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While an earlier story reported a “rancorous” meeting in which Donald Trump expressed interest in making Sidney Power a special counsel to investigate election fraud—in spite of Powell losing every case in local, state, and federal court—that turns out to be the less dangerous issue discussed at the meeting. As more details have emerged, the fact that Trump tried to put the attorney whose filings have been labeled “fantastical conspiracy theories” from the “fact-free outer reaches of the Internet” in charge investigating America’s core institution turns out to be a sideshow to the real subject of the day.

As CNN reports, both Powell and her client Michael Flynn were present at the meeting. And the subject of the most heated discussion came from Flynn insisting that Trump move forward with the suggestion the just-pardoned criminal made publicly last week—that Trump should invoke martial law, overturn the election, and force a revote of selected states under military supervision with rules devised by Trump.

Supposedly, even such dedicated Trump yes men as Mark Meadows couldn’t bring themselves to endorse Flynn’s call to suspend the Constitution, throw out millions of votes, and force voters to return to the polls until they give Trump what he wants. In reply, Flynn accused Meadows and others of “abandoning” Trump as he “works to overturn the results of the election.”

Which … yes. That’s exactly right. Because overturning the results of the election is also known as overturning the government of the United States. It may not be technically treason … but it is definitely traitorous. 

According to USA Today, Trump suggested giving Sidney Powell security clearances to help her continue her attack on the election.  Meanwhile, in an interview with Newsmax, Flynn eagerly expressed how by setting aside the Constitution and implementing martial law, Trump “could immediately on his order seize every single one of these [voting] machines around the country.”

If this is not sedition, the word has no meaning.

• To conspire to overthrow or destroy by force the government of the United States or to level war against them;
• To oppose by force the authority of the United States government; to prevent, hinder, or delay by force the execution of any law of the United States; or
• To take, seize, or possess by force any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.

Suspending the Constitution, ordering the military to seize voting locations and equipment, negating tens of millions of votes, and doing all of the above without evidence of any issue with the election … would seem to tick every box on the sedition checklist.

The leaders of both the Democratic and Republican Party should be joined together at this moment to call for Trump to step down. This is as serious as it gets.

And if Michael Flynn is not charged for this, we might as well call up Vladimir Putin and surrender.

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Our project to calculate the 2020 presidential results for all 435 congressional districts nationwide goes to Connecticut, where Team Blue had a strong night. You can find our complete data set here, which we’re updating continuously as the precinct-level election returns we need for our calculations become available.

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In the previous installment of this #BlackMusicSunday series, we started discussing jazz drummers. When we hear the word “jazz,” we don’t always make the connection to the word “politics” or to “civil rights” and yet those ties are there, albeit not always up front and in your face. In the case of the great jazz drummer Max Roach, he was a musician who was unabashedly politically engaged, and outspoken about it. 

Roach, who was born in North Carolina in 1924, was raised in New York City, where he started drumming at age 10. Over his lengthy career in music, academia, and activism, which ended with his death in 2007, he received a MacArthur Genius Fellowship in 1988, eight honorary doctorates, and entered the Downbeat Hall of Fame in 1980. Yet whenever I listen to his music or to interviews with him, I am reminded that he also struck blows to the racial status quo in America, and to injustices around the world—like apartheid in South Africa—and not just with his drumsticks.   

Ingrid Monson, author of Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa, wrote “Revisited! The Freedom Now Suite” for JazzTimes last June.

The Freedom Now Suite, written by drummer Max Roach and writer/singer Oscar Brown Jr., is perhaps the best-known jazz work with explicitly political content. Known primarily through the Candid recording We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, the album’s liner notes begin with a thunderous quotation from A. Philip Randolph: “A revolution is unfurling—America’s unfinished revolution. It is unfurling in lunch counters, buses, libraries and schools—wherever the dignity and potential of men are denied. Youth and idealism are unfurling. Masses of Negroes are marching onto the stage of history and demanding their freedom now!”

The album cover photograph commemorates the student lunch counter sit-ins that began in Greensboro, N.C., on Feb. 1, 1960, making explicit through visual means the link between the political events of 1960 and the subject matter of the Freedom Now Suite. The five movements of the work (“Driva’ Man,” “Freedom Day,” “Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace,” “All Africa” and “Tears for Johannesburg”) are organized as a historical progression through African-American history, a shape similar to the one in Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige. The Freedom Now Suite moves from slavery to Emancipation Day to the contemporary civil-rights struggle and African independence.

Always among the most politically active of jazz musicians, Mr. Roach had helped the bassist Charles Mingus establish one of the first musician-run record companies, Debut, in 1952. Eight years later, the two organized a so-called rebel festival in Newport, R.I., to protest the Newport Jazz Festival’s treatment of performers. That same year, Mr. Roach collaborated with the lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. on “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite,” which played variations on the theme of black people’s struggle for equality in the United States and Africa.

