Midday

The 2021 Session of the MD General Assembly begins tomorrow. Today, a preview of the session with the Speaker of the House, Adrienne Jones, who represents the 10th District, in Baltimore County.

Tom recorded his conversation with Speaker Jones (via Zoom audio) on Monday, January 11, 2021, about a half hour before Gov. Larry Hogan held a press conference in which he announced that he will be introducing the RELIEF Act of 2021. That's a billion-dollar stimulus and tax relief package for individuals and small businesses, which the Governor said he will be introducing as emergency legislation on Wednesday.

Later this week, Tom speaks with Senate President Bill Ferguson, and he'll get his reaction to Gov. Hogan’s proposal at that time. Again, the Governor made his announcement yesterday after Tom's conversation with Speaker Jones.

Speaker Adrienne Jones was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1998. She'd been a Member, representing the 10th District (Baltimore County) since her vacancy-filling appointment by Gov. Glendening and her swearing-in on October 21, 1997.

Del. Jones was elected Speaker of the House in 2019. In addition, she serves on the House Appropriations Committee and its public safety & administration subcommittee. She is also a member of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland.

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A short, concise four-page article of impeachment of President Donald Trump, co-sponsored by more than 200 Democratic congressmen, may come to the floor of the House of Representatives as soon as tomorrow. Yesterday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gave Vice President Mike Pence 24 hours to convene the cabinet and pursue removing Mr. Trump under the 25th Amendment. Mr. Pence has long indicated antipathy to that idea. If that route to removal is not possible, Pelosi has promised to pursue impeachment.

Last week’s assault on the US Capitol by a mob incited by President Trump was for many a wake-up-call to the dangers of demagoguery.

Mr. Trump, whose four-year term in office has been one of the most divisive and chaotic in US history, is not the first American political leader who has sought to solidify his power by exploiting fears and prejudice and using brutish and inflammatory rhetoric to intimidate and silence his opponents.

To understand Donald Trump’s rise to power and the seemingly intractable hold he has maintained over a sizeable portion of the US electorate, my guest today looks to the tactics once employed by Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican whose brief reign of terror in the US Senate during the early 1950s gave demagoguery a new name: “McCarthyism.”

In a new biography of McCarthy, author Larry Tye traces a direct through-line from Joseph McCarthy to Donald Trump, in McCarthy’s notorious chief counsel, Roy Cohn, who would later serve as Donald Trump’s attorney and mentor.

The book is called Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy.

Larry Tye joins us on Zoom…

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Welcome to another edition of Midday with Tish the Commish, our recurring series of live conversations with Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, the Commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department and the city's chief public health advocate.

In today's program, Dr. Dzirasa provides an update on the pace and local availability of the COVID-19 vaccination program, and how the city is faring during Maryland's current upsurge in new cases, daily deaths and hospitalizations. For more information on the coronavirus pandemic and when you can get the vaccine, visit the City's COVID-19 dashboard, linked here.

Dr. Letitia Dzirasa joins us on Zoom.

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Now, a conversation about what makes us, us. Or more specifically, what makes me, me and you, you? With all that we share in common -- heads and shoulder, knees and toes, for example -- what are the reasons that we are all unique individuals?

Dr. David Linden is a neuroscientist and professor at Johns Hopkins University who started thinking about this when he signed up on an on-line dating website.

Dr. Linden is the author of several fascinating books. The Accidental Mind explored how our brains evolved over time to make us capable of things like romantic love and belief in God. In a book called The Compass of Pleasure, he argued that we are hard-wired to seek pleasure in a variety of forms. And in a book called Touch, he explored how the ways in which we experience touch are all tied, in one way or another, to our emotions.

Those books are all about what makes us the same. His new book is about what makes us different. It’s called Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality.

David Linden joins us on Zoom…

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Our Newsmaker guest today is Maryland's junior senator, Chris Van Hollen, who joins Tom Hall to discuss the extraordinary, historic and tragic events of the past week, and the way forward for members of Congress, for President-elect Joe Biden and for the country.

Yesterday, incoming Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said they supported efforts to remove President Trump from office under the 25th Amendment. Maryland’s Republican Governor, Larry Hogan, offered his support for those efforts as well.

Two cabinet secretaries, an ambassador, and several White House staffers are among those who have resigned after the President incited an insurrection at the Capitol on Wednesday.

With less than two weeks until the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the country is nervous about what may happen in the final days of Donald Trump’s chaotic and unhinged tenure in the White House. The unthinkable happened on Wednesday: five people died, including a woman who was shot by police; and a police officer who died yesterday from injuries he sustained during the insurrection. There is a palpable fear that something even worse may happen between now and a week from Wednesday.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to kill 4,000 + Americans every day. Millions are out of work and suffering from food and housing insecurity, the world has expressed shock that an insurrection could take place in some of America’s most hallowed halls, and racial tensions have been ratcheted up as mostly white rioters at the Capitol were treated much more gently than Black Lives Matter protesters were treated last summer .

