Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Whitewashing of MLK and Mario Lopez’s Silence

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

Van Lathan welcomes Rachel Lindsay back after a week off, and the two catch up on life and loss … the Cowboys' loss (7:23). Plus, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day behind us, they reflect on the whitewashing of the civil rights icon (17:21) and react to the George Floyd comments on Mario Lopez’s podcast (48:57).  Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Trudy Joseph and Donnie Beacham Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? How I learning is on. It is I, Van Lathen. And it's me, Rachel Leland. Rachel is back. Rachel is back. What's happening?

What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm wiping off the camera. Oh, I thought you were white balancing the camera. Do people watch? People watch. Yeah, and extra we white balance. Y'all white balance?

Y'all white balance? I bitch y'all white balance. set myself up for that one. I'm rusty. I'm rusty. One day off the podcast, I'm a little rusty. But first, let me just say,

man, thank you so much for holding it down when I couldn't be here. You killed it like I knew you would. Thank you. And like, listen,

I don't know if I could do what you did. So I think you. Thank you so much. It's not true. Seriously. You're rested and recharged and everything. You're feeling good?

I'm here, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm here. Yes. She's here.

She's here. So how was your weekends? Should I be honest? I think you should be honest. Okay. I think you should be honest. Just so because I think it's a little obvious. Let's just thank you, man, again, for holding it down for me.

If you're watching this video, I think it's, you can clearly tell I'm struggling. I'm better now, but yes, I had COVID. Why am I getting teary-eyed saying I had COVID? I do see my name. You're about to cry. I'm like embarrassed to say I had COVID, have COVID probably still, just to be honest. I'm recovering. I did have very strong symptoms.

I was vaccinated. I wasn't boosted. So that I think I don't know if that contributed to why my symptoms were so strong. Van and I were talking about this before. I think I had Delta, to be honest. And I'm probably going to get tested to determine which kind, which type of COVID I had. But I definitely had all the symptoms. And, you know, I'm on the other side of it.

Still have lingering side effects. Headaches. Nobody talks about the headaches. As I keep talking to friends who've had it, everyone tells me that they really suffer from headaches. Also, now developing a loss of taste and smell. It's not fully gone, but it's definitely diminished. And my taste buds have completely changed.

And I pride myself on my strong sense of smell. I don't have it anymore. I've been quarantined from Brian. I know people are going to ask that. Brian is fine. He has tested negative. So, yeah, you know, it got me. It got me.

I have a horrible sense of smell. Really? I can smell everything. I have a horrible, horrible sense. I feel like my other senses are heightened because my sense of smell is so poor. A perfect eyesight. I hear good, but like a horrible, horrible sense of smell. I don't really smell stuff.

Doesn't that make you self-conscious? Because I smell, now that I can't smell like I normally do, I'm like, do I smell? I can't smell anything. And I have this ongoing, like what I smell, it's weird, is cinnamon toast. Oh, I see. That's good. That's because you remind you, you're your mom making cinnamon toast. I have this faint smell of cinnamon toast.

It's the only thing I can smell, really. It's weird. You know what? The difference is it doesn't make me self-conscious because I like my own funk. But you don't know, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't say that. You don't know what your funk is because you can't smell it. Well, my funk, I can say that my funk smells good to me.

Everything nasty about me smells good to me. Wow. Everything. Well, I'm glad you love yourself that much. That's a beautiful thing. When I, when I'm working, chill out. Okay. We are separated.

chill out. I don't know, they don't know about whether or not it can come through the screen yet. It hasn't been established. It's airborne. So why don't you relax? But when I'm, when I'm funky, I don't spend like, ooh, I smell bad. I think, hmm, I've been really, I don't smell like van. That's the van smell, you know?

Wow. Everybody likes to smell of their own brand. Like, when you fart, you don't just like get up and run away from your own farts. No, it's disgusting. If I smell, I can smell it. Again, that's, I have a strong sense of smell. You're disgusted by the smell of your own farts. Nobody is.

Of course. That's weird. I am. You and Kalika, so long. Hey, yeah, hey, hey, hey. Are you wearing a ring on your finger? No, it's an aura ring. People have been asking that about it.

Okay, I just feel like we need to address that. I'm like, how much has changed since the last podcast? My gosh. I'm like, Kalikina and tell me anything. It's an, it's an aura ring. So I got the aura. So look, let's look up in the aura. ring statistics how how I slept last night.

Shout out to aura. Let's look up at the aura ring. I'm obsessed with it now. Are you supposed to wear it on your ring finger? You're supposed to wear it on your index finger, but then I wore it on my index finger. And then for some reason, you know, your finger swell and it started to hurt. So I put on my ring finger. I can play it back on my index finger after I lose some weight.

So here's the deal. Last night I had, I slept, my sleep score was. 82. That's good. Wasn't as good as it was last the night before. Okay. 82 is good though. Okay. Right. My readiness for today, 87. Optimal readiness. My readiness score tells me how ready I am to go on and like put my body through stress to work out to do all of that stuff. My readiness score is 87. You're ready to score is above average today. How do you feel? Looks like you're ready for some sharp thinking a day. Woo!

And I got a big day. I got two podcasts. I got boxing. I got training later. Oh, wow. I got a big day and I'm ready for it. I'm ready for the day. Sleep score I thought would be better.

I'm not going to lie. I thought the sleep score would be better. I slept really well last night. But sleep score, 82, that's a good sleep score. Yeah. It's fantastic. Okay. Maybe I should get one of these.

Hell yeah, you should get one. So monitors your sleep tells you if you're ready to take on the day. I like that. Yes. I like that. My sleep score yesterday was 86. It was optimal. By the way, this is not an ad.

Just let you guys know. I don't know if we're supposed to be doing this. We're supposed to be doing this. This is not an ad. But yeah, so I got the oar ring. And so now I'm on a full fitness journey. I got the oar ring hooked up with my Fitbit hooked up with Noom.

Oh, Noom. I've done an ad for Noom. Yeah, Noon. Noon. Numen it up. Now, you asked me how my weekend was. Sure. I had a setback in my recovery. Very upsetting. Yeah. Sunday was rough.

I was on the men. And then around 4.30 Pacific time, I had a set back in my recovery. And I think we know what it was. I'm talking about. It was due to the loss, the Cowboys loss. It's rough. I'm still in mourning, to be honest with you. And I gotta say it's rough.

It was rough to be on social media and to see the taunting and the laughing and the ridicule and the posting by some of my said friends, you know? We're exciting. No, no, no, no, no. It's been almost three. three decades since we've seen success from the Cowboys. We've been teased a numerous amount of, numerous amount of times, only to make it as far as we did.

This is as far as we've been, like the last, what is it, 11 times we've been this far. It's cruel. I think I'm going to do something different next year. I'm never going to stop being a Cowboys fan. I'm never going to neglect my team. But what I am going to be as a closeted fan next season. I'm going to watch. Big star on the closet.

I'm going to watch. I'm going to support privately. But I can't go through this anymore. I'm sick of people sending me memes. I'm sick of the text. I'm sick of the laughing. It's just, it's old. Okay?

It's old. It's old for us to lose. It's old for y'all to make fun of us. I'm sick of it. I'm really, and again, I'm, and recovery mode. I'm glad we're talking about this because the only reason why I didn't text you is because I thought it was inappropriate

due to some of the other things you were off I was like I was like I'm going to give Rachel the business I'm like nah man what if that's the thing that kicks her fever back off or something you know exactly but I had to post what I had to post because that was definitely for you that was the text that I was going to like that was for you

for tagging me in it I know that was definitely for you but I got to tell you something like I you know we all hate the Cowboys besides you guys that love the cowboys. There's no middle ground. There's no middle ground. That's the thing about the cowboys.

Either you love the cowboys or you hate the cowboys. My hate for the cowboy stems from the fact that the one year that we lived in Dallas, remember I told you we lived in Dallas for a little while? The time that we lived in Dallas, the cowboys were like one in 15. Do you remember that? They were like, oh, that might be before you were born. Yeah, it might be before you were born. I can't remember.