The album, which featured vocals by Abbey Lincoln (Mr. Roach’s frequent collaborator and, from 1962 to 1970, his wife), received mixed reviews: many critics praised its ambition, but some attacked it as overly polemical. Mr. Roach was undeterred. “I will never again play anything that does not have social significance,” he told Down Beat magazine after the album’s release. “We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond all doubt that we’re master musicians of our instruments. Now what we have to do is employ our skill to tell the dramatic story of our people and what we’ve been through.”

“We Insist!” was not a commercial success, but it emboldened Mr. Roach to broaden his scope as a composer. Soon he was collaborating with choreographers, filmmakers and Off Broadway playwrights on projects, including a stage version of “We Insist!”

Abby Lincoln’s powerful wordless cry in “Tears for Johannesburg” adds a vocal dimension to the Suite.

I’ve always felt that this Roach and Brown Jr. tune should become our Juneteenth anthem.

Freedom Day

Whisper, listen, whisper, listen. Whispers say we’re free.
Rumors flyin’, must be lyin’. Can it really be?
Can’t conceive it, can’t believe it. But that’s what they say.
Slave no longer, slave no longer, this is Freedom Day.
Freedom Day, it’s Freedom Day. Throw those shackle n’ chains away.
Everybody that I see says it’s really true, we’re free.

Whisper, listen, whisper, listen. Whispers say we’re free.
Rumors flyin’, must be lyin’. Can it really be?
Can’t conceive it, don’t believe it. But that’s what they say.
Slave no longer, slave no longer, this is Freedom Day.

Freedom Day, it’s Freedom Day. Throw those shackle n’ chains away.
Everybody that I see says it’s really true, we’re free.

Freedom Day, it’s Freedom Day. Free to vote and earn my pay.
Dim my path and hide the way. But we’ve made it Freedom Day.

Listening to Max Roach talk about music history, his own story, and Black politics has long fascinated me through the years. He was a superb educator. 

Here he is in a clip with kids at the Harlem School of the Arts, teaching them about improvisation in On the Edge: Improvisation in Music, which was produced in 1992 by the U.K.’s Channel 4. The four-part miniseries was written and produced by British guitarist Derek Bailey.

The Howard University Jazz Oral History Project (HUJOHP) has a fascinating collection of jazz interviews.

Initially funded in 1986 by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Howard University Jazz Oral History Project (HUJOHP) focuses on the evolution of jazz music from the 1940’s through the late 1950’s.  These years are often identified by musicologists as the bebop era—one of the most innovative and creative periods in the history of American music.  The bebop style provided the foundation for modern music throughout the world and continues to be a major influence more than sixty years later.  The major objective of the project was to conduct in-depth interviews with musicians who were active during the “52nd Street period” of bebop.  It was in the area of 52nd Street in New York City during the 1940’s where several jazz clubs presented a new music, representing the culmination of a style that had been created and nurtured by African American musicians.[…] 

Oral histories were completed with Art Blakey, Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Barry Harris, Jimmy Heath, Milt Jackson, Illinois Jacquet, Philly Joe Jones, John Lewis, James Moody, Max Roach, Charlie Rouse, Billy Taylor, and Clark Terry.

The HUJOHP interview with Max Roach was conducted by the then-young future jazz historian W.A “Bill” Brower. Roach talks about his involvement with the movement and bringing together elements from gospel and jazz.

A full transcript of the interview is available for download here.

Another extensive interview with Roach is now available online; in it, visual artist Jomo Cheatham speaks with the legend in Chicago in May 1993. It’s fascinating to hear Roach talk about his family moving from the South to New York City during the Depression, the impact of the WPA on Black artists, and how the he discovered drum-playing during that time when his parents parked him and his older brother in a church day care center.

In 1981, Roach recorded “The Dream/It’s Time” as a tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. The cut featured Roach on drums, chimes, tympani, and percussion; Odean Pope on tenor sax, alto flute, and oboe; Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet and flugelhorn; and Calvin Hill on bass. Dr. King’s legendary speech unfolds in a duet with Roach’s drum.

The album title, Chattahoochee Red, refers to the Atlanta Child Murders of that year.

During the early 80s, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, was terrorized by the Atlanta Child Murders. Many of the bodies were recovered from the Chattahoochee River, and the title refers to the bloodshed of the victims.

The Atlanta Child Murders were recently covered in an HBO documentary series after Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms reopened the cases.

While searching for clips to include here, I ran across this celebration of Max Roach’s music from North Carolina. It seems like a good place to close.

His legacy lives on.

See you in the comments for more Max Roach—and other great jazz drummers, past and present.

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Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week

32 DAYS UNTIL JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE

Robyn Pennacchia at Wonkette writes—Well This Is Just A Swell Time For Trump To Cut Healthcare Funds To California Over Abortion:

California is having a difficult time. It’s had more cases of COVID-19 than any other state in the country, and trails only New York and Texas in total deaths. In fact, just two days ago, the state confirmed more than 61,000 cases in a single day.

It’s really, really bad!

