hill, Mark moderated a panel of some of the key players in the reparations movement, and we’ll be bringing you that motivating conversation all week long. In today’s discussion, the panelists explain what it means for a bill to get “marked up” and they unravel the complicated process of (hopefully) getting this bill passed. They also explore the misrepresentations of the movement, and parse the relationship between local versus national reparations.

Panelists: Kamm Howard, National Co-Chair of NCOBRA; Kennis Henry, Chairperson of NCOBRA Legislative Committee; Reverend Dr. JoAnn Watson, Senior Pastor of Westside Unity Church; Dr. Raymond Winbush, Director of the Institute for Urban Research; Nkechi Taifa, Founder & Principal CEO of Taifa Group LLC; Dr. Ron Daniels, President of the Institute of the Black World Conference; Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr, Professor of Africana Studies, Howard University

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On April 14th, for the first time in history, the House Judiciary Committee voted in favor of the reparations bill, H.R. 40, which would establish the commission to study reparations proposals. As the bill was getting marked up on Capitol Hill, Mark moderated a panel of some of the key players in the reparations movement, and we’ll be bringing you that motivating conversation all week long. Today begins with part one, where the panelists discuss the reasons why reparations are still necessary, how we can get there, what the long-fault battle has been like, and how we can get to the point where we are seeing a range of remedies that would produce healing for Black people. 

Panelists: Kamm Howard, National Co-Chair of NCOBRA; Kennis Henry, Chairperson of NCOBRA Legislative Committee; Reverend Dr. JoAnn Watson, Senior Pastor of Westside Unity Church; Dr. Raymond Winbush, Director of the Institute for Urban Research; Nkechi Taifa, Founder & Principal CEO of Taifa Group LLC; Dr. Ron Daniels, President of the Institute of the Black World Conference

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Maggie Haberman had unprecedented access to the Trump family and administration; now that we’re in our new administration, where are all her big scoops on Biden? That’s what Eric Boehlert, writer and publisher of Pressrun.media, wants to know today. He also says that Fox News should not be allowed to participate in White House press briefings after turning a blind eye to the scandal involving Rep. Matt Gaetz (and also, Jen Psaki has no time for their strange and pointless questions). And Eric also has some incredibly important points on how the media botched the news on Johnson & Johnson pausing their vaccine distribution.

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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Arisha Hatch is the Vice President and Chief of Campaigns for Color of Change, and in today’s episode, she and Mark dig into the difficult topic of optimism vs. pessimism regarding the outcome of the Derek Chauvin murder trial, which is incredibly complicated for the Black community. They share their fears and hopes for the outcome, and also explore what police accountability could look like going forward. And, as always with our friends at Color of Change, we get our marching orders on how to get involved in their recent initiatives.

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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President Biden surprised Democrats when he announced a commission to explore expanding the Supreme Court. Markos Moulitsas, Founder of DailyKos, Civiqs, and Host of podcast “The Brief,” is back today to explain why Biden might have made that move and what could come of it, in terms of D.C. statehood and reparations. However, aside from the Supreme Court, there’s another issue to overcome: Senator Joe Manchin.

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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What would it look like to engage in nonviolent direct action consistently, through strategic organizing? That’s what Kai Newkirk (Founder of For All www.forallorg.us) and Rev. Stephen Green (Pastor, Scholar, and Activist) explain in today’s episode, as they discuss the piece they co-authored, “Why Kingian democratic socialism is the best path forward for the progressive left.” This is especially relevant in the context of our current society where unarmed Black people continue to be murdered by police. They also dig into why we need statehood in D.C. in order to make winning Georgia actually count and see progress on reparations.

Read their article here: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/04/why-kingian-democratic-socialism-best-path-forward-for-progressive-left/

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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If you’ve watched the HBO documentary on QAnon (“Q: Into the Storm”), or if you spend any time on the internet, you know it revealed some key details surrounding the group of conspiracy theorists. But what you don’t know is what the filmmaker, Cullen Hoback, chose to leave out, and that crucial information is what Mother Jones reporter Ali Breland is here today to discuss. Ali and his colleague AJ Vicens were able to connect Jim Watkins (founder of 8chan) to countless web domains that allegedly host child pornography (more details on how they can make these connections without viewing the illegal content are in the episode). Ali gives the background on his and AJ’s story, what Hoback said when Ali reached out about the documentary’s misrepresentations, and how he plans to move forward with what he believes is incriminating information on Jim Watkins.

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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Glenn Kirscher, Former Assistant U.S. Attorney, is on today to unravel the latest testimonies in the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knealed on George Floyd’s next until he was dead. Mark and Glenn examine what was heard from Dr. Tobin, an expert pulmonologist, as well as Dr. Baker, the medical examiner who performed George Floyd’s autopsy, in which Glenn found some unusual details.

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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Racism is harming, if not killing, people of color in America, and there’s a small group that actually profits off it. That’s what Jim Freeman, author of “Rich Thanks to Racism: How the Ultra-Wealthy Profit from Racial Injustice,” unravels in today’s episode. There’s a number of billionaires and multi-millionaires (like the Koch brothers and the people behind ALEC, to name a couple) who invest in legislation that keep things in place like the prison-industrial complex, immigrant detention, and school privatization, but that’s not the only way they turn racism into profits. Jim speaks to the layers that begin with criminalizing young people of color in their schools and continue after people have been released from prison. But you can get involved, and Jim also has some advice on that, too.

Executive Producer: Adell Coleman

Producer: Brittany Temple

Distributor: DCP Entertainment

For additional content: makeitplain.com

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