It might have been in the 80s. So you might have been too young, but the Cowboys were super trash, like super duper trash, like dumb trash. And then, you know, people who were so down on the Cowboys and very upset about it, right? Yeah. And then a couple of years later,

the Cowboys get better. And I didn't like how the Cowboys fans had no recollection of the fact that they were at the back of the NFL bus only a couple seasons ago. Like we the Cowboys. We always go. I'm like, no, you're not. Yeah, Saints fans do. We remember the dark days. Like, we remember

the days. Oh, we remember the dark days. We're thankful for every single little scrap we get. We've been getting hosed by the NFL, but you know what? We're thankful to be there. The Cowboys fans act like they should be there and they're going to be there. They're not, you haven't been there

since literally I was in a 10th grade. Okay, but I think we could all agree. that this season, we should have been there. We should have been there. And can I just say our playoff, our playoff assigning who we were matched up against sucked. Because even after this, we would have to go on and play Tampa.

It sucked. It's not fair. Why do the bucks get the Eagles? Why do the bucks get the Eagles? Wait a minute. Why is it? Hold on for a second. Why does it, it's, how is it not fair?

You guys see, this is what makes people hate Cowboys and the Cowboy fans. Why is it not fair? It's the NFL playoffs. I don't care. Our matchups should not happen. The Cowboys were playing a team that just squeaked into the playoffs by winning. Do you know what team the 49ers kept out of the playoffs? The New Orleans Saints.

Oh. So if the 49ers had lost, you guys probably would have won your whole playoff game because we would have to come there and play you guys. with like fucking Martin Short at quarterback. So like the reality is that you're playing a team that has to come to your stadium. I know. They just squeaked into the playoffs. That is the third best team in their own division.

But they are. There's not fair. There's, there's history there, right? There's a rivalry. Rachel, do like this. Do like this. Do like this. Yeah.

You guys, I'm not okay. I got boogers and shit. You got boogers in the nose. Do like this. I couldn't let you go out like that. Normally I would... Thank you. You're not many people I talk to.

Not many people I talk to. You're one of those? You don't tell people? I'll let it go. You don't tell people? Now you got one in the other nose. It's nuts. I'm serious.

I'm serious. I'm serious. I'm serious. I'm serious. I'm not even joking. Thank God we told people I had to because otherwise they're going to be like, what is up? Yeah, like, what's going on with Rachel? Like...

This is the most activity. had in a week. Right. No, you're good now. Now, look, you're going to be self-conscious about it. No, I'm not. I'm not one of those people who gets embarrassed by that. Just tell me.

I'm more embarrassed if you didn't say anything. All right. I've let people, I've let people have gunks of cold in their eyes. If I don't know them, I don't know how to say it. Why do people get embarrassed by that? Excuse me. You have something in your teeth. You have something.

I'm sitting here. Like, I'm just like, I'm looking at it. And my stomach is turning. I'm like, God, damn. You better tell me. Yeah, I did. I had to. I will tell a complete stranger.

Hey, sorry. You have something new to you. People are so grateful when you do that, by the way. They're like, oh, my God. They are. They are. I just can't. I just sometimes, I don't know.

But back to the Cowboys. Yeah. And look at even what you're doing right now talking about, oh, it's not fair. It's not fair. And then it's not fair for you have to go play Tampa. Yeah, Tampa's in the NFC, so you're going to have to play Tampa. Eventually. But I mean, I would have.

have, we should have, we should have had a better matchup that first game. But you know, that's, that's our fault. We didn't win, no, we, we went out in December. We didn't do as well as we should have. Listen, I can't, I can't anymore at the Cowboys. I don't know where to go. I don't want to talk. I can't even talk about, do we fire our offensive coordinator?

Do we fire our head coach? Do you fire both? I don't even know where to go. I, but can I just tell you, I knew it from the beginning of the game. When I saw the way the 49ers came out, versus the way Dallas came out of the tunnel. I was like, we, we ain't even in it. And it shows the whole first half.

Really, first three quarters. I just, I can't. So there are a couple of things. One thing is, I know you guys out there in Thought Warrior Nation or divided about whether or not you like football talk, but this is more than football. This is a cultural thing.

This is family. This is family. This is more than football, guys. This is the entire nation, reveling, reveling in the defeat of a team that branded themselves America's team. We didn't take any votes. Nobody asked if Cowboys were America's team. It doesn't matter where you go, where you are in this nation, you will find a Cowboys fan. I've seen it.

I've lived all over. We're everywhere. That's why we're America's team. No matter where you go right now, you're going to find. sad people. That was some of the saddest stuff. But I will say this, though, all just aside, nobody wants to fuck with the 49ers. The 49ers are a playoff-built team.

They have a veteran quarterback. They have a great running game. And they have a defense that can rush the quarterback. Like, if you have those three elements to your, and now, I would have thought that the Cowboys would be able to hold up a little bit better against the rush and maybe exploit the secondary. And then when Bolson went out, I was like, this is it. Then Fred Warner went down. I was like, okay, here.

we go. But Kyle Shanahan is fantastic. I mean, put him up against, put him up against McCarthy. You know what I mean? Now it's McCarthy's fault. We thought we thought we thought Dan Quinn might be able to out coach Kyle because they were together before in Atlanta. Like, we thought these things would happen. They didn't. And it is McCarthy. I mean, anybody who has been watching the season knows that McCarthy, excuse me, has been terrible with time management and play when it comes to the Cowboys this season. Last Tuesday. Cowboys. I wish I had a cowboy hat here.

I want my dad's cowboy hat somewhere. You're not Stephen A. And I don't do it. I should do it. I should do it. I got a lariat. Did ever show you my dad's lariat? Uh-uh.

Oh, hold on for a second. Let me show you this. This is cool. I knew I was going to have to do this today. Oh, wow. This is legit. My dad could rope. He was a roping man.

Look at this. If you guys are looking at this on the thing, look at my dad. This is my father's lariat. I brought it back home. from Louisiana for me. It's roping. He's got the little... See, look at it.

He's a roping man. Cowboy. My dad was a real cowboy. Not like those fake-ass cowboy. No, no, no. For real, for real, a real cowboy. Side note,

have you seen the movie Power of the Dog? Yes. Okay, the rope reminded me of it. I just... Yeah. Benedict Cumberbatch. He's a cowboy. All right.

Enough about Dallas. They lost. On to next season. Let's take a break. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks.

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See terms at Fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash earn. Okay, it was MLK Day yesterday. Guys, by the way, the reason why we're taping this on a Tuesday, we're taping this on a Tuesday, and it's coming out a little bit later. I know you guys are going to be asking about the podcast is because you can't work on MLK Day. It's rules. They don't let you work. You can't work. So even if we said, hey, we want to come take a podcast yesterday.

They make you take a break here at the old Spotify. And, you know, remember Dr. King. There was a lot of stuff going on on MLK Day. yesterday it was like a little contentious MLK day I think Really? Yeah, there's a lot different issues that came that came about with MLK Day. Number one, Nicole Hannah Jones, the brilliant black woman that wrote the 1619 project.

She was invited to give a speech about Dr. King only to have a small number of members of the group hosting her claiming that her presence dishonored Dr. King. I did not see this. Did not see this. saying and so this is what Nicole Hannah-Hanna-Jones did. She's very smart. So, first of all, obviously, what?

Sorry, where was she speaking? I don't know. Okay. It doesn't say here. I only saw the thread. I don't think she talked about it. She did something brilliant. She started reading Dr. King excerpt, but not telling people that they were from Dr. King

and then letting people know at the end of the thread that these are actually things that King said. This is very, very important. to me because I think seriously that Martin Luther King Jr. is the most misunderstood American figure of all time. I absolutely do. Do you think that that is something that has happened over time? Or do you think at the moment he was misunderstood or because of the way he is now glorified and lifted up in society specifically by white people, do you think that he's misunderstood now.

Good question. So the next bit of Martin Luther King Jr. stuff that we have answers that question, I feel like. Darren Rovel, if you guys know who Darren Ravel is, is an ESPN guy. He does like business stuff for ESPN. He'll be the guy that says, hey, this guy trademarked his name and made a bunch of money. This sports team made all this money. It's very interesting stuff that Darren Rovel does. Someone called Darren Rovel racist.

on his Twitter for some reason I didn't really see why they were calling him a racist I don't know Donnie or Trudy did you guys see what Darren Ravel actually did that made people say that he was racist Yeah his initial tweet

was like happy MLK day here is a collection of autographs I have with MLK from a Birmingham jail and I also have black friends Cool Wait he said I also have black friends I am paraphrasing him, but that's the gist of his message.