So if you were a normal, compassionate human being, you would probably be like, “Yeah, California definitely needs healthcare. We should definitely not cut off their healthcare funding at this time, particularly for a really stupid reason.” But Donald Trump is not a normal, compassionate human being. Obviously.

That is why, we can assume, he is cutting $200 million in Medicaid funding to California because the state requires employers to provide health care insurance that covers abortion. On Wednesday, Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar explained in a press release that this violates the Weldon Amendment, which “prohibits federal agencies and programs and state and local governments that receive money under the bill from ‘discriminating’ against individuals, health care facilities, insurance plans, and other entities because they refuse to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.”

THREE OTHER ARTICLES WORTH READING

• The ‘Fauci effect’: Inspired by front-line health care workers, record numbers apply to medical schools, by Jon Marcus. The number of medical school applicants is up an “unprecedented” 8% this year
   
• The Big Thaw: How Russia Could Dominate a Warming World, by Abraham Lustgarten. Climate change is propelling enormous human migrations as it transforms global agriculture and remakes the world order — and no country stands to gain more than Russia.
   

• How to Finally Win the Civil War, by Jonathan Zasloff. The South has never believed in democracy. So it’s no wonder the GOP doesn’t. But the battle for democracy must be won.

TOP COMMENTS • RESCUED DIARIES 

QUOTATION

“No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.”
          ~~Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908)

TWEET OF THE DAY

BLAST FROM THE PAST

At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Due process at Guantánamo:

There was an important development on Tuesday at Guantánamo. A ruling by the judge in Salim Hamdan’s military commission appears to require entirely new hearings for any prisoners who claim to be POWs. Hamdan had appealed for a POW status hearing under Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention. The ruling by Navy Captain Keith Allred went strongly in his favor.

Allred rejects the Congressional view that Combatant Status Review Tribunals had been adequate to determine POW status. That view was asserted forcefully by Sen. Lindsay Graham in 2006 during hearings for the Military Commissions Act. Allred, however, concludes that CSRTs concerned themselves with whether the prisoners were “enemy combatants” and therefore weren’t competent to determine whether the men were prisoners of war.

The military commissions are defective by design and should not be permitted to stand in for civil trials, but at least one prisoner has been assigned a judge who is willing to face up to the plain flaws in the legal “system” that the Bush administration slapped together.

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Texas teachers Paul Blackwell and Rose Mary Blackwell were married for 30 years before they died holding each other’’s hands and that of their children Sunday. They contracted COVID-19 about a week before Thanksgiving and spent two weeks in intensive care with the virus, NBC News reported. “Doctors said they hadn’t seen any progression at all, and they were slowly declining in their overall vital functions,” the couple’s son Shawn Blackwell told CNN. “It got to the point where it was very far gone and that there was nothing else they could do.”

“Me and my brother came to the conclusion to let them go at peace together. They were together and holding hands. My brother and I were both holding my parent’s hands as well, so all four of us were holding each other’s hands as they were both removed from the ventilator.”

Rose Mary Blackwell, a second-grade teacher, had celebrated 20 years at Travis World Language Academy, and Paul, a gym teacher and football coach at Fannin Middle School, had worked at the school for five years, the Grand Prairie Independent School District wrote in a Facebook post.

“Rose Mary and Paul will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their family, friends, co-workers, and students both current and former,” the district said. “Counselors will be on both campuses this week to provide additional support for staff and students.”

Teacher unions in Texas are among several groups lobbying for priority in vaccine administration, The Dallas Morning News reported. Monty Exter, a lobbyist for the Association of Texas Professional Educators, told the newspaper vaccinating teachers would have positive trickledown effects. When teachers contract the virus, instruction often has to go online. “You’re shutting down a whole classroom and so that makes school reopening quite a bit more challenging,” he said. There have been more than 1.3 million coronavirus cases in Texas and more than 23,900 related deaths, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Shawn and his brother, Brandon Blackwell, organized a GoFundMe page to pay funeral expenses for their parents. It had raised more than $51,000 by Thursday morning. “They left behind many, many loved ones which includes their children, their wives, 20 grandchildren, sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews & parents,” the brothers said. “We are all at a loss for words at this time but want to thank everyone for their continued prayers. We are trying to take care of all the arrangements at this time so any help would be greatly at this time.”

Shawn told CNN he doesn’t want his parents’ legacy to be forgotten. “I just want people to know I am proud of the people my mom and dad were and proud of the things they accomplished,” he said. “They were the definition of the greatest parents and grandparents ever.”

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When Bronx-based community organizer Elisa Crespo advocates for housing accessibility, investment in public education, and job security, it’s personal. The 30-year-old is fueled by memories of growing up in New York City, witnessing her single mother fighting to sustain herself and her four children. Because her family often had to move from one Section 8 housing to another—and once to a shelter while Crespo’s mother struggled to make a living—she has lived in four of the city’s five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

“What I realized growing up, living in [almost] every borough, is that the struggles that people face in the Bronx are similar to the struggles that people face in Brooklyn and some parts of Queens,” Crespo told Prism. While her upbringing was difficult, she is undeniably proud of her roots. “It’s a great city to grow up in despite the fact that it is a very unequal city,” Crespo said.  

