Midday

You don't have to spend a lot of time on the Internet to know that these days, practically every move we make online is watched and recorded by marketers, security firms, scammers and a growing cast of unseen tech agents. People say they are worried about their privacy, but given how much personal data we routinely share on social media and online shopping sites, are we worried enough? In a sobering new book, MICA philosophy professor Firmin DeBrabander makes it clear that the tech companies have no problem whatsoever in learning a lot about each of us, and that their power to do so poses a serious threat to our democracy.

The capacity to track what we buy, where we go, and who we align with socially and politically is astounding, and troubling. The scope of the information that tech entities have acquired about us, and the profits that are made by harvesting and manipulating that information, are huge, and the possibility of abuse and malfeasance is ever-present...

Professor DeBrabander's new book is called Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society, and in it, he explores the ramifications of privacy as we know it in this age, and how it has been considered throughout the ages. DeBrabander will also be talking about his book at a free online event on November 12, from 7-8pm, for the Enoch Pratt Library's Writers Live! series. For a link to the event, click here.

Firmin DeBrabander joins Tom today on Zoom…

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Tom's next guest is the urban planner, builder and architectural historian, Charles Duff. As the president of Jubilee Baltimore since 1987, Mr. Duff has helped to revive dozens of Baltimore neighborhoods and is an expert on the city's architectural evolution. He’s written a book about how the homes in Baltimore and cities in other parts of the world came to look as they do.

The book is called The North Atlantic Cities. Among its many revelations, we learn that the row house, long a ubiquitous mainstay of the Baltimore cityscape, was invented in Amsterdam in the era of the great Renaissance painters Vermeer and Rembrandt.

How did row houses get from there to here, and why are they also a staple in cities like London and Washington, but less common in places like Paris or Minneapolis?

Charles Duff will also be speaking about his book tonight in a free online event for the Enoch Pratt Library's Writers Live! series, co-sponsored by The Ivy Bookshop. For a link to the event, click here.

He joins us now on Zoom…

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Today, it’s Midday on Politics with Dr. Mileah Kromer, the director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center at Goucher College, and political consultant Sophia Silbergeld, a partner at Adeo Advocacy, a public relations and communications firm.

Three new Goucher College polls were released by the Hughes Center over the past few days, in which Marylanders were asked about a wide range of issues: the presidential race, police reform and the Black Lives Matter movement, and Governor Larry Hogan’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic.


With just twenty days to go before the November 3rd election, Tom and his guests discuss a broad slate of political contests -- across the city, the state and in the highest national offices – that will soon be having an impact on our lives. They unpack the results of the new Goucher polls, and provide analysis of important local and state election races, the presidential contest, local ballot questions, and what Marylanders are saying about the COVID-19 pandemic.

As always, we welcome listener comments and questions by phone, email or tweet...

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

Last month, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced that a grand jury had decided not to indict those officers with a crime. Was this decision solely in the hands of the grand jury? What was Attorney General Cameron’s role?

Tom’s guest is Gregg Bernstein, the former Baltimore City State’s Attorney, who is now a partner with the Zuckerman Spaeder law firm.

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The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have identified far-right and racially motivated paramilitary-style groups as among the most significant national security threats facing our country.

What is feeding the rise of vigilantism? And how effective are our local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies at combating the growing threat of far-right paramilitary violence?

Guests:

Michael German is a former FBI special agent specializing in domestic terrorism, and a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty & National Security Program.

Rashawn Ray is a Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Executive Director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research at the University of MD College Park.

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

The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the US Congress, ratified by 38 states, and enacted in 1967, to prepare for a situation in which a sitting U.S. president is no longer capable of performing his or her duties. It is divided into four sections. The last section begins: “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”

When President Trump returned to the White House last Monday night after a weekend at Walter Reed Medical Center, it appeared to many that the medications he had been given to treat his infection with the Coronavirus might be affecting his mental status and intellectual capabilities. In a few rambling, sometimes incoherent interviews, it appeared to some observers that he was not completely in control of his faculties.

On Friday morning, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and MD 8th District Congressman Jamie Raskin announced legislation to create a commission to “help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership” in the Presidency.

What would such a commission do? Why did the Speaker and her caucus see the need to introduce this legislation at this moment? Natalie Jennings, the editor of The Fix -- a live weekly news chat at the WashingtonPost.com -- joins Tom on Zoom to help us understand the House move on the 25th Amendment Commission bill. She also brings us up to date on the stalled COVID relief bill and the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court Justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

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

Today is the second Monday in October. Since the 1930s, the day has been recognized as a federal holiday commemorating the first arrival of Christopher Columbus and crew to the Americas in 1492. Last week, the Baltimore City Council passed a bill to rename Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples Day. Mayor Jack Young has yet to sign the bill into law.