Okay. Well, what he said was, so someone called it racist, and he responded saying, yeah, I collect a lot of MLK stuff. And some of my closest friends are black. I could not be a racist. He actually went into a spaces room there on Twitter. We, of course, pushed that green room over here. Spotify. You know what I'm saying?

Checked. But he went to a spaces room on Twitter. and he explained what he was talking about. We're going to round this off and tell you, I'll tell you what I think about this, Rach, after we hear why Darren Ravel thought it was okay to say what he said. I have over nine MLK signed items. I am a humongous fan of what he's done.

And over the last seven years, I've collected a lot of things. It's not only MLK, it's a lot of black history. I own a Rosa Parks, signed N-A-C-P card. So it was pretty shocking today how I was called racist

when I am a student and lover of black history and it was, I never expected the reaction that I got today. I'm sorry, I'm sorry if people think that a white man can't enjoy black history. Enjoy. I'm sorry.

I really am. I'm sorry if people think that a white man can't love Martin Luther King. But to me, that seems pretty counterintuitive. Huh. I thought the Darren Revelle thing was fascinating. It's interesting. And I'll tell you why. We all know that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has become more than a person, right?

He's become an icon. he's become an icon, he's become a legend, freedom fighter, all of those things. But it's unfair not to identify him as a person, which is what I feel like America has done. Dr. King is no longer a who, he's a what. And if you listen to Darren Ravel talk right there, he's saying he's, He is collecting Dr. King. Dr. King is a thing. He's not a guy.

A human being has intricacies. A human being has like a point of view. A human being has frailties and perfections. A human being has things that they stand on. A human being changes over time. But not Dr. King. He's been commodified by America, but not for money, but for ideology.

So Dr. King, his holidays essentially like Christmas now. And Christmas doesn't really have anything to do with being a Christian. It hasn't anything to do with Jesus. And I'm not saying it has to. I know this about your family and stuff. Christmas now is more of, we all make it have our own meaning, but Christmas is now more of a thing that humans do than a time to remember and like

identify something that goes on. So like that is what Nicole Hannah-Jones is talking about. She's talking about the fact that Dr. King was actually a guy who believed all of these things. And there are none of the things that you think he believed. He was an anti-capitalist. He was really, to be honest with you, he was a communist if you really want to get, if you really want to get into it. He was an anti-capitalist. He was a radical by the end of his life.

He had lost faith in the American justice system by the end of his life. he had went back and rethought some of his earlier decisions. Of course, the very famous saying, I wonder if I've integrated my people into a burning house. Dr. King was for everything that he accomplished, incredibly dissatisfied with the rate of progress that he thought America was changing at. And all of those things are true.

He would not have had an issue with the 1619 project. He would have loved. of the 1619 project. And that's Nicole Hannah Jones, illustrated in her tweets. He had said a lot of things that echoed the same thing she was saying. He was incredibly critical

of white liberalism and white moderates who did not go far enough to advance the causes of black and brown people in America. He was a lot of things. He was some things that aren't so positive to repeat on this podcast. He wasn't a person.

husband. He was all of these things, right? And so I think that the way Darren Ravel looks at Dr. King is the way I think a lot of people look at him as some guy who didn't want radical change in America, some almost superhuman white pain machine that could take any, yeah, that could take anything from anyone and just keep asking for more and not demand anything. That's not what he did. He was a slick, savvy, and genius operative that got done some things and wanted to do some more things. Well, think about it. When I think about when I first learned about who Dr. King was, it was mainly in school and it was through, like initially, and it was through the I Have a Dream speech.

and he was, I say Jesus in the sense that he was almost like a prophet. And he was watered down to almost say, this is the type of black person you need to be. And that's what I think I find so interesting. It's like they've taken, if you don't go out and do the research for yourself, they've taken quotes and excerpts and compared him against a Malcolm X and say, to be a, you can be a good black person if you're like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is the way you should be. You can fight for what you want in society, but do it in a calm and peaceful way and in an

intellectual way. And in a way that doesn't threaten white people. That is how they said, honestly, that's how it was taught. As a black person, this is how you should be. But as you do the research and as you were saying, there's so much more to Dr. King. than that. And so it's just interesting how people are like, I love Dr. Martin Luther King, or you see senators who are posting happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, who are totally doing things in Congress that are the exact opposite of what Dr. King believed in. It's like people don't understand

what it is that he was actually asking for, for black people in this country, what he was protesting for, what he was demanding. He was so much more than a peaceful protester. So I always smile and laugh and see what people post this time of year because I don't think they thought and I think they don't really grasp who he was as a person as you were saying but yeah go ahead I think they're hiding it I think they know exactly who he is I don't no no no no no no there are a lot of people maybe not Darren Ravel but I'm talking about the American power system sure tells people yeah not Darren Rovel no you're right about that without a doubt the American can power system who tells us who people are.

I think they know exactly who Dr. King was. Sure. I think that they know who Dr. King was to the T so they can see when someone else is actually mimicking or actually staying true to some of the things that Martin Luther King, Jr. believed. It's nonviolent to, it's, hold on. walking across the Emmettus Bridge or doing all those things are nonviolent, but they're not undisruptive.

Correct. Those things are highly disruptive. I got news for you for people a lot. Jesus was a disruptor. Like I hope people know this. Like even though the Jesus they give you now, Jesus was a disruptor. He was a tremendously disruptive force. And while taking 5,000 black people and marching down the street might be a nonviolent thing to do, it is highly disruptive.

Correct. Like the late great John Lewis says, it's good trouble. Yeah, it's good trouble. So, like, I watch yesterday, you know, I watched the FBI, say Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I watched Darren Ravel say, hey, I have a large MLK collection. And I think to myself, hey, like white America has largely won the Dr. King battle. They've won it to the point to where they can tell Nicole Hannah-Jones that she shouldn't be speaking someplace because literature like the 1619 project, which contextualizes things that Dr. King was saying in speeches for years is looked at as being against the, the, the spirit of who he was when it is reinforcing everything they ever said.

The very famous video clip that goes around about Dr. King, where he's talking back and forth to an NBC guy, and the NBC guy is asking Dr. King about, you know, black issues in America. And Dr. King says, you know, one big issue is we were let out slavery with absolutely zero economic plan for us and they're giving nothing. Meanwhile, white peasants came from Western Europe, came over to America, and were giving millions and millions of acres of land. He's talking about the Homestead Act, obviously. Now only were they given the land, they were given what was under the land. So they gave the land a homestead, but any mineral ore, any sort of crop, whatever, all of that's just untold wealth.

We're, wealth, that's what that means. It's like we weren't giving any of that stuff. There were some black people who were homesteaders, but obviously it was very, very difficult to do so. So he's explained to him that there is a not just a difference of black people in terms of like, we don't like niggas. There's an economic thing that happened that accounts for the difference that we're going through. And he's talking some real shit. That's all the 1619 project does. The 1619 project just says, hey, this is land ownership.

Okay. This is land ownership for black people. Hey, this is music, art, and culture. Okay. This is music, art, and culture for black people. Hey, this is history. In America, okay, this is history for black Americans. It simply contextualizes stuff that these guys were trying to say.

They don't want us to know how great we were because then they've already rewritten history to be a certain way. And it changes the narrative of, oh, you just don't work hard enough. Oh, you just don't do. No, there are certain things that have been against us from the beginning that we got here. They don't want us to know all that because it completely contradicts what they have been telling us forever. It's just that.

Dr. King, who's also down towards the end of his life, which right here on this very podcast, his sunset, that it wasn't just about black people for Dr. King. It was about poor people. He realized that America's real fight was economic. And as soon as he started talking that shit,

this same government did something to him. All right. Look, I'll be honest with you. It's not looking good for Biden. For Biden. I look good for our boy Joey right there. Are you still all in on Biden, Rachel? Well, I mean, I'm in on Biden.

I'm supporting Biden. But you know what I mean? I'm not going to turn against him as he's our president at the moment. You know what I mean? What percentage would you? No, I can't put a percentage on it. I cannot put a percentage. Okay?