Addressing inequality has been the aim of her work in the Bronx, where she’s lived and organized for a decade focusing on housing rights, economic justice, access to education, and other issues that have impacted her community since long before the pandemic. Apart from Crespo’s upbringing, her experiences as a trans woman and a former sex worker have impacted the issues she’s fighting for. Crespo is one of the leading voices fighting to repeal a New York law known as “Walking While Trans,” an anti-loitering statute that’s resulted in disproportionate police violence and arrests for transgender women of color. She also advocates against the continued criminalization and demonization of sex work.

Now, after years working in public service and grassroots organizing, Crespo is running for New York City Council, hoping to fill the seat left vacant by U.S. Representative-elect Ritchie Torres. If she wins in next year’s special election, Crespo would be the first trans council member representing the 15th District of the Bronx. However, she reminds people that this isn’t the primary reason she’s running. “Representation matters and it’s very important and there is a historic nature to this campaign, but this is not about me, this is about the struggles the people in my community are facing every day,” Crespo said. 

This month, Crespo spoke with Prism about her advocacy for sex workers’ rights and the labor movement, and about her community in the Bronx, which has been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our conversation has been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.

María Inés Taracena: You’re very vocal about your childhood and about what your mom faced as a single mother. How did this shape the issues that you fight for today?

Elisa Crespo: My mother grew up in New York City in the 1980s in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and it was a rough time back then. She was codependent on her significant others. She had low-wage jobs here and there, so she really relied on the men in her life to provide. I saw what that did to her. I saw the power that it took away from her. As a young person, I distinctly remember thinking I would never let a man have that much power over me. I saw my mother with my own eyes being physically abused on several occasions. It made me very protective over her and made me very sympathetic over her life.

I’m my mother’s only child to graduate from college. My mother has four kids. One of them is in college now, he’s younger than me. But I have two older siblings who grew up in different circumstances than I did. They grew up in a lot rougher environments than I did. They didn’t make it into college. Even though we didn’t have a really close relationship, [my mother] was always there, and she always accepted me for who I was. She never abandoned me. I always appreciated that. I know she’s proud of me. I’m sure she’s very happy to see her child try to do something big, try to make change and try to be a leader.

Taracena: At what stage in your life did you become more involved with grassroots organizing?

Crespo: I started my activism as an elected student leader at the City University of New York. That is the governing board of elected students across the university, and across the five boroughs. This experience got me closer to politics. It took me up to the state capitol in Albany, where we would have meetings with state lawmakers and advocate to make sure the public university was funded, and that there were no budget cuts or tuition hikes. I was also studying political science. I was really inspired in 2015 going into 2016 by the progressive movement, to get involved in politics and make sure I was heard. Being an elected student leader and organizing with young people [made me understand that] our voices have collective power.

Taracena: Talk about your involvement in the workers’ rights movement. You’re a union member. You’ve also been a sex workers’ rights advocate, fighting for the decriminalization of sex work. Why is it crucial to be inclusive of sex work within the labor movement? You fight for this from a very personal position.

Crespo: Union workers are the ones that fight for our workplace protections. Without unions, we would not have a middle class. We would not have working class power. It’s a privilege to be part of a union where you can get benefits, you can get health care. In this district where I live, in the heart of the Bronx, there’s a lot of suffering and there’s a lack of employment. Some 30% of people in this district have less than a high school education and we’re currently facing up to 25% unemployment rates.

I come at this from a very specific and interesting point of view and background. I come at this as a trans woman of color, which is not insignificant when talking about [the subject of sex work]. Trans people, LGBTQ+ people of color, [and] particularly trans women of color have been historically marginalized from employment. There are real barriers to employment for us.

I think people forget that it was just last year that the New York state legislature passed a bill called GENDA, which prohibited discrimination by employers on the basis of gender identity. So before then, it was allowed. I’m not here to encourage people to be sex workers. But I understand that … a lot of women sometimes have no other choice than to resort to survival sex work, and they shouldn’t be criminalized for it. Because there’s a lot of nuance and a lot of context there. There’s a reason why people resort to survival sex work. I know I never desired to be involved in sex work. I grew up around older trans women. They were my role models, and this was what they were doing [for a living]. This is also about bodily autonomy—women having the right to do what they will with their bodies, and the government shouldn’t be able to tell you who you can and cannot have consensual sex with.

Taracena: Recently the New York Post—a tabloid newspaper that endorsed President Donald Trump—ran a very demonizing article about you and sex work. How have these kinds of outlets and media in general been complicit in the dehumanization of sex workers and misconceptions surrounding sex work?

