Entries from mikebarnicle
Women Exit Labor Force (Again)

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Emory University professor Dorothy Brown about the large number of women currently exiting the job market and why.

The Debate Over Vaccine & Mask Mandates

“How frustrating is it for you and other medical professionals in fighting this disease and educating the public about this disease to know that we live in a country where as such damage had been done by politicians?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of MSNBC medical contributor Dr. Nahid Bhadelia during a Morning Joe conversation about the ongoing fight from Republican politicians toward COVID-19 vaccine mandates, following Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio tweeting that his state “should ban all vaccine mandates.” Watch the conversation here.

COVID Safety Measures

“Jennifer, you are a perfect living example of what it means to get actively involved in local politics. People are always urging people: ‘Get involved, do your part, you’ll help the country, you’ll help your state or your community.’ You’ve done that, and the result has been…your family has been terrorized, you’ve been threatened multiple times. Would you ever run again, and who do you blame for this?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Florida’s Brevard County School Board member Jennifer Jenkins who joins Morning Joe to discuss the threats she and her family have received for her support for masks in classrooms. Listen to Jenkins’ response here.

“Unrequited Infatuations” By Stevie Van Zandt

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and actor Steven Van Zandt stopped by Morning Joe and talked with Mike Barnicle about his life, career and new book “Unrequited Infatuations,” which highlights when as a teenager Van Zandt met Bruce Springsteen, a like-minded outcast/true believer who became one of his most important friends and bandmates. Watch the conversation here.

E.R. Nurses: True Stories from America’s Greatest Unsung Heroes

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as they are joined by coauthors James Patterson Matt Eversmann to discuss their book “E.R. Nurses: True Stories from America’s Greatest Unsung Heroes,” which features a compilation of interviews with hospital workers from across the country — everywhere from Wisconsin to Hawaii — telling their experiences in their own words. “Each and every day, I pass, you pass, everyone passes thousands of anonymous PTSD victims. They are nurses. One of my daughters is a nurse. My daughter-in-law is a nurse practitioner, and they have been forced over the past 18 months to help people to the end of their lives and to say goodbye to their loved ones over an iPhone, and we should honor them, recognize them as this book does, as we have just done in this segment, but there are too many anonymous heroes out there in America that we don’t pay enough attention to,” says Barnicle. Join the conversation here.

The Lehman Trilogy

“It’s an incredible period of time to cover in a stage play. So, you begin selling cotton as commodities and you end up with highly technical stuff that you’re talking about. How do you do it?,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of actor Russell Beale who along with actors Adrian Lester and Adam Godley join the Morning Joe panel to discuss their play “The Lehman Trilogy,” which is coming back to Broadway after being shutdown due to the COVID-19 shutdown. Listen to Beale’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

The Morning Joe Panel Celebrates Mike Barnicle’s “49th” Birthday

“There are times you have to stop, and you need to appreciate the legends. I know people see Mike here every day, but you talk to anybody in Boston, and I remember Denis Leary one time – the first time he came on the set – he almost started tearing up. He said, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to tell my ma, I finally got to meet the great Mike Barnicle.’ And so many other people feel that way, and I’m not being glib here at all. Mike is a legend, he’s a living legend. We’re so honored to have him on our show every day…But let’s just stop today and wish Mike a happy 49th birthday,” says Joe Scarborough as the Morning Joe panel celebrates Mike Barnicle’s “49th” birthday. Join the celebration here.

Havana Syndrome

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the mysterious neurological ailment known as Havana Syndrome that has attacked American embassies around the world, while the State Department is now investigating new complaints of brain injuries linked to the so-called Havana Syndrome at the U.S. Embassy in Colombia. “We don’t know the source of the attacks, if indeed they are attacks. So, you’ve had all these embassies around the world in the, you know, State Department employees suffering from something and yet we can’t…put our finger exactly on what that is. So, it’s a quandary for the State Department, which is vastly undermanned, which I think, Jonathan, is part of the story in and of itself, given the gutting of the bureaucracy in the State Department within the past four years, but the idea is, has to be primary, figure out first what it is. And then we have to deal with it; but they’re trying to do what they can do up to this point, and it’s not much,” says Barnicle about the United States not being able to uncover what or who is causing Havana Syndrome. Join the conversation here.