At the moment, I am not going to turn against Biden. So what? So what? Does that make me 51? No, I'm asking you. I'm asking you what percentage do you think you, if I had to put, if I had to ask you right now, say 100%, you'll never like a president 100%.

It's never going to be 0% except for Trump was 0% for me. What percentage are you into Joe Biden? What's your Biden percentage right now? I guess like 60. 60? 60? Okay. I can go with 60. I go with 60.

All right. I would say probably around now. That is 56.78. I got to give him more than 50, but 60. Okay, so what did he do now? Is my percentage about to change? Well, the issue is it doesn't seem like they're able to do very much. The Democrats appear certain to rack up another failure.

Okay. The push for voting rights is expected to die in the Senate, which would be fucking destructive for Joe Biden. Okay, now obviously you have two Democratic senators, Mansion,

and I don't know if they're Democrats. So you have two niggas. I gotta be honest with you. I don't know. I can't, I'm not going, like you, like cinema and mansion,

they're just two niggas out here, niggering it up. That's what they are. And I don't know what they are. They're just two motherfuckers. them two motherfuckers is who they are. I can't say that they're Democrats.

They don't fucking help out their party in any way. Not at all. They're just the two motherfuckers. The mansion and cinema. I don't even want to call them niggas because some of my niggas are tighter than this. Most of my niggas are tired of the two motherfuckers. They are not really expected to support voting rights.

They're not going to support it. But also, they're not going to support any rule changes, temporary rule changes that might allow, the Democrats to pass voting rights by circumventing the filibuster. Wait a minute. Has cinema said she opposes voting rights or she's just as against the filibuster? I thought she said she was in support. Right.

Okay. I was like, I thought she said she was in voting rights. Cinema. Correct. Okay. That's great. So you're going to need to circumvent the filibuster if you're going to get this thing done. Sure.

And she's not with that. Right. She said, miss me with. that. Thanks. In stores. 25th. So,

that means that we probably do not get voting rights. All right. John Lewis Voting Rights Act doesn't look like it didn't get the George Ford Violence and Policing Act.

Not going to happen. Build back better plan. Didn't get it. Oh, for three. It looks like an over right now. All right. I'll just ask you straight up. At the end of the day, if these things don't happen,

even though we know that there are obvious roadblocks coming from the right, and to be honest with you coming from the left, how much blame do you put on President Biden for this? Well, I think you have to put some of the blame. Obviously, you can't just rest on, okay, Congress wouldn't let me do it. because there's also this narrative of did Joe Biden speak up too late? You know, he is now saying, hey, things must change and he seems to be more vocal on it. But where were you before?

I mean, you're over a year into your presidency at this point. Why have you not been so vocal about the need to get these things done? I mean, we've heard a lot from Joe Manchin. We've heard a lot from cinema. But I just feel like with Biden, now he seems to be pushing for it when it almost seems to be too late when it's about to not get done. With the infrastructure plan, he compromised to get that pass saying that eventually the build back better.

Is that right? Build better back? Whatever. The BBB plan would get done. So he made that compromise saying that BBB will get done and will please the progressives. It's looking like that's not going to get done. So all you did was fold to the other side without getting anything done. for our side. So I think, and when you think about all the things that he ran on and all the

promises that were made, I just expected him to be a little bit more forceful in trying to get those things done. And if you know that it's the filibuster that's blocking you from getting things done, whatever you have in your power to push for that to change, so these things can pass, you should be doing. And you can't at the end of your presidency say, well, Congress wouldn't let me do it. That's just not going to be good enough. And this is what people will remember. I mean, that's the truth. This is what people will remember.

People are going to remember whether or not you were able to get it done or not. Is it up to us to, when I say us, because he's a danger, right? The danger is that we grade Joe Biden like we should grade him, which is on what he was able to accomplish as president of the United States. And then because we stick to that standard. It is election day ammunition for a side that wouldn't just be obstructionist under a Republican regime would be downright destructive to come in and annihilate any sort of initiatives from the left that could remain with candidates winning. And it just gets worse from where we are now because it certainly could be worse, right? No progress is terrible. But the only thing that's worse than no progress is going backwards.

Right. It's regression. And the Republicans definitely seem like they, oh, you're taking umbrage. Well, I'm just saying in this case with the Voting Rights Act, no progress is going backwards because of the changes that are being made on the state level. So that is why it's so imperative to get something. done because the states are out of control right now and how they're handling voting rights and the restrictive laws that they're putting in place to not allow black and brown people to vote. So it is an issue. So I guess that you're absolutely right about that. I guess the

question is what's the smartest course of action? And I'm not sure I have an answer to it. Like what's the smartest course of action here? You have to look, I'm never going to not hold politicians accountable for doing things that they, for not doing things that they said they were going to do. Doesn't matter who they are. D.R. whatever. Like, I'm not a, I'm not a Democratic shield. You're not going to get that from me on this podcast. It's not going to get for me anywhere. But the reality is there's still a smart way to be a responsible American political thinker. There's still a smart way to get what it is that you want. And at a certain point, I guess I have to ask myself, well, I guess the first thing I ask myself is, does Joe Biden want these things?

Do the Democrats want these things? And if I believe that they want them and that they're doing their best and trying their hardest, I guess the reality would then be, who do you then blame for them not being done? Do you blame the people that are trying or do you blame the people that are obstructing? Some of those people are Democrats, some of those people are Republicans. And the The only reason why I say that is because coming into the elections at the end of this year and coming into the elections in a couple of years, you got to be smart about it. Like you got to be smart about it. Like, look, Biden is terrible right now.

It is. It's terrible. But I guess what I need to know from people are what could they be doing differently? I've said on this podcast before they need to go harder. They need to do it. They need to be a little bit more desperate. about it. But I'm interested, and I want to have a couple of people on here to talk about it to see

have they pulled out all the stops? Have they gone down swinging? Have they gone down fighting? People were talking about the rhetoric from the speech that he made, talking about, do you want to be on the side of Bull Connor? I know that you saw that, but it's like, that's what I've been asking for. But he came out and said that, and he gave his own colleagues in the Senate, like his only colleagues in the Senate on Capitol Hill, the Democrats were saying, hey,

went a little too far. Yeah, it was jarring and they got attention, but at the end of the day, is it going to convince people to get things done? And here's the thing. Let's just say in 2024, it goes back to the other side. We're going to be right back in the same place.

Are they going to change the filibuster to get things done? We've seen them change things before. Like, look at this current setup of the Supreme Court. And I get, and I would love to have people on too to really understand this because there are other options than just changing the rules or with the filibuster in eliminating it. You can change the way that you vote on certain things. And I would love to have somebody come in. Like, you can change the rules to like a certain,

it depends what you're voting on. Like, there's changes that can be made to the filibuster without actually getting rid of it. They've done it before. And I'd love to have somebody come on and go into more detail about that. So I, there are options. But the question is, what are they? And then If there are some, why aren't we talking about exercising some of those to get things done? Because otherwise, it doesn't matter if the Senate setup stays this way for 2024 election, we're going to be in the same place where the other side's not going to be able to get anything done either. So is that the country that we're going to live in where we're just always at a standstill in Congress are just like big? But back in the day, people used to, I mean, is that not what they pride at Joe Biden on?

No. But it hasn't always been this bad. No, but there's, since the filibuster has become, the filibuster used to be at one point, really, do you know what? It's so funny about America is that really all comes back down to racism. The filibuster itself wasn't wildly, widely used until civil rights legislation was on the table. Right. But since then, there have been a shocking.

decline in the number of bills that have been able to pass the Senate floor. A shocking decline in an amount of bills that could pass. They used to get things done all the time for better or for worse, but since the filibuster has become something that has been widely used and like just it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to filibuster things that they have any sort of disagreement on, the productivity of the Senate has gone. down substantially. It's like the percentage is nasty.

It's really gnarly. So to your point, we're kind of already living in that situation where they can't really get anything done. Like, would you be frustrated if you're a congressman or woman? I'd be so fast. No. I would be so. You know why you wouldn't be frustrated?