Crespo: It’s very dangerous. It can cause us harm. It’s not surprising that they would use a very polarizing headline for clickbait. I had to let them know that there’s a backstory here. You need to understand what that backstory is. Let’s look at this from another way: We are often glorifying sex, sexual liberty, femininity in pop culture, being sexy and sexual. We praise them. We buy their records and listen to their songs. I don’t understand what the difference is here. My story is one of overcoming, transition, and moving forward. We should be congratulating people who have been able to get out of the sex work industry [when they choose or are able to] and not demonize them [because of] their past. Everyone has a past and I don’t regret anything. It was a long time ago. And it doesn’t define who I am. This was about weaponizing transphobia.

Taracena: The Bronx has been deeply impacted by the pandemic, not only as a public health crisis but an economic crisis. What has that been like for you, seeing the hardships the community is experiencing right now?

Crespo: We already had a pandemic in the Bronx, so when COVID-19 hit, it doubled the effect. We already have the highest rate of asthma [in the city]. We already have the highest rate of diabetes. We already were the hungriest, poorest borough. We already had some of these underlying conditions here: The environmental racism. We had food insecurity and poverty. We are the borough with the most kids in handcuffs, with the highest rate of evictions. All of that was already here before COVID-19. That’s why it had such a detrimental effect in the Bronx. Some argued that COVID-19 was the great equalizer and that it doesn’t discriminate against anyone, but I strongly disagree with that. COVID-19 does discriminate against low-income communities of color, where there are preexisting inequities and health inequities.

In the Bronx, there are people who live within close proximity to each other. Part of our problem is high-density neighborhoods. Immigrant communities, where more than one person is sharing a room, [make] it very easy for a virus to spread quickly. And that’s why people in the Bronx were twice as likely to die of COVID-19 than any other borough in New York City. When a global pandemic hits the Bronx, we get it worse. But people in the Bronx are strong. People in the Bronx are some of the best organizers, [the] most resilient people. These are people who have survived so much. They’ve been here when the Bronx was crumbling, and they helped rebuild the Bronx. People in the Bronx have years of experience in organizing mutual aid, coming to each other’s defense. Seeing that has warmed my heart. Seeing the people doing what they can to deliver meals to homebound seniors. Seeing people step up and clean our parks when the city council cut our sanitation and parks budget. We’re repeating history, ironically. We’re seeing community members take matters into their own hands and not wait for government.

Taracena: Tell us about some of these mutual aid efforts and grassroots organizing in the Bronx during the pandemic.

Crespo: This was a resurgence of mutual aid like the East Bronx and South Bronx mutual aid groups. The grassroots group I’m a part of, the Allerton Allies, brought community refrigerators, and it was our decentralizing way [of] having these places where people can come without having to sign in or get their picture taken or stand in line, and take what they need. Housing justice advocates have really organized right now. The rise of evictions correlates directly with COVID-19, and the Bronx has always been the epicenter of evictions. We’ve always had housing advocates and tenant advocates, but we have really seen them build coalitions. Groups like the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and Community Action for Safe Apartments are Bronx-born groups that were created here, that have been around, and have really started building bigger, more effective organizing. They have been on the ground in front of housing courts, calling for the state government to cancel rent and to halt evictions.

This was also the summer of protests. We were there every single day, young people marching against police brutality and against the systemic racism that we face. [Then, there’s] Strategy for Black Lives, a group that I’m a part of that many of the young people I organized with in college at CUNY are now a part of, too. We were on the streets every day, marching over the Brooklyn Bridge, shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Concourse in the Bronx, marching in front of Foley Square in Manhattan, demanding justice and taking up space.

We have also seen young LGBTQ+ activists rise up again the same way they did in 1969 with the Stonewall protests. Groups of Black and brown queer people taking to the streets, holding demonstrations in front of Stonewall, marches and rallies across the city, pushing back against police brutality, which is what the original Stonewall riot was about.

There was a movement called Occupy City Hall, which was, again, young progressive people literally camping outside New York City Hall, sleeping there for days, calling for the council to pass a just budget, calling for them to divest from over-policing and reinvest in low-income communities of color and public education, and reinvest in housing. That was particularly important as we were dealing with COVID-19 and the economic impact of it. [There were] so many unemployed people facing evictions that didn’t have anything to eat, or living paycheck to paycheck. It was young people: We were occupying city hall saying there’s never been a better time to reallocate money from militarized police to critical social programs. Our demands weren’t fully met, but we did make some progress.

Taracena: Any final reflections about your community in the Bronx?

Crespo: I’ve lived all throughout the city, but nowhere have I felt more comfortable and welcomed than in the Bronx. The Bronx welcomed me with open arms. It’s where I got my first apartment, where I got my first job in government, and it’s where I grew into a woman. There is a feeling in the Bronx that you don’t really get anywhere else. It’s a sense of community and resilience … you can’t help but to have a sense of respect and real gratitude.

María Inés Taracena is a contributing writer covering workers’ rights at Prism. Originally from Guatemala, she’s currently a news producer at Democracy Now! in New York City focusing on Central America and asylum-seekers, among other stories.