The January 6 Attack

“Congresswoman Murphy, we have all heard, with all due respect, the phrase is not just from you but from other members of Congress, ‘to the full extent of the law.’ So, my question to you is…the subpoenas that have been issued, they are in effect federal subpoenas. Are you dealing with the U.S. Marshals Service? Because in federal court, people who don’t take advantage of responding to the subpoena, the Marshals go out and bring them to court. Are you going to use the Marshals Service to bring people like Mark Meadows to Congress?,” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) during a Morning Joe conversation about enforcing the subpoenas being issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack, which include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Listen to Murphy’s response here. Only on MSNBC.

Boston Red Sox Advance to the American League Championship Series

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the 2021 MLB playoffs after the Boston Red Sox – under the leadership of manager Alex Cora – beat the Tampa Bay Rays to advance to the American League Championship Series. “Alex Cora has them extremely focused. The other night when Chris Sale gave up the grand slam home run, it was 5-2, suddenly, just like that, and Alex Cora at the break in the inning, he walked up and down that bench and said, ‘look at it this way, we are behind 3-0. It’s the first inning. We got a lot to go. We’re going to win this game.’ He’s got them extraordinarily focused, but they are the underdog,” says Barnicle about the Red Sox who will play against the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. Join the conversation here.

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommending that doctors should no longer routinely start most people who are at high risk of heart disease on a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin. “I have long had a practice of lying to my physician when you go for your physical. You know, he says, ‘you been taking your daily aspirin?’ ‘Yeah, always religiously. You know, chicken and fish. That’s it.’ And I park my car beneath the golden arches and ignore all of that because things change like that,” says Barnicle about nutrition and medicine recommendations. Join the conversation here.

President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the Republican Party’s push against President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine mandates by any “entity,” including employers. “This is a continuing tragedy in this country because what the governor of Texas has said, what other Republicans have said has nothing to do with public health or public policy. It’s all about politics….Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, the guy with no coat, the guy who never wears a coat, he urged an end to all – he urged Ohio to end all – mandates of all vaccines. Not just the COVID vaccines, all vaccines: Rubella, Polio, Measles, all vaccines. That’s where this is going. And it’s not just Congress, Joe. You know this; it’s not just Congress. It’s various Republican-led states with Republican governors and Republican legislatures. And this is, I think – I might be wrong, I’m often wrong – this could be the epic issue of our age. Can we hold on to our democracy in the light of all of these public people? Elected governors, elected members of Congress, elected members of the United States Senate. We just had, you reported on it the other day, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, still refusing to admit that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States. This is all happening right in front of our eyes. From my point of view, from my grandchildren’s’ point of view, who I think about all day long, this is the issue of our time because they’re not going to have the country that we have if we shut our eyes to this. Build Back Better is really important, this is more important,” says Barnicle about thwarting the Republican Party’s effort to prevent President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Join the conversation here.

2021 Major League Baseball Playoffs

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist and Mike Barnicle as they discuss the 2021 Major League Baseball playoffs after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Francisco Giants to force a decisive game five in the National League Division Series. “The San Francisco Giants have been one of the most vastly underrated baseball teams in Major League Baseball throughout the year. Here they are. They are on the verge of winning their series with the Dodgers, and as Willie pointed out, I mean, the win-loss records were incredibly close, and the Dodgers’ payroll is probably one-third higher than the San Francisco Giants’ and yet here they are, San Francisco,” says Barnicle about the Giants who set a franchise record with 107 wins and ended the Dodgers’ National League West reign of eight straight seasons. Join the conversation here.