Why? Because you're kicking it with big oil and the banks and getting a bunch of fucking kickback. I'm keeping against it. The reason why you're not frustrated, so you don't give a fuck about what you're going to get done. That's what we need to be talking about when people are running for office. Like, I get it and I hear everything you're saying, but at the end of the day,

none of this shit is going to get done because we're at a standstill when it comes to Congress and bills don't get passed. So I really don't want to hear what you have to say unless you're actually going to try to get things done rather than just being this figurehead and holding this position. Because otherwise, let's just get rid of the whole thing. Like, who cares at this point?

You don't get anything done. Well, what people, because the game, because the game is so, obviously it's very politicized and these better lines are drawn very sharply. Now it's not about working together to bring about the best compromise for the American people. What it's really about is stopping the other side from taking over. Seriously. And I mean, I was all about that when it came to the Georgia election. Georgia Senate election. I was like, yes.

And then where are we? Fucking 10 more motherfuckers. Stacey. Before we leave this, this is Van's very serious question of the week. And I want you to answer this question. I want you to think about the culture when you answer this question. I want you to think about all the things that are reached by when you answer this question. What is a more successful BBB?

Biden's built back better plan? or LeVar Ball's Big Baller Brand. Was the question, what is a more successful BBB? What's a more successful BBB? That's an excellent question. And clearly, it's LeVar. Because you can't deny the success that that family has had. The man said he was going to do it and he did it with his three sons.

You can't deny that. What has Biden done with BBV? I can't even get the acronym right. I'll be honest with you, though. There are some people that are going to say that even though the Ball brothers, La Mello, Leangelo, Lanzo are very successful in their own right. That the BBB brand itself, the actual brand is kind of now defunct. And it didn't reach the heights that LaVar Ball wanted it to reach.

Listen, his sons are in the NBA. They're doing more than he ever did as a basketball player. That is what he wanted. They are their own brand. You can't separate them from LeVar Ball and what he did. They had a TV show. You know what I mean? They have sneakers.

They went, you know, like, you can't deny the success. And plus, weren't their issues? Like, somebody was still in money from the brand. Like, it's a whole other thing. So it's like, why it got to be kind of... A guy named Alan Foster. Who, oh, Alan Foster is a guy. who, because, by the way, I'm going to go ahead and say it straight up.

I think that LeVar Ball is more successful than Joe Biden. I do. I think he's, I think he's, I think BBB, his BB is more successful than Joe Biden. Joe Biden can't even get his BB off the ground. LeVar Ball was able to get his BBB off the ground. I'm going to go with LeVar Ball. There's a LeVar Ball for me. But we could have Alan Foster on this podcast, the guy who allegedly was involved with the BBBBB.

I don't know. Because I don't want him on a list. he can talk about it. I don't want to hear I'm not allowed to say, I'm say anything. Yeah. So when I first got in touch with the Ball family back in the day, it was through Alan Foster.

He hooked me up. And remember that interview where, where LeVar Ball said that Lawsville Ball was going to be better than Steph Curry? He was talking to me. Oh. Yeah. So like I, so I can have Alan Foster on here if people want to go deeper into what happened to

BB. Alan Foster says that he, there's a side to the story that people don't know. I haven't heard it. We haven't spoken about it. Well, if he wants to come on and say it, let's go. Tell him to come on. Yeah. Yeah.

Let's take a break. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with Internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust spectrum business. So visit

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He left extra before I got there. He has a boxing podcast called The Three Knockdown Rule. Mario Lopez is known as one of the very best celebrity boxers that's out there. There's not very much tape of him fighting, but he's been doing it for a long, long time. I was like, is he known as the best celebrity boxing? He's known as a guy who can really fight. I'm not even lying.

I'm not taking away from him. He's been boxing for a while. You know, he's at Wild Carter all the time. He's been boxing for a while. He's been boxing for a while. He's in great shape. But he has a boxing podcast called The Three Knockdown Rule, and he had a guy on there,

former Showtime boxing commentator and World Champion boxer, Pauli Malinaji was on there. And they got to talk a little bit about different issues. Now, Polly, if I remember correctly, lost his job at showtime over some things that he had said regarding

Black Lives Matter and whatever, whatever. And they got to talk about George Floyd on the podcast. And Polly, go ahead and run the sound, Donnie. The funny thing is about it is, after I said my interview, after I had my interview, George Floyd happened a month later. A crackhead criminal who was still

unjustly treated, but at face it probably died for a lot of reasons. Maybe possibly Derr's Chauvin is one of the culprits, but was it the only... Cracket criminal. Derrs Chauvin is one of the culprits. Played a little longer, Donnie. Give me some more stuff here.

George Floyd didn't happen because he's black. George Floyd happened because of a lot of circumstances, okay? One, George Floyd was high. Two, Derek Chauvin wasn't a nice person. And three, George Floyd, when a cop arrest you, I've been arrested and I've also been assaulted by cops. myself when you're getting arrested the less cooperative you are the more it's good the worst it's gonna be for you so you know George Floyd at the end of

day wasn't exactly cooperative a cop doesn't have six hours on the job be like all right whenever you're ready we're gonna get in the car and I'm gonna dig you to the station and then and then I'm gonna fill out there's gonna he's gonna still fill out paperwork when he arrests you you know there's a lot to do so the cop doesn't want to spend six hours on the street with you and then bring you in and then have to do another two three hours of paperwork on top of too. So, you know, he's trying to get this thing done. So you don't have like, you know, George, whenever you're ready, we can head to the police station. So, by the way, I just saw

maybe the best political ad I've ever seen before my life. And we're going to have to talk about on the podcast. We have to talk about Gary Chambers, who's running for Senate in Louisiana just, uh, local. No, he's running for Senate. I mean, but like local Congress or is he, is he He's running for states Senate or is he running for U.S. Senate? Amazing. He's running for U.S. Senate. He's running for U.S. Senate. Just posted an ad where he's smoking weed in the ad.

Oh. And he's talking about all of the times. I want him to win. I want him to win. He's smoking weed in the ad. But back to Mario Lopez and Pauli Malinaji. Didn't know this about Mario. I don't know where I've been.

That Mario is kind of one of these guys. Pauli Malaghi's talking now. I want to make sure that we know. Like Mario Lopez didn't say these things. Poly Malinology said these things. But at the end of the interview, Mario Lopez thanked Pauli for coming on the show and shedding light on some of these issues

and disrespecting George Floyd and saying the things that he said about George Floyd. And when I looked into Mario Lopez, Mario Lopez seems to be a Maga cult member. Can you, like, I have no idea about this. All we know about Mario Lopez is he seems to be everywhere, always hosting on something. So please talk about how you found out that he's MAGA affiliate. Well, so he's never actually said.

By the way, I'll get to my problem with those statements and what was said on there. If he wants, if he's, there's nothing wrong with Mario Lopez. If he thinks that he's conservative and wants to be down in prison, Trump, I'm not jumping on specifically for that. I don't have a give a fuck about that. But there is something else I do kind of care about. Well, I looked into it and, you know, he talked about voting. He talked about that the fact that he did vote.

He would never talk about who he voted for. He didn't want to alienate anybody in this audience. He's been friends with President Trump for a long time. He said that. He's got pictures. Well, no, he's got pictures on his Instagram with him and President Trump. Oh, nice. He's elected supporter, which is an initiative to get Latinos to exit the Democrat Party,

the Democratic Party. once again, his business. And he appeared on the Candace Owen show a couple of years ago and made some controversial statements about transgender kids. That's kind of one of the other things. So I think that Mario's politics and Steve Kim, who runs this podcast along with Mario, I think their politics are pretty well known

and some of the things he's liked and some of the things that he's seen is whatever. So let's say that Mario Lopez is a conservative. Do you have a problem with that? No. Not at all. I don't have a problem that he's a conservative. Yeah.

I don't have a problem. They use a conservative. They is a conservative. It doesn't matter at all. A.C. Slater is a conservative. Whatever, he comes from a military family. I would expect that. You know what I mean?