Prism is a BIPOC-led nonprofit news outlet that centers the people, places and issues currently underreported by our national media. Through our original reporting, analysis, and commentary, we challenge dominant, toxic narratives perpetuated by the mainstream press and work to build a full and accurate record of what’s happening in our democracy. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

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The New York City Council voted to dramatically strengthen protections for fast food workers with two bills this week, both supported by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The really big deal bill would ban fast food restaurants from firing workers without just cause—that means workers could only (“only”) be fired for performance issues or other serious problems, not just because the boss felt like it.

Most workers in the U.S. are currently “at-will,” which means exactly that—your boss doesn’t actually need a reason to fire you. As Jared Odessky explained at Data for Progress last summer, moving to a just cause standard could help crack down on discrimination: “Currently, the burden is on a fired worker to show that they were terminated for an impermissible reason like their race or sex. This is true even though the employer has greater access to and control over information about the firing. After the worker makes out a case of discrimination, the employer can then point to another basis for the termination, benefiting from an at-will presumption that permits employers to fire workers for almost any or no reason. In reality, employers can simply invent reasons after the fact. The burden then falls to the worker to show that the reason the employer gave was a lie.”

The other bill passed by the city council would require layoffs to go in order of seniority. Both bills apply to fast food stores belonging to chains with more than 30 locations.

● Stanford Medicine says it’s revising its vaccine distribution plan after its plan for the first 5,000 doses only included seven of the residents doing much of the in-person care of COVID-19 patients:

“Residents are patient-facing, we’re the ones who have been asked to intubate, yet some attendings who have been face-timing us from home are being vaccinated before us,” said Sarah Johnson, a third-year OB-GYN resident who has delivered babies from COVID-positive patients during the pandemic. “This is the final straw to say, ‘We don’t actually care about you.’”

● This open letter to Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, is classic Hamilton Nolan.

Ama­zon needs a union. And I am hap­py to say: Macken­zie Scott, you can help with that. It’s hard to orga­nize a com­pa­ny like Ama­zon, both because it is a larg­er beast than any indi­vid­ual union has resources for, and because it will spend a great deal of mon­ey on lies and intim­i­da­tion to pre­vent its work­ers from exer­cis­ing their fun­da­men­tal right to orga­nize. But mon­ey can help to even the play­ing field. For a small frac­tion of the mon­ey you just gave out — say, $100 mil­lion — it would be pos­si­ble to hire orga­niz­ers nation­wide with the express pur­pose of union­iz­ing Ama­zon. 

● It’s been a long nightmare before Christmas for UPS and postal workers.

● State attorneys general taking on protection of workers’ rights.

● Labor unions battle for working-class Georgians.

Victory in Georgia depends in large part on activating this army of working-class people. As Daniel Blackman, a progressive candidate for Georgia’s Public Service Commission whose runoff is also January 5, put it at the rally, “Georgia can’t win without labor. We can’t win without standing up for our working families. We cannot win if you guys aren’t organized … Gone are the days of people forgetting that we’re here because of labor.”

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This post was originally published on this site

Every day, a team of Daily Kos Community members reviews all stories published by the Community. When great writing doesn’t receive the attention it deserves, we rescue that story to the Community Spotlight group blog. In September, we began collecting each week’s rescues into this roundup, published every Saturday. The stories we select can be found on this list as they are rescued.

This week’s collection of 16 stories come from 15 Community members, including two from new members. We’re still analyzing the 2020 election from different angles; COVID-19 shapes a new member’s personal story, while another member wrote about vaccine development. Nature and art again offer refuge, although we also have a nature story describing a serious environmental problem. Please click through and read these great Community stories—you’ll be glad you did.

Rescued Stories from 4PM EST Friday, Dec. 11 to 4PM Friday, Dec. 19, 2020

Biographical information for each of these Community members comes from what they have shared in stories, comments, or on their profile pages. Thus, there is robust information for some people, less for others. Differences in their bios do not reflect the value these writers bring to their stories, just the amount of self-reveal. If you add your preferred pronouns to your profile, I’ll use them; otherwise I use the gender neutral “they/their.”

Fauci: Young Black Woman Played Key Role In Developing COVID-19 Vaccine by Charles Jay presents Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a Black woman who is the National Institute of Health’s lead scientist for coronavirus vaccine research. Her team developed an mRNA vaccine in collaboration with Moderna that the FDA is expected to authorize. Drs. Fauci and Corbett are using social media and public events to publicize Corbett’s role in developing the vaccine because “to dispel skepticism among Black Americans about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine … it is important that the role of African-American scientists in vaccine development be widely known.” Charles Jay joined in 2018 and has written 90 stories (with three rescued). His profile page says he’s from New York City, noting that “during a 30-plus-year career as a writer and editor for an international news agency, I was barred from openly supporting a political candidate and posting a political opinion on social media. I’m retired and making up for lost time.”