The Red Sox

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Joe Scarborough, Willie Geist, Jonathan Lemire, Mika Brzezinski and Mike Barnicle as they recap and discuss the Boston Red Sox having ended the New York Yankees season with a 6-2 win in the AL-Wild Card game at Fenway Park. “One of the big underlying stories, Joe, last night has to do with everything that we’ve been through as a nation and as a world across the last 19 to 20 months, suffering from COVID. The Red Sox, of course, had several unvaccinated players. But the crowd last night was as electric and as together—literally, figuratively together—close together; 38,000 people in that ballpark with noise and clamor and excitement that I haven’t seen or heard in that ballpark in maybe two to three years. And the funny, odd thing last night, when the Massachusetts state lottery number came up just prior to the game: The winning numbers were announced at about seven o’clock, and the numbers were one, nine, seven, eight—true story, 1978, the Bucky Dent year,” says Barnicle as he recalls former Yankee Bucky Dent who hit a home run in a tie-breaker game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park at the end of the 1978 regular season. Watch the whole conversation here.

Repubs v. Dems over debt ceiling

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Eugene Robinson and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s declaration that the Republican Party will not come to the aid of Democrats to raise the debt ceiling. “Look at the contentiousness in the United States Senate, look at the fact Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the United States Senate, is basically holding the American economy hostage, hostage to his politics,” says Barnicle. Hear more of the exchange here.

Barnicle on Afghanistan

ICYMI: Watch this Morning Joe conversation as Mike Barnicle and others share their thoughts on President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan speech in which he defended his decision to end America’s 20-year war there and called the evacuation from Kabul an “extraordinary success” in his remarks. Commented Barnicle that despite Biden being “angered and outraged to his core” about the killings that took place in Afghanistan, “I heard a very strong defense of his position. After 20 years of death, deception—despite some immense progress in Afghanistan with regard to women and education—20 years of delusion….The president knows that only one thing is forever and that’s death. He knows that most of those at the airport were there in Afghanistan for perhaps their first time, greeting complete strangers, people they’ve never met, in order to save their lives.” More from the segment here.

Leading on COVID-19

Listen in on this Morning Joe conversation with Willie Geist, Eugene Robinson and Mike Barnicle as they discuss Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson remaining uncertain about getting vaccinated against COVID-19 after returning from his second bout with the virus in the last eight months. “Lamar Jackson is a tremendous quarterback, a tremendous athlete, there’s no doubt about that, Willie. But he’s not a team guy because he has just proven he is not a team guy….The other aspect of it—getting COVID twice and still being worried about the vaccine—I mean, that is truly mystifying in this current time, truly mystifying,” says Barnicle about Jackson after the NFL announced that teams will forfeit and be slapped with a loss if a game is cancelled because of a COVID-19 outbreak among their unvaccinated players.

How will history remember…?

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation between veteran columnist Mike Barnicle and Dr. Lee Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, about the ongoing hesitancy among many Americans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. “What do you think history is going to say about us that we had so many who refused to get a vaccine that could be lifesaving?” Hear Dr. Beers’ hopeful answer here.

Rent relief needed for tenants and landlords

Tune in for this Morning Joe conversation among host Mika Brzezinski, contributor Mike Barnicle and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) about the desperate need to expand the eviction moratorium and disperse billions in funds through the end of 2021 to help both beleaguered tenants—largely in communities of color—and landlords alike who have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis that continues to surge.

The COVID-19 vaccine is “a lifesaver”

Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski and contributor Mike Barnicle discuss a recent Wall Street Journal report that indicates that evangelical Christians are resisting the COVID-19 vaccine most among religious groups. “The vaccine has become an element of politics, that’s our basic problem (and) that’s what we’re talking about here every day. It’s the slow destruction of the republic, really. It’s the disbelief in the government. It’s the disbelief in the vaccine—a vaccine that has been proven to be helpful, and in many, many cases life saving to Americans and people around the world…Get it and safe your life,” says Barnicle about the COVID-19 vaccine. Tune in for the discussion here.