What I do have a problem with is what Mario Lopez allowed Polly Malinagia to do on the show. Yeah. Same. Yeah. So, you know, if Mario doesn't have big enough nuts to come out and tell us exactly what he thinks politically, if Mario, doesn't have, if Mario wants to kind of hide in the showers,

hiding the showers, not the showers, hiding the shadows and not say it with his chest, that's fine. But I would expect Mario Lopez, who talks to everybody on all of these, these platforms, on Extra, on Access Hollywood when he was on there, whatever he was doing. He ain't with us anymore, so give that to Access Hollywood. Access Hollywood, right? I would expect Mario to understand the sensitivities of people and how they're going to, going to feel about having someone come on there and disparage George Floyd for no reason.

Yep. What I would expect is for Mario Lopez to understand that the most important thing about George Floyd wasn't his addiction history. It wasn't anything that he had done. The most important thing about George Floyd in that moment was the fact that he should still be alive and that he was killed for absolutely zero reason. So if you want to go through his life and parse it apart and talk about the things that you didn't like about his life, the question I would ask you is, why are you doing that? In some sort of way, was Pauli Malinaghi suggesting that George Floyd deserved to die or that his life was any less valuable than anyone else's because of some of the mistakes that he had made in his past?

Was Pauli Malinaghi suggesting that if George Floyd had acted and conducted himself in a different way, then maybe he would be alive now? And if that's the case, my question to Mario or to Pauley is, what way are you supposed to act to make sure that the cops don't kill you? Because at this point, and unfortunately, this is the truth, the cops have killed black people in just about every single way you can kill a black person. They've killed black people who were running. They've killed black people who were resisting. They've killed black people they thought were other people. They've killed black people that were walking down the street for no apparent reason. They've stalked and provoked and killed black people.

So the amount of accidents that cops have had, they've killed black people. They thought had guns. They've killed mentally ill black people. They've killed. There is a, for me, there is absolutely zero way, in my opinion, to intelligently say, this is what you do to make sure an encounter with the police officer doesn't go back. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. If you attack the cop, it kills you. If you run from the cop, it kills you.

Right. Like, you, you know what I mean? Uh, if you reach for your ID, the cop kills you. You know, so, so, I mean, we've seen it all. Mm-hmm. So what I would is, so what I, what I, what it seems like to me, and maybe I'm wrong about this as it, as it relates to Mario Lopez, what it seems like is that Mario and Pauli and Steve Kim had a very distinct agenda that day.

And what they wanted people to know was that George Floyd was a crackhead criminal who we shouldn't have made that big a deal about. And if I'm wrong about that, I would love for Mario Lopez to tell me that I'm wrong. But I can't see how I'm wrong for jumping to that conclusion based upon what I saw and heard on the podcast. Let's just say Mario didn't know with this guy. Sorry, I can't remember his name. With this guy. Pauli Malinaji. Let's just say Mario did know what this guy was going to get on here and talk about.

Let's just say he went rogue and just started talking. This is what bothers me about the situation. One, Mario Lopez was either silent or laughing during this conversation. And then, okay, so he went rogue, right? We'll give you the benefit of the doubt. despite him going wrong, despite him going off and saying things that were disparaging the name of George Floyd, his family, and making a mockery of a situation where a man ended up dead at the hands of a police officer, you decided to publish this podcast. See, to me, that says everything.

I don't care if Mario Lopez hasn't been proactive or talked about what his political beliefs are or what, you know, being conservative or how he or who he aligns himself with. These actions affiliated with this podcast episode tell me everything I need to know about Mario Lopez because you had the responsibility at this point to fix what was said on that podcast. It wasn't a live podcast. You at that point either could have deleted that segment or you could have just not published the entire interview. But instead, you put it out there, which means you are co-signing with what he's. he said, you had no problem sitting there in silence. You had no problem laughing at what he was saying.

And then you put out that problematic rhetoric out there to allow people to jump on that bandwagon and allow that type of talk to permeate through society. Huge problem with that. Then they delete it. Okay? They delete it after the backlash of what people thought. I don't know what they thought people were going to say. I have no idea. I have no idea if they thought it wasn't going to be wrong. I have no idea if they thought people wouldn't care, but they cared enough to delete it because all of a sudden now people are talking bad about Mario Lopez. The problem I have with it now, too, is that you're still silent. This hasn't been picked up in the media. I check. There have been no articles written about it. None. We're like the people, we're the only people

I feel like talking about it other than some people talking about it on social media, Twitter, Instagram. And this needs to be a bigger conversation. Because if you were a, a quote ally. If you were in support of how this affects the black community, then you would have been so outraged and angered by what he said in that podcast that you would have either called him out or not allowed that to be published. But instead you did. You should have been so bothered by that situation that you should have said something. And if he was my friend, I'd have a problem with his silence. But then again, I know exactly what he's doing. He's just pretending like this didn't happen so it can blow over and people can move on and we won't talk about it.

I am so glad that we are talking about it because he needs to understand that it's his privilege that allows him to just sit there and not say anything or laugh about the situation or not address how he has offended so many people. I mean, Mario Lopez is a huge public figure. He is on multiple different platforms and he should be held responsible or accountable for what he did in publishing such nasty. nasty, nasty comments and that affect so many different people. I think it's gross. No one's talking about it. Well said, Mario, at least owes us a conversation. Just a conversation.

I'm not going to forget about this. I'm not going to forget about it. This ain't no cancel culture thing. This is just like, speak up and say something. Mario, we got to talk. He deleted it and now he's blocking people that are calling him for it on Twitter. He is. He is.

That's such a punk move. Like, don't be a coward. You were both. old enough to put this out there. You published it. You didn't care. Now you have to deal with the fallout from it. Like you don't get to hide behind that.

Talk about it. Mario, you owe us a conversation. By the way, thought words, we need to go to Mario's social media. Okay? Go in love. And I all I want you guys to say is, Mario, we got to talk. That's it. We all, I'm not talking about anybody appearance.

on Mario's podcast. I'm not talking about him coming on this podcast. I'm not talking about any of this stuff. This is what I'm talking about. I've been down with A.C. Slater since 89. Since 89, I've been down with A.C.

Slater. Changes nothing. And I still love those shows. So all about this. But you don't get to do this in this day and age now and then us not discuss it and move on

and not even have the conversation. Right. You had the conversation with fucking Pauli. now you need to have the conversation with us. Like you don't get to be the PC person. If you go be PC, then be PC all the time. The moment you step outside that box, we got to talk. And that's what he did.

Did you see this pastor that rubbed spit on this guy's face? Texas, right? No, don't do that. It's Tulsa, Oklahoma. But when I saw it, I was like, I know this dude is from the south. And then when I saw it was Tulsa, I was like, I know somebody who goes to that church. I got an ex that went to that church. Really?

I called and asked him about it. I was like, that's your pastor, right? For a second, I thought that was him in the video. Wow. And then he said, no, that was his brother. I said, you know that's wrong, right? He goes, yeah, there were other options. I said, were you in the audience?

and he was like, no. But I guess this isn't the first time he's done some outrageous stuff and not with spit. Apparently, he's spitting dirt before and said, this is how we were made. I said, that's totally different than spitting in his hand and rubbing it on somebody's face. So Michael Todd, who leads to Transformation Church in Tulsa,

I've also noticed that the longer the name of the church is, the more problematic the rhetoric that comes out of it. Is transformation long to you? It's like, if the Church is the Transformation Church, that's churches with names like that all. always have some shady shit that's what I mean? Like, just say, hey, it's Jesus time, church or something like that. Like, or just King David Chapel or just keep it simple.

Like in Houston, there's the church without doors. See what I'm saying? Which is a huge church. Outdoors. I'm sure it is. The church without doors is like something going down, man. You know what I mean? is like all these people with these names, church, church did, the sanctified deliverance center.

No, we don't need that. Excuse me from regular church. Mount Zion. You know what I'm saying? I get it. I get it. Right. He grossed out people.

He wiped his own spit on the face of a parishioner. His brother, his younger brother. brother. His young brother, he said, he was emphasizing an analogy about how receiving the vision from God might get nasty. Sometimes you have to go through some muck to fulfill God's will. Okay. Now this passion that Mike Todd has broken the silence, saying he watched it back and it was disgusting. He was trying to make a point. He realized he crossed the line. He says that while Jesus was able to use his spit to create a miracle, he most certainly did not have the same effect on his brother during this sermon.