The Daily Bucket: Even a Boring Volcano can surprise you by 6412093 began when the author “found a warm groundwater seep in the park near my house and it made me think. I approach problems by first assuming the most dramatic solutions and then working my way to the plainest explanation; sort of a reverse Occam’s Razor. An Occam’s Hammer, perhaps.” His investigations led to discovering the volcanism near his home. “The scientists found that ‘Boring’ lava flows popped from tubes on the flanks of two 1000-foot volcano cones in the West Hills, and busted up through the Columbia basalt in spots. I set out with the old geology magazine articles … and old topography maps, seeking those lava caves.” Member 6412093 joined in 2006 and has written 443 stories (with 74 rescued). He also is called “Redwoodman” because of his years living in the redwood forest collecting burls. Now living near Portland, Oregon, he often writes about his magical backyard frog ponds.

Dawn Chorus: Birdability—Birding Without Barriers by giddy thing describes the work of Virginia Rose, a retired English teacher from Texas who founded Birdability. Rose’s campaign crowd-sources information about the accessibility of outdoor spaces, and advocates for modifications to allow easier and more enjoyable use of these spaces. “What I admire about Birdability is that it helps us able-bodied people think and act more inclusively. Often it is the environment that is disabling, not the person who is disabled; why should accessibility be a barrier for anyone wishing to experience the great outdoors?” Giddy thing, who joined in 2011 and has written 43 stories (with 23 rescued), is a wildlife biologist living in Montana’s Rocky Mountains. She explains her user name’s origin: “The giddy in my moniker is ironic when applied to me personally. It comes from Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing—’For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.’”

A break from politics. Here’s a tale of ecological and environmental connections by Ernest T. Bass is a real-life story of disastrous ecological connections. A series of unintended consequences lead from the dumping of DDT in the 1950s and 1960s to the near extinction of the endemic Channel Island fox who was never directly exposed. “It’s a story about a small animal, but is one of the largest environmental contamination problems in the United States. It’s a story that involves eagles, irresponsible industrial waste disposal, fish, feral pigs, organic chemistry, misguided human intervention, and even a Hollywood film production. It’s got it all.” A section title from the story pulls it all together: “A Tough Situation, But To Really Screw Things Up You Need To Bring In The Humans.” Ernest T. Bass, a geologist, joined in 2004 and has written 16 stories (with three rescued). Previously a resident of Oregon, Bass now lives in Europe.

Unintended consequences blocked Trump’s ‘faithless legislature’ efforts in the Electoral College by RWN is a unique look at the concept of faithless legislatures through the eyes of the author, one of the plaintiffs in a 2016 Supreme Court “faithless electors” case. “What I learned firsthand through this four-year journey (through the legal system) is that resistance to tyranny and autocratic political forces works. Maybe not the original intent, but it carries weight forward and pushes back the anti-democracy forces. That is the entire intent, protecting, and instituting democracy.” RWN joined DK in 2007 and has written 126 stories (with eight rescued).

Grokking Trumpists: Undoing the Long Southern Strategy by Mokurai reviews The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics, by Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields. “One of the most pernicious myths embraced by many Republicans is that of ‘post-racial’ America, the pretense that systemic racism is over. The Supreme Court embraced it in gutting the Voting Rights Act. The book goes into much more historical detail, starting back in the time of enslavement, the self-proclaimed ‘Southern Aristocracy,’ and the purity of southern womanhood. It then traces the development of Southern religion as a support for all of this, and how all of these threads grew together into a solid cultural structure that was imposed on almost all Southerners, so that those who didn’t agree with it all had to keep quiet.” Mokurai joined in 2006 and has written 636 stories (with 42 rescued). A nonprofit program manager in Indiana, his profile page lists his many interests, including math, science fiction, languages, and music.

Grief by Concerned Christian observes that among everything that has made their heart heavy during the last several years, the heaviest burden is when fellow Christians don’t show the value of compassion for their fellow man. “(I)nstead of stepping in with the Gospel, Christians have at best remained silent while many have condoned, excused, or even embraced these hateful, xenophobic, misogynistic, partisan messages.” Concerned Christian, an Air Force veteran, joined in 2016 and has written five stories.

ACM: On Supporting Reproductive Justice and Women’s Bodily Autonomy by NY brit expat tours the history of reproductive rights and gives an overview of where we are today.“(M)any states are vying to be the state whose law is responsible for overturning both Roe and Doe, which would essentially send the decision about the right of women to have abortions back to the states.” The author also reminds readers that abortion is only part of the story. Forced sterilization has a long and terrible history in America and is an ongoing battle, as are the obstacles women still face in accessing sterilization when they want it. “ACM” in the headline refers to the Daily Kos group Anti-Capitalist Meetup. NY brit expat, who joined in 2008 and has written 206 stories (with 36 rescued), is a former senior lecturer in economics with a Ph.D. in Economics.

