Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Trump, Nazis, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s N-Word Count

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

Van and Rachel react to President Trump’s executive orders (11:35) before welcoming assistant professor of law at Washington and Lee Maureen Edobor to dig into their legal and moral implications (22...:33). Then Elon Musk salutes in a very Third Reich-ish kinda way (49:31 ), Sexyy Red apologizes to Bernice King (1:05:12), and Jamie Foxx discusses Leonardo DiCaprio’s discomfort with the N-word (1:15:50) Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guests: Maureen Edobor Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:01 Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher Learning is on. It is I, Van Lathen, Jr. This is me, Rachel and Lindsay. How, this is a very, this is a very harrowing podcast that we're doing right now. You are sick. And I had to come into the office here in New York because TSA jacked me.
Starting point is 00:00:27 I just got to be honest with you. TSA Jack me. TSA Jack me. That's what happened. Explain the story because I'm not quite understanding. You are TSA Precheck. So I'm understanding how you even ended up in this predicament. Please explain.
Starting point is 00:00:42 First of all, before I tell the story, can I sing my TSA Precheck song? By all means. TSA Precheck, TSA Precheck. Get where you're going with TSA Precheck. TSA precheck. TSA precheck. Keep your shoes on with TSA Precheck. TSA precheck.
Starting point is 00:01:00 Precheck. TSA Precheck. Why don't you smile for TSA Precheck? I've seen that song when I'm going through TSA Precheck. Okay. Now it's over. Oh, so you've been singing this song. You didn't just come up with it after what happened to you. I sing it every time I go through TSA Precheck.
Starting point is 00:01:15 So I go through the thing. And when I go through it, TSA Precheck goes, hey. How much time does it have left? We can't see through the bag that I carried my laptop and my iPad in. And they go, we need to move some stuff around. And I'm like, cool. So he moves and stuff around, zips the bag back, puts the back through, and then the bag comes through.
Starting point is 00:01:36 I get the back, put the bag on my back, boom. Playing in New York, fly, land in New York, get to the room to do the podcast. Guess what? No laptop, no iPad in the back. Now, I don't know if they ran it separately or if the guy at the front still had it, but it's not in there. No laptop, no iPad in the back.
Starting point is 00:01:57 As I look at my find my app right now, the stuff is still in Los Angeles at the terminal. So it's obviously there, but they didn't put my stuff back in the back. Aren't you responsible for putting your own stuff back in your together? No. What are you talking about? They put the stuff, they took the stuff out of the bag at the little security thing. So the bag. And put it in a separate bin.
Starting point is 00:02:24 They didn't, he didn't say he was putting in in a separate bin. there was no talk of a separate bin. It was a separate bin coming to it. He didn't say separate bin. He put the thing back in there. He said, we need to be able to see through. He said, I'm going to rearrange this stuff and put it in there. He didn't say separate bin.
Starting point is 00:02:39 There was no talk of a separate bin. Okay. Now, I love you. But when they remove, when they sometimes, if there's two electronics in a bag, they'll take it out and they'll put it in another bin. They don't put it back in the bag for you. You don't know. This is why I do to you.
Starting point is 00:03:01 This is, did you get? They don't. You know, this is what happens to you. They don't put it back. They take it. If they're taking it out, they're putting it into something separate. I don't know why you thought. That's not true.
Starting point is 00:03:13 This has happened before. They look in it. And they look in it. They look in the thing. And then they put it back in there. And they put, I've never had this happen before where they looked in it. And then they don't put the stuff back in the back. They look in it and they go, okay, cool.
Starting point is 00:03:28 that you don't have anything bad in here we're going to run it back through again. Now, I shouldn't have expected support from you because this is what happens in my life. If this was you, I would have been like, oh my God, TSA pre-checked over you. But no. By the way, I love the people at TSA. They're always very nice.
Starting point is 00:03:49 But it'll snap who happens. But I can't get support because I'm a black man. And everything that happens to me is some evil thing. than I've done in past life. I'm more so telling you, so if this happens to you again,
Starting point is 00:04:04 you need to know, you need to check the bins behind you. It's also amazing to me that you flew across the country and never once pulled out your laptop or your iPad. Lay flat seats, baby. Yeah, I know, but I always
Starting point is 00:04:20 pull out one or the other because I'm either downloading shows or movies or I'm doing some, okay, I'm doing some work. So I'm shocked. Or at least like you didn't feel that your bag didn't weigh as much. No, there's a lot of stuff in the back. Were you rushed?
Starting point is 00:04:35 Let's move on. All I want is, like, all Kendrick wants is a black grand national. All I want is support. Okay? When you told this story, I had so many questions. I'm like, wow, he made it all the way across the country without knowing not one, but two of your items were missing. Okay.
Starting point is 00:04:55 It's impressive. It's impressive. Okay. is impressive because what I do, I have a whole thing. I go down there, I fly, I get into the lay flat, boom, I'm laying flat. And then what I'll do is I'll put something in my ears and I'll just go to sleep. Okay?