Okay. There's something in there that tells me about the transformation church and about Pastor Mike Todd, and I want all pastors to listen to me as I say this. The most important thing you got to remember is you ain't Jesus. Come on now. Okay. It's a different time. And by the way, if you're going to do something that Jesus did, do some of the cool stuff.

You know, they're always doing. some of the stuff that Jesus did that's low down on the pecking order. If you're going to try something that Jesus tried, why don't you try water and the wine? That's very nice. I like a nice Merlot. If you're going to do something that Jesus did, why don't you bring back Lazarus or somebody? If you want to go viral, don't rub no spit in nobody face. You're trying to be like, Jesus, if you want to go viral, call somebody back.

You'll go viral. Make man a fall from the sky. Yeah. Yeah, if you're going to do something, if you, if you, if you have it in your mind, if you're confused and you think you just might be Jesus, go there. Prove it. Let them touch with your garment. Yeah. Yeah. Just keep throwing out.

If you're going to do some Jesus stuff, go for it. They always want to do the low on the power ranking stuff. Yeah, Jesus did this with spit, so I'm going to do it. That's anybody, my kids do this. It's disgusting. Don't y'all realize how harmful stuff like this. is to Christianity. Like, this makes a mockery

out of it. It's embarrassing. Like, I don't know if he's a charlatan or an attention whore. I mean, part of me is like, did he do this because he knew it would get attention? You know, I saw it and I was like, is this not cultish? Like, I literally told

I really told my friend I was like, don't drink Kool-Lade if he's passing it out. Like, this is so problematic for me. I, fan, how much money would it take for you to let somebody rub spit on your over your eyes and face. I'm about to box you. How much money?

A mill? I'm about to box you. Oh, look, if it's five, five mil, you don't do that. But don't, by the way, by the way, by the way, I'm going to be honest with you. This Michael Todd dude, he looks swollen as hell. Yeah, he, this is him. He looks swollen as hell. He's lost a lot of weight.

My ex trains him. Oh, no, he is a lot smaller because before. He lost weight. He gained weight. and like I think he's in the process to lose that again. Oh, wait a minute. I don't trust him.

I don't trust him. I don't trust Michael Todd. Never, ever, ever trust a priest in a leather jacket, ever. With the hoodie? With the hoodie. With the hoodie. I don't trust them.

And it's not that priest can't wear leather jackets, but it's just that they're trying to wear a leather jacket on purpose. If you just, if you see a priest in a leather jacket and they're like going to Starbucks, they, you know, they in Tulsa.

say it gets called there, whatever. That's one thing. But if a priest takes a, if a pastor takes a picture in a leather jacket, that means they're trying to show you that they're a cool pastor. Well, it's worse when you see the change, right? You can't, I know when he started his church, he didn't dress like that. You know what I mean? He didn't dress like that.

He didn't look like that. Now he's changed. Do you see who's in this picture with right now? No, who is it? That's him and Kanye West. Nah, this nigga full of shit. I thought it was a manual archer. I couldn't see.

Nah, this nigga full of shit. Oh, he's got multiple Kanye West pictures. Is Michael, is Michael Todd a false teacher? Evangelical Darkweb? I'm definitely going to this website. Evangelicaldarkweb. Send it to me. Send it to me.

Copy page. Send it to me. Jesus Christ. Evangelicaldarkweb. I'm definitely going to be on this site a million times. This story could be more timely. One of the movies I've watched in my quarantine is the eyes of Tammy Faye Baker. Oh, yeah, it's good.

Very good. All about Jim Baker. And then you just go down this dark hole about looking at all the other past Jerry Baldwin. You looking at his son. Jimmy Swaggered. You just keep going and you just keep clicking on links and links and seeing scandal after scandal with all of these people.

Oh my gosh. This couldn't come. This is right on time. Jimmy Swagger is my people. It should be noted that. Michael Todd has Apollo. Well, you said it, right?

I said he apologized. Yeah, he apologized. Which made me even, what made me even more, it's something with his eyes in the apology that I just, even more of him just like, run.

You know what? I shouldn't say, I shouldn't say that I'm not fucking with Michael Todd. It's not that I'm not fucking with him. Well, you never did. It's just, it's like, I'm like I shouldn't it's not that I shouldn't say I'm not fucking with Michael Todd I'm sure I'm

fucking with Michael Todd I guess I'm fucking with Michael Todd everybody should fuck with Michael Todd who knows he who knows the lives that he's changed I don't know but what I'm saying is I'm all when I go into a church like that and see stuff like that I'm always on cult watch what's the difference between a good church and a cult I guess it's a personal decision but I'm sorry when I see something like that that's cultish and apparently like I started reading up other stuff about him and he has encouraged people to stay together he says domestic violence isn't a reason to divorce. So there's some problematic things here with all.

So what's the reason then? What's the reason? I don't know. But he said domestic violence. Dementalance of reason. I guess there's some reason. But domestic violence is not apparently. So there's there's, you know, do your own research.

He ain't the pastor for me. I won't be watching his online services. Speaking of that, do you have any idea just how fucking crazy Ike Turner was? I mean, I've seen what's love got to do with it. No. What, how do we take this turn? It gets, how do we take it? Hold on.

Hold on. Like, it is worse than that. It, because I think I, I, I turner is a, was a scary villainous bastard. Like, I watched an Ike Turner interview where Ike Turner was talking about why he would sometimes hit Tina Turner. And what did he say? For looking sad. You admit that you have slapped Tina before, but why, Ike?

She would be walking around looking sad, looking sad with a lip drop, and I keep asking her, and what is the matter with you? What's wrong? And there's always, nothing. And it would go on for a day or two,

till finally, why in the fuck, don't you? And then this is where I would slap her or something. Then she would change, her mood, attitude or something. I mean, the movie touches on how crazy and controlling he is. I mean, he said sometimes she would look sad and that he would just pop her. That doesn't start me.

Very disgusting. Yeah, it's disgusting. But you can get that from the movie. I mean, he clearly was insane. Yeah. Okay. You're so easily distracted. I mean, how did we get on?

I am. I'm sorry. Are you going to make a little bit of quick? Are you making the comparison between Michael Todd and I? Oh, I said domestic violence. Let me connect with that. That's what I'm saying. I said domestic violence.

Okay. You're right. You don't put domestic violence in Jesus in the same sentence. People would be like they beating somebody up for Jesus. It's very, very dangerous. All right. Let's take a break. This episode is brought to you by Weather Tech.

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All right. So $1.85 billion worth of student loan settlements is happening. Navient, one of the largest student loan services in the country announced Thursday, 1.85 billion dollar settlement with more than three dozen states in an effort to resolve allegations of predatory. lending and deceptive practices over more than a decade. Rachel, grand question. Do you feel like the student loan forgiveness topic movement is gaining steam? I mean, apparently this has been an issue.

Maybe. Who knows? I wish it on no one. Right. Do I think it's gaining steam? Yes. maybe this is the way for Biden to go up in our approval rating percentage. You know, like maybe this is something that he could win.

Maybe this is something that could be more in his control. I don't know. I know people are talking about it. I think the fact that loans were about to start in February was so jarring that people, that it has started the conversation up going again. Maybe in May, when it's supposed to start back again, people will keep talking about it. But I think the fact that this company has, quote, engaged in deceptive and abusive practices targeted students who it knew would struggle to payback

loans, which again, I'm like, isn't that all of us, right? Most people are struggling to pay back their loans, especially when you have college and, you know, your master's or doctorate or whatever it is that you're going for. You've got six figures plus of loans. And then they also got in trouble for misleading borrowers who are having trouble making payments by entering what is known as a long-term forbearance. I feel like everybody's in long-term forbearance. So all this was to me is, can we please investigate all the other ones as well, not just Navient or whatever it's called? Can we investigate everybody? Because I think everybody would be guilty of going after people who were vulnerable and couldn't pay back their loans and entering

long-term forbearance loans because it's like, oh, I'll just take 30 years to pay that. But then what does that do? That racks up the interest. And then before you know it, you're paying five times more than what you were originally supposed to pay. They all do that. Just cancel it. Can we just start over? Can we just erase it and start over? Maybe that's the conversation.