Nashville Police Department accused of assault and retaliation against their own by silentnolonger begins with the author’s personal story of “sinking deeper and deeper into a hole of depression, with no idea how to climb out … after being raped in a parking lot in June 2017.” This personal story is one of 36 accusing Nashville Police Department members of widespead sexual assault. The author recounts her own rape and efforts to get women to come forward with their stories. “Despite being a former police officer, I became one of the 64% of sexual assault victims who don’t report their assault. Intellectually, I knew the perpetrator was the only one to blame, but like many victims, I blamed myself.” Silentnolonger is a new member who joined on Dec. 14 and published their first story the same day.

The Language of the Night: More of Nghi Vo’s Herstory by DrLori is a mostly spoiler-free review of the new novella When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain. “(H)istory is more than facts. Facts and dates are the skeleton of history. We don’t read history for facts and dates; we read to understand what happened, how it happened, and why. Without the stories, we have no interest, no wisdom to glean, nothing to ponder. This is what Vo grapples with. Because history is itself a product of perspective.” DrLori joined in 2010 and has written 211 stories (with 108 rescued). She has a Ph.D. in medieval manuscripts and describes herself as a “novelist and house restorer who is an overeducated liberal in the deep, deep red Shenandoah Valley.”

Will Civics Education Help Students Make Better Decisions? It’s complicated by ed in the apple examines this question: “Can civics education ‘teach’ potential voters to delineate between ‘claims’ and ‘facts?’” The author’s experiences teaching an honors government class provides the background for a look into how teaching students about government does or does not lead to practical use of what they learn. “The principal asked to have the class construct a ‘constitution’ for the school. We read constitutions, beginning with the Magna Carta, the British parliamentary system, a deep dive into our Constitution; the class decided our school was closer to a monarchy, a divine right monarchy. The principal is the king, the assistant principal is the royalty, the teachers are the craftsmen, and the students are the serfs.” Ed in the apple, who joined in 2015 and has written 24 stories (with two rescued), is “president of the Education Alumni Association at a local college.”

US Fish & Wildlife Service Finds ESA Listing for Monarch Butterfly ‘Warranted but Precluded’ by giddy thing explains the agency’s process and decision on listing monarch butterflies as Endangered. “The ESA provides for a warranted-but-precluded finding when the Service doesn’t have sufficient resources ($$$) to complete the listing process because the agency must first focus on higher-priority listing rules. Warranted but precluded findings require subsequent review each year until the agency undertakes a proposal or makes a not-warranted finding.” This is giddy thing’s second rescued story this week.

COVID-19 positive and underinsured: One kindergarten teacher’s story by ringodaisy explains how she and her family did everything right to avoid coronavirus infection and yet she still was infected. “(W)e stopped going to the grocery store and started using a local, volunteer delivery service. We wore masks as soon as health officials recommended it. Our rural village, near Dayton, was the first local jurisdiction in Ohio to implement mask legislation. I’m writing this to say that when people say they caught it even though they always took precautions and they don’t know where—believe them and continue to take all the precautions you can.” Ringodaisy joined in 2020 and this is her first story. Despite being a new member I’ve not encountered before, I can write “her” because she lists her pronouns on her profile page. She lives “in Yellow Springs, Ohio in a straw bale house with my partner, our two dogs, one cat, and four hens … (and teaches) Kindergarten at Antioch School, an independent, democratic, nature-based elementary school.”

Wisconsin: Which Republican gerrymander is worse? (State Senate vs State Assembly) by gboros explores how presidential election voting results have changed over time in the Wisconsin State Senate and Assembly districts. “It’s worth noting that Democrats are already at a geographic disadvantage in WI (with Dems naturally packed into the Milwaukee and Madison areas) and this has gotten worse with urban areas continually becoming bluer and rural areas becoming redder.” Gboros joined in 2019 and has written 20 stories (two were rescued) analyzing state legislatures.

Quarter millennium of Ludwig van Beethoven by Alonso del Arte marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. “Beethoven was great because he worked really hard to hone his craft, not because he was some kind of genius. And yet even Beethoven is subject to having the vast majority of his catalog ignored. Who cares about the Late Quartets when you can put ‘Für Elise’ on a loop and add a techno beat … Maybe you won’t like every single thing Beethoven wrote. But I think that if you choose any of his compositions at random, even one you have never heard before, you won’t be bored.” Through descriptions and music videos, Alonso introduces several compositions in the key of E-flat major. The author, who is from Michigan, joined in 2015 and has written 841 stories (with 42 rescued), mostly focused on music, Star Trek, and Michigan politics.

What follows is a feel good story by BayAreaKen lives up to its title. The author guided a long-standing client who had recently retired through the 2008 economic crisis and they all emerged stronger. “On a relative basis, he was beating the market because it was dropping much faster than his accounts, but that was of little comfort when you just started your retirement and much of your savings had evaporated within the first year. Quite frankly, it was terrifying. I’ll never forget the meeting we had in my office in October, 2008. It was the longest and most challenging meeting I had ever had up to that point in time….and ever since. It lasted just over 3 hours. He was crying. He was angry. He was sad.” BayAreaKen joined in 2006 and has written 183 stories (at least three were rescued). A former elected official in Silicon Valley, he is a Wealth Advisor at a financial firm.