Throughout all of this, the work of the U.S. Congress continues, as Democrats prepare to govern with slim majorities in both Houses of Congress. Our Newsmaker guest, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, offers his perspective on all these important developments. We’ll take your calls and comments a little later this hour. Sen. Van Hollen joins us on Zoom.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Midday theater critic J.Wynn Rousuck joins us again today with her reviews of two new films produced and now streaming on Netflix, that spotlight the extraordinary work of the late, two-time Pulitizer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is one of 10 plays August Wilson wrote chronicling the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th Century. The 1984 work centers on a group of Black musicians in 1920s Chicago who are playing a recording session with the legendary blues singer, Ma Rainey, as they also confront the racial prejudice and economic challenges of their day. The new Netflix film adaptation, directed by George C. Wolfe, stars Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, in his last role before he succumbed last year to cancer.

The other new Netflix film is called Giving Voice. The documentary by James Stern and Fernando Villena follows a group of high-school student actors who become contestants in the prestigious August Wilson Monologue Competition, sponsored by collaborating theaters across the country, whose prize is an opporunity to perform on Broadway.

J.Wynn Rousuck joins Tom on Skype.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today, another edition of the Midday Healthwatch, our monthly conversation with Dr. Leana Wen. She is an emergency physician and former Baltimore City Health Commissioner who teaches at the George Washington University School of Public Health. She’s also a columnist for The Washington Post and a medical analyst for CNN. Dr. Wen joins Tom today to discuss the continuing COVID-19 catastrophe, the growing concerns over the pace and efficiency of the COVID-19 vaccination program, and what we know about the two new strains of the COVID virus that have been infecting people in Europe and here in the United States.

And as always, we welcome your questions and comments.

Dr. Leana Wen joins us on Skype.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Yesterday at this hour, the self-proclaimed “law and order” President, Donald Trump incited an insurrection in a 90-minute diatribe delivered just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol, and within minutes of his concluding his remarks, at Trump’s suggestion, his supporters marched to the Capital, stormed the building, and disrupted the constitutionally mandated duty of Congress to certify the votes in the Electoral College.

Violence, which before yesterday could hardly have been imagined taking place in the country’s most majestic and symbolic place, coursed through the building and the surrounding grounds. Four people died, and it took Capitol Police and more than 1,000 members of the National Guard several hours to restore security to the building. Last night, legislators returned to their chambers, and early this morning, Congress certified the results of the election that Mr. Trump still disputes.

So, what’s next for Congress and the country? Tomorrow, Tom speaks with the junior Democratic senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen. Now, we turn to Congressman Kweisi Mfume, who represents Maryland’s 7th District, which includes parts of Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Howard County.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume joins us on Zoom.

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Yesterday, the weather in Georgia was sunny and mild. The tenor of the four campaigners who were locked in battles for Georgia's two Senate seats was anything but sunny and mild. The campaigns set records for spending and turnout for special elections.

As we speak, the dust is beginning to settle in Georgia.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a former pastor of Douglas Memorial Community Church here in Baltimore and the current pastor of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is projected to be the first Black Senator ever elected in Georgia, and the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Georgia in 20 years.

In the race that pitted Democrat Jon Ossoff against Republican incumbent David Perdue, Mr. Ossoff holds a lead, but the AP and other news media outlets still consider the vote tallies too close to call.

For analysis of these crucial runoff elections and what they signify for Georgia politics and control of the US Senate, Tom welcomes Tia Mitchell, the Washington correspondent for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Tia Mitchell joins us from Washington, DC, on Zoom.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

In Washington today, supporters of President Trump gathered to hear speakers, including the President himself, assert the fantasy that Trump won the Presidential election. Later, large crowds of pro-Trump demonstrators, most unmasked, massed on the steps of the US Capitol and began breaching its public entrance, threatening the security of the building and the lawmakers within. The National Guard, which has been deployed at the request of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, is unarmed.

Inside the Capitol, a joint session of Congress had been attempting to certify the count of the 50 state electoral college electors, to officially declare Democrat Joe Biden the President-elect. The normally pro forma process has been marked by objections from a minority of Senate Republicans who argue, without evidence, that the November elections were fraudulent. The proceeding were later interrupted when the Capitol building was breached by pro-Trump protesters. Security forces put the building on lock down, used teargas to clear demonstrators out of the building and evacuated lawmakers to safer quarters.

For a discussion of the constitutional process that was supposed to play out in the halls of Congress today -- and which will likely resume when order is restored --Tom is joined by Kim Wehle, a constitutional expert and a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is the author of several books, including How to Read the Constitution -- and Why, and What You Need to Know About Voting -- and Why.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.