So my thing is this, if we forgive all the loans, who pays for the, who pays for all those kids and with the school and shit? I mean, this, this company is to a $1.85 billion, just forget what,

66,000 borrowers are going to get their loans forgiven. I mean, it doesn't say who's paying it. think it's just going to get erased. This company is responsible for misleading students with loans. I'm sure you can find that with every single loan company, to be honest with you, because we have no idea what we're doing. We're just trying to further our education.

We don't really necessarily understand the fine print when we're assigning. We're just trying to get educated. We're trying to get a job. Especially when you don't have any other choice, but to get a loan, what are you supposed to do? Loan day used to be, I'm not going to lie, it was people that used to get fly on loan day though when the loans would come through and they would take the money. They used to get a new car. They used to have a new wardrobe.

They used to buy all the drinks at the club. Yeah, it's like long days. Who paying for the drinks Saturday, May? Loan day. But the reality is that student loan forgiveness would be an incredible way to jumpstart the American economy. Wouldn't it be amazing? Would you have a house right now if it wasn't for your student loans?

No. People get mad at me when I say this, but I'm not about to use my harder money to just be paying back these loans. I'm just not. So if I, but I do have friends. I actually have a friend who said to me, I wish I would have done it your way, Rachel,

instead of just really paying back all my loans, there's so much I could have done with that money. I could have invested that money. But she was so big on I got to pay back can get down this loans. Me, not so much. But you know what the thing with me is? And we're in the same place.

I didn't have any loans, right? You know what I mean? But the reality is that I just didn't pay bills, period. Okay, that's not me. Like for a long time. I remember it all came back to me. And it's so crazy how niggerish my upbringing was and how everything was because I don't know if other people went through this.

I want to start a new segment. And the segment is called Have You Ever? Okay. Because am I the only person? Because I don't know. No, you're not. That I'm not the only person. And the first have you ever is, have you ever just not pay bills?

No. And I don't understand how that works. So this is what I did. One time I decided when I was a freshman in college that I needed a computer. So I went to the computer store. Computer store was up in Ruston, California, Rustin, Louisiana, somewhere near about. I needed my own computer. That's where my people are from.

Yeah. I needed my own computer. So I went and I was looking for a computer. And I was like, okay, I need to work this much to save up to buy the computer. And the guy at the computer store was like, no, you don't. I was like, what? He was like, you can get this computer and you can finance this computer. But I'm like, okay, if I finance it, like, when do I?

you know, get to take it home and stuff and like, what do I need to do? I need to come back in here with five, six hundred bucks. And he goes, no. If you qualify for the financing, you can take the computer home today. I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, you can buy the computer today if you qualify for the financing. I'm like, okay, let's see. Qualify for the financing on the computer.

Of course you did. He told me about all the payments and stuff like that. I never made one payment on the computer. I stole the computer What's your credit score? My credit score is lovely Well now Yeah now my credit score is great

But at a time was it not By the time I started checking By the time I started checking my credit score It was when I needed my credit score to be good Because I also did that I can't tell you how many times I did that I did that with I did that with one time I need to fix my car

So the place was off, off Nicholson. And I went there like, God damn, I don't have enough money. And the guy goes, oh, well, we can keep it here for a week and you can try to get up the money. Or you can just see if you qualify for a $500 revolving line of credit. And I was like, let's see if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, there's a credit thing. Boom. Did the revolving line of credit. $500 revolving line of credit.

Fixed the car. Never made one payment. Never paid it once. Like when I say I never paid it once I remember the people from the computer store They called after a while They called after a while And they were like, where are you?

I was like a G about it I was like I'm in Baton Rouge And it was like Yo I got to be honest with you like We need to get the computer back If you're not going to pay for the computer I'm like I'm going to be real with you The computer's lost

Yeah y'all not getting the computer back. Y'allel, I'm like, I'm going to be real with you. I'm not paying for the computer. I can't pay for the computer. And I've moved. So maybe at some point in the future, we can, like, maybe. But you know what?

I feel like I still ended up paying for it because when I was fixing my credit after all of those years, you have to pay off to these people who pay off all your shit and they do all those. So I feel like I ended up paying for it. But there was a point in my life where I would just get to, shit and just not pay it. And I remember trying to get a car one time.

And the guy was like, the guy was like, oh, now I didn't do it with the car. And the guy was like, hey, man, you know, you're the homie. Like, you don't want to get this car. But he's like, bro, you got to pay somebody, brother. He was like, hey, you got to pay somebody, man. But I just always remember, it was like,

I just remember growing up on a raggedy side of credit. I remember my homeboy parking this car at my house so that it wouldn't get repossessed. Had that, had that, not me, but a friend did that. Yes, she was always done.

And I remember one point she was like, I'm going to leave the car here. And I'm going to tell y'all where y'all can go get it. Like, she didn't want to be involved. She was just like, this is where the car is. Right. I can't live that life. I lived it.

I remember, I remember we was we was getting ready to go to Memphis. I was asking one of my homeboys. I was like, yo, if you drive us, what are the chances that we get like 30 miles outside of Bat Rouge? And then we fucking stuck at the gas station because they didn't reproduce a car. He was like, I don't know, brother. If they do shit like that, probably high.

I owe them like $5,000. But now I'm not sure this good. Now I'm so crazy about paying stuff. I pay before. I pay, I double up payments and I do all of that. But then I didn't give a fuck about paying that shit. I mean, I guess that's how I am with loans. Your student loans.

Your loans. So my question is, have my question to everybody out there right now, seriously, have y'all ever just not pay bills? Finance something and you just never pay to people. Just never pay. Like literally one, I didn't make, maybe I paid, maybe, I paid something to get the computer home. I can't remember. I don't think I did, but just never paid one payment. I didn't pay them once. I think I did that once with a medical bill.

Oh shit, medical bills used to be fucking out of this world too. Because we're all of my trips to the, seriously, all my trips to the emergency room with anxiety over and over years. One time we were trying to get an apartment out here and a guy was like, I had a question, are you okay? And I'm like, what? It's like, all of your bills and stuff that showed up, It's all like ambulance stuff and all of that stuff like that. But they'll come get your ass for that. You better pay them ambulance people. All right.

That went on too long. But, you know, got to pay those. People can relate. I'll tell you people can relate. What? So Vans very serious questions. So should we do a two-for? I give them a two-far.

Why not? They love them. So two-for. So this is two-for. Number one, who is more successful? Who has a more successful? B.B. Is it Joe Biden's buildback better plan?

Is that the more successful BBB? Or everybody's talking about it. It's a big thing. Or is the big baller brand a more successful and notable BBB? Which BBB is superior? The build back better plan or the big baller brand? And the second one is, it's a VALB's very serious question, have you ever? Have you ever financed something and then never paid one bill on it and kept the shit?

I had that computer for years. Finance the computer. I never paid one bill on it. Had the computer for years. I fucking had lime wire. I had I mesh. I had napster. I had all of this shit on that computer.

That computer, if I could ever find a content on that computer, that computer was a gold mine of music. I had so much music on that computer. Can I just say, depending on what people say in regards to this, have you ever, we might need to bring somebody on to talk about financial literacy. Because I'm not going to continue to allow this to be a

problem in our community. Earn your leisure. I would love to, I would like to have the earn your leisure guys on the podcast to talk about what happens if you finance something and you never pay one bill. And I want to know how many people have done

this. You finance something because you can't do it with a car or whatever, but you can do it with like a computer. You can be car fixed or whatever. Never pay one bill. All right. That's enough. Rachel, we're happy.

You're back. Happy to be back. Happy to be back. Happy to be feeling better. You know. When are you going to be off? When are you going to be like up and around again? Friday is the day I'm allowed to escape again.

Right. Have you tested negative yet? No, you say you haven't. I can't. I can't. So the rules are 10 days you can test. So I can test it. Testing.

And Brian's feeling okay? Brian's doing great. We've been quarantining. I feel like we're roommates at this point. Totally separate. He sleeps at different room. He's a different bathroom. Yeah, he's been holding it down with the house.

Really appreciate him. Taking care of me. No. But he's good. The roommate's thing is what happens eventually anyway. Wow. Okay. Let's end it on a high note.

A high note. All right. Stop coughing. All right. Tell you things, caps off, but do not stop learning. I am Van Lathen, Jr. And I'm Rachel and Lindsay.