Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, August 16, 2021
Maryland’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium expired Sunday without an extension of the state of emergency by Gov. Larry Hogan, despite a letter Friday from House Speaker Adrienne Jones and her top lieutenants urging Hogan to extend it.Â
“This is a preventable public health crisis,” WMAR quotes Public Justice Center attorney Matt Hill, who said up to 4,500 Maryland families were at risk of eviction without Hogan’s extension. Support your neighbors in trouble and let your local officials know how you feel about Hogan’s do-nothing pandemic response.Â
Â
Read moreThe political "duopoly" keeps Maryland divided, conquered by mediocrity
“ 'Bipartisan' sounds like it includes all viewpoints, but it’s just another word for control by the duopoly," concludes veteran journalist and observer of folly Len Lazarick in this column on how Maryland's state politics stay in the grip of centrism.
As he might have noted, county-level Central Committees, particularly of Democrats, consolidate the parties' grip on their locales by appointing replacements for Assembly members who die or leave office, magically creating the electoral power of "incumbency" for their in-house favorites.
So the parties pick their voters, not the other way round.
Â
Read moreProgressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, August 9, 2021
Stop evictions? MD has the money PM Weekly Memo for Monday, August 9, 2021
Progressive Maryland joins our friends in the labor, civil rights, and social justice movements to memorialize Richard Trumka, the President of the AFL-CIO, who died last Thursday. He was a fierce fighter for working people and a powerful movement leader. Sadly we’ve lost him at a significant moment in the campaigns for the right to organize workplaces and for greater economic security for all Americans. Statement from the AFL . Mike Podhorzer, Special Advisor to President Trumka, lifted up this quote in his tribute to Trumka: “There’s no evil that’s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism--and it’s something we in the labor movement have a special responsibility to challenge. It’s our special responsibility because we know, better than anyone else, how racism is used to divide working people.” Let’s honor his legacy by staying committed to the struggle for racial and economic justice.
Read moreProgressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, August 2, 2021
Maryland is still lagging in helping local governments get relief to those threatened with eviction as the moratorium on evictions expired at midnight Saturday. Gov. Hogan and the sometimes-contradictory federal program(s) do not help. Get the least confusing information and help here, in the Memo. And share it. Keep people housed in our communities.
Thank you for being part of this movement.Â
Â
Read moreProgressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, July 26, 2021
Medicare For All is making more sense to more and more people (it has always made sense to us). Montgomery’s Council joined many others in backing it last week. Just in time for its birthday Friday, July 30. You can sign on too; see below.
Thank you for being part of this movement.Â
Read moreMoCo Council adds biggest county to those backing Medicare for All
Progressive Maryland and The Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition Celebrate the Montgomery County Medicare For All Resolution as the Montgomery County Council passes a resolution calling on Congress to enact Medicare For All. Organizations and individuals including small business owners have backed this effort. Read more below.
Read moreProgressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, July 19, 2021
Medicare for All is making more sense to more and more people (it has always made sense to us). Resolutions backing the national campaign passed in Annapolis’ council last week and looks to pass in Montgomery’s council this week. The New Era project is under way and the critical needs of our communities are on the line -- including health care and the welfare of kids, in the classroom and out.Â
 And we lost Rep. John Lewis, champion of civil rights and voting rights, a year ago this week. The bill named for him, which would help ward off anti-voter craziness such as the Texas GOP is up to, is struggling in Congress. Join that struggle. Check it all out in this week’s memo.
Thank you for being part of this movement.Â
Â
Read moreThe War on Drugs is a war on people like me
"The War on Drugs has been with us for more than fifty years, and hasn’t been a war on drugs at all. It’s been a war on people: people like me, and my family. Black people. The part where it was supposed to decrease drug use? That part failed."
Prince George's resident Alfrieda Hylton reminds us of the devastation Nixon's deliberate attack on his perceived enemies has brought to communities of color everywhere.
Â
Read moreHogan admin stymied in attempt at early Unemployment Insurance cutoff
As reported yesterday in the emailed Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo, enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the Biden administration will last at least well into August despite attempts by Larry Hogan to burnish his credentials as a standard GOP oppresser of working families by unilaterally discontinuing their payment.
As reported this morning in Maryland Matters, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill issued a ruling before 10am that will maintain Maryland’s participation in enhanced federal unemployment benefits past the end of his own temporary injunction. More below.
Â
Read moreProgressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Monday, July 12, 2021
What’s on this week? The wearying but exciting awareness that the 2022 primary is less than a year away and progressive candidates are converging on that opportunity. We will support them. The New Era project is under way and the critical needs of our communities are on the line -- including health care and the welfare of kids, in the classroom and out. Check it all out in this week’s memo.
Â
Read more