If the mayor signs the bill or allows it to become law without his signature, Baltimore will join more than 130 cities and counties across nearly 35 states in creating an alternative to celebrating the life of Columbus, an explorer that Native Americans have long viewed as a brutal colonizer.

What do we know about Columbus, and what should we know to be able put him in historical context? The historian and author Laurence Bergreen joins me. He has written several books about explorers, including biographies of Marco Polo, Magellan, and Christopher Columbus, the subject of his 2011 book, Columbus: the Four Voyages. Mr. Bergreen joins us on Zoom from New York…

Then, Tom welcomes Ashley Minner, a local artist and a professor and folklorist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Ms. Minner is an enrolled member of the Lumbees of North Carolina, the largest native American tribe East of the Mississippi, and the ninth largest in the country. A small community of Lumbee Indians has lived in Baltimore since the 1940s. She describes her work preserving the history of that community, and her advocacy for a heightened public awareness of the cultures of Indigenous People. She joins us on Zoom.

Some upcoming events related to the Baltimore Lumbee Community and Indigenous Peoples Day are listed below:
UMD Indigenous Peoples' Day Panel (requires registration): 10/12/20, 6:30 PM;
Walter's Art Museum LIVE Artist's Talk: Indigenous Futures: 10/13/20, 5:30 PM;
MICA Lecture - Art & The Archive: What is the Archive?: 10/19/20, 7 PM
Oral History Association Annual Meeting: Virtual Walking Tour of "The Reservation": 10/22/20, 1 PM

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

The Maryland State Department of Health reports today that 10 people died of COVID-19-related illness yesterday, the highest death toll in the last couple of weeks. More than 3,800 people have died in our state since the pandemic began in March. More than 130,000 Marylanders have been infected with the virus.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to dominate the national conversation as well. Since President Trump’s treatment for his COVID-19 infection at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center last weekend and his return to the White House Monday, dozens of the president’s staffers, as well as political and military leaders who had recent close contact with the president, have tested positive for the virus. And there has been growing concern among public health officials over Mr. Trump’s tweets and video messages in the past few days about his self-proclaimed “recovery” from COVID-19, aided by powerful therapeutic drugs which he has falsely described as a “cure.”

The Administration’s handling of the pandemic over the past eight months was also a dominant issue in the Vice Presidential debate on Wednesday night. The US death toll from COVID-19 is at a higher rate than any other nation. On Wednesday, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in an unprecedented political editorial, called the Trump administration “dangerously incompetent” and said it should no longer be abeted and enabled. Scientific American also broke precedent and endorsed Joe Biden.

Today on Midday, it’s another edition of the Midday Healthwatch with Dr. Leana Wen. She’s an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University. Dr. Wen is also a contributing columnist for The Washington Post and a CNN medical analyst. She was Baltimore's Health Commissioner from 2015 to 2018.

Dr. Leana Wen is with us for the hour today. We’ll also take your comments and questions…

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Brandon was elected President of the City Council by his fellow council members last year when then Council President Jack Young became Mayor after Catherine Pugh’s fall from grace.

He was first elected to the Council in 2011 to represent the 2nd District. Before that, he worked in the office of then Council President Stephanie Rawlings Blake as her representative in Northeast Baltimore.

In 2018, Jim Shea picked Mr. Scott as his running mate in their unsuccessful bid in the Democratic Gubernatorial primary.

Council President Scott fended off a crowded field of challengers for his party’s nomination, including former mayor Shelia Dixon.

Brandon Scott is 36 years old. He grew up in Park Heights, where his parents and family still live. He lives in the Frankford neighborhood in North East Baltimore.

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

Today, another in our series of Conversation with the Candidates. Tom's guest is Maryland Delegate Nick Mosby, the Democratic nominee for Baltimore City Council President.

Delegate Mosby has represented Baltimore’s 40th District in the Maryland House of Delegates since 2017. Previously, he served for five years as a member of the Baltimore City Council.

In June, Delegate Mosby beat a crowded field of challengers in a primary that included City Council members Shannon Sneed and Leon Pinkett III. His opponent in the general election next month is Republican Jovani Patterson...

Nick Mosby is 41 years old. He and his wife, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, live in Reservoir Hill with their two young daughters. Delegate Nick Mosby joins Tom on the line from his home.

Listener questions and comments are welcome.
Call: 410.662.8780. Email: [email protected]. Tweet: @MiddayWYPR

Tomorrow, our Conversations with the Candidates series continues with Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott, the Democratic nominee for Mayor. He’ll discuss his plans to confront the COVID-19 crisis, and reorganize city government. That’s coming up tomorrow on Midday.

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