Make It Plain MIP with Rev. Mark Thompson

Markos Moulitsas, Founder of DailyKos and Civiqs, is back to discuss the latest rejection Trump has received, this one courtesy of the Supreme Court of the United States when they shut down the Pennsylvania lawsuit asking them to overturn Biden's win. Markos also gets into Biden asking congressional Democrats to waive one of the requirements for defense secretary nominee in order to get Lloyd...

The November jobs report is out and job creation has slowed yet again. On top of that, programs from the CARES Act are due to expire at the end of December, and there will be fewer seasonal jobs available this holiday season. Chad Stone, Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, is back to break it all down. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distribut...

Jesse Barba is The Young Invincibles’ Senior Director of External Affairs and today he introduces us to “The Path Forward,” which includes 40 policy proposals for political and institutional leaders that were created by young people, for young people. Jesse walks us through two crucial components of the plan, which the organization hopes will be embraced by the Biden administration: student debt f...

Racial justice should be the center of every discussion, and the NAACP is making sure that’s happening as Biden builds out his administration. The organization’s President and CEO Derrick Johnson tells us today why securing a meeting was of the utmost importance before inauguration day and what’s on the critical agenda. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP E...

The National Bar Association (NBA) is leading the charge in Georgia in representing Black Voters Matter Fund, Transformative Justice Coalition and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, in the lawsuit against the illegal purging of almost 200,000 voters by the Georgia Secretary of State. NBA President CK Hoffler is on today to explain what's happening ahead of the historic runoff election. Executive Prod...

Daily Kos founder Markos Moultisas talks about the constituencies of color that flipped GA in November and whether they can do it again in January. Also, Markos and Mark discuss what impact Trump and his base of voters might have on the GA runoffs, as well as pay for pardons, and the need for the new administration to engage with more diverse groups and to make more diverse appointments to senior...

Rachel Bitecofer is a Senior Advisor for The Lincoln Project, Editor of The Cycle, and host of her weekly YouTube show “The Election Whisperer.” She blew everyone’s minds when she predicted the 2018 midterms with alarming accuracy -- how did her predictions fare in 2020? She also covers important strategies to consider as we move toward the January runoff in Georgia as well as the 2022 midterms, w...

The FBI is out with a new report that shows hate crimes have risen to an all-time high in 2019. Lecia Brooks is the Chief of Staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center and she’s here to explain the report’s details, including what groups saw an increase in targeting, who saw an increase for the fourth straight year, and why the SPLC thinks the FBI’s final numbers are much lower than reality, as hate...

How did Senator Susan Collins defy the odds and win a race she was projected to lose? Sam Smith has been a progressive journalist for over 56 years and a longtime resident of Maine, and he takes us along her path to victory, paved my rural voters. Sam also gets into what he thinks the Biden administration priorities should be once they’re in the White House. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Produ...

Markos gives us a reality check that the release of a vaccine will be great, but it will bring new problems and opposition, just as masks did. In the meantime, the media divides on the topic, with conspiracy outlets like Breitbart buying into Trump’s noise. Markos also discusses the potential for winning those key Georgia senate seats in January. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittan...

Yonasda Lonewolf is an activist, writer, speaker, and community organizer who has been fighting for Black and Brown people since she was a child and her mother was leading the way. Her mother also used to gather people on Thankstaking and teach them about the real history of Indigenous people in America. Yonasda continues that work and today she honors her mother’s memory by discussing the ways in...

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has sued HUD, Secretary Ben Carson, and the Hartford Housing Authority and the city of Hartford, Connecticut to challenge a set of policy decisions that set up low-income Black and Latinx families to fail as they were improperly moved from their unlivable unsubsidized housing. Thomas Silverstein is Lead Attorney on the case and he explains the way...

The New Consensus is a recently-formed think tank that wants to adjust the way we’re responding to some of the biggest problems facing humanity. Dr. Robert Hockett is a fellow at New Consensus and the Edward Cornell Professor of Law & Finance at Cornell University and former Counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the International Monetary Fund, and he joins to today to discuss a...

Eric Boehlert, Publisher of Pressrun.media, is back for our first post-election conversation, and he’s got a suggestion for the incoming administration: ban all media outlets that circulate conspiracy theories, including Fox News. Eric also gives a sobering critique of an interview done by the New York Times of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, where he normalizes Trump’s cries about the elect...

The proof is in the data: voters want gun law reform. Igor Volsky, Executive Director of Guns Down America, is back to talk about what the incoming administration needs to do to give the people what they want. Igor also gets into this year’s increase in gun violence, which includes the unsettling truth that more Black men are committing suicide. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany...

Now that the presidential election is out of the way (still gotta win those senate seats in Georgia), we should be strategizing for 2022 and 2024. And for the latter, it’s not Trump who Markos fears, though he wouldn’t rule out his running. Markos fears a smarter version of Trump, someone better at disguising their nefariousness. Markos also gets into the upsetting realization that wearing a mask...

Michael Harriot is a Senior Writer for The Root and he tells the story of Quawan Charles, a young boy from Louisiana who went missing and was found dead. Michael is in touch with the family’s attorneys, giving us access to details around the disappearance, the white woman and teenage boy he was last seen with, and what happened when Quawan’s mom reported him missing. Michael also discusses his one...

How is it possible for a country to triple its wealth while also doubling the amount of citizens living in poverty? This type of question is at the heart of Mark Blyth’s work and his new book (co-written with Eric Lonergan) titled “Angrynomics.” In today’s conversation, the Marks get into what makes the economy angry: increasing uncertainty, division of class and wealth, and political and economic...

Treason is tossed around a lot in our political climate, but when is it a legitimate claim, or even further, something worth prosecuting? Professor Carlton Larson is author of the book “On Treason: A Citizen's Guide to the Law,” and today he makes sense of the crime in question and how it appeared in history and why Donald Trump was the reason he decided to write a book about it. BUY the book...

Cole Brown grew up in Philadelphia with the benefits of successful parents: summer vacations, private school, and all sorts of opportunities. But his upbringing, in what was considered a “white space,” left him wrestling with the feeling of being in-between. It wasn’t until his college years when he began to unpack how it shaped his worldview, and in his debut collection of essays, he explores par...

Markos Moulitsas, Founder of DailyKos and Civiqs, is back for our first #ThursdayKos since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were named the winners of the 2020 election. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additional content: makeitplain.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/...

Ian Millhiser is a Senior Correspondent at Vox and author of the book “Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted.” In today’s episode, Mark and Ian break down the details of yesterday’s SCOTUS hearing on the Affordable Care Act, addressing questions such as: What parts of the ACA are being disputed? What is severability (a word used much...

Attorney CK Hoffler is the President of the National Bar Association and the first woman to serve as Chair of the Board of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. She joins today’s show to give her legal analysis of Trump’s lawsuits against individual states for various “issues” he has with their (legal) vote counting processes. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Ente...

“If you look at where we are since February, we are still in a deep hole,” says Chad Stone, Chief Economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Despite jobs added, we’ve still got a 10.1 million job deficit and the recovery rate is starting to slow down. Chad breaks down the parts of the October jobs report that you need to know. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temp...

We’ve been watching Nevada and Pennsylvania closely, but what about Arizona? Markos says that’s the state that might actually end up swinging for Trump. And the fight for senate majority isn’t over--there’s runoffs to be had! Markos gets into all the unfinished business that’s unfolding right now. Executive Producer: Adell Coleman Producer: Brittany Temple Distributor: DCP Entertainment For additi...