Starting point is 00:05:13 I'll go to sleep and that's what I did. I didn't realize when I got to the apartment. There's a lot of stuff in the back. The hotel. I was on Abby Phillips last night. Abby Phillip. It was great. Shout out to Chuck Rocha.
Starting point is 00:05:26 met him. It's fantastic. It wasn't my best. I was jet lag, but it was fun to do. Shout out to my girl, Carol Swisher as well. Okay. We have a big show. Trump's executive orders. We have Marine Edibor that's going to join us to talk about a little bit of those. We're going to get into them a little bit on our own, on the other side of the break, just briefly, and then we'll turn it over to Marine. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the final with Fandul Predict.
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Starting point is 00:06:57 Before treatment, your doctor should take. check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimphia. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya, including important safety information. All right, like you said, we're going to talk to an expert about these things a little bit later, but before we do that, let's kind of run through some of Trump's orders after his first few days in office, starting with some of the immigration policies that he's looking to get through.
Starting point is 00:07:33 Promise mass deportations hasn't detailed how they're going to go. ICE says it's arrested more than 400 people across the country in response to President Trump's crackdown. So some of these executive orders deal with multiple different things, undoing Biden-era policy, all different types of Biden-era policy. Some of them involve things like getting us. out of the World Health Organization. Some of them are more ridiculous,
Starting point is 00:08:05 renaming things and stuff like that. But particularly the things that really have grabbed people are the executive orders involving immigration and the executive orders involving equal opportunity hiring and discrimination policy here in the United States of America. What do you, Rachel, what did you think? What the hell are you doing? Like he declares a national emergency at the Mexico border, suspended U.S. refugee emissions program.
Starting point is 00:08:35 He's trying to undo birthright citizenship, which is being challenged in the courts. Blase, Blase, Blase, a bunch of stuff on trans rights, DEI, all of that. What did the executive words tell you? We'll talk to Maureen about it in a second. I mean, it just shows me that Trump promised that he would be taking a lot of actions first day. and within the first 100 days, everything Trump said he was going to do, he is doing. Some of it aligns with Project 2025.
Starting point is 00:09:05 There are a lot of people out there. They're like, oh, he's not serious about that. I would talk to people about that. What about Project 2025? Oh, he's not serious. He's not really going to do that. That's actually some of the things he's doing. You know, with the DEI stuff,
Starting point is 00:09:18 there's a hiring freeze. They're talking about putting people on, suspending people, putting people on leave, and then replacing them with appointed positions, meaning they be appointed, you know, like, you're appointed, it's hard to get that person out. They have it for as long as, you know, they desire. So it's not surprising.
Starting point is 00:09:42 It's just more terrifying to see that everything he said he wants to do, he'll do. The other thing that he has people talking about are the pardons. And I think the thing that stands out to me, He kept saying, I don't know if I'll pardoned January 6th. I have to look into it. We're going to look into it. And he has pardoned most of the people and communed other people's sentences. And I think when I saw that, all I could think is Trump's releasing them to build an army.
Starting point is 00:10:12 Those people are more indebted to Trump to Trump than they ever will be. They know that it doesn't matter what they do. Trump will spare them as long as they've been in the need of him, which they've already shown they're willing to do. They're willing to arm themselves, attack people, raid the capital, go to jail for it, get out. You have some of these people already on social media talking about how can they equip themselves with guns. I mean, this is the army that Trump wants. So for whatever he decides to do while he's president, and if he decides to pursue something after his four-year term, he knows that he has
Starting point is 00:10:53 1,500 people that are willing to fight for him. Yeah. And they've already shown what we knew. Right. And, you know, they know that it doesn't matter what they do, that he'll be, he'll have their back.
Starting point is 00:11:07 He ran on that, he campaigned on that, and he delivered that as a campaign promise. On Abby show last night, we're talking and this came up. Now, for any same-minded person, conservative or liberal,
Starting point is 00:11:25 the partnering of people who beat up police officers is pretty indefensible. The only defense that people have for it is an interesting one. The defense that people have for Donald Trump partnering, the oathkeepers and the proud boys,
Starting point is 00:11:44 is you. It's you, America. This is the defense. He said that he was going to do that and you voted for it anyway. Yeah. So when we're talking about this with people, they can't defend that morally and they can't defend it even functionally to pardon groups that are racist, white nationalist, militia groups.
Starting point is 00:12:13 You can't, there's no moral way to pardon it. Excuse me, to excuse it. The only thing that you can say to excuse it is Donald Trump said that he was going to do this and people in your barbershops, people in your church, people at your school that you're around in your neighborhood, they voted for it anyway. So whenever you're talking to Trump supporters or to people who have supported Donald Trump for various reasons, their vote is a vote for beating up the police, tasing the police, having an insurrection at the Capitol. And that's the only thing, the only thing, that a sane-minded person can use to defend Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:13:08 So while Trump is a singularly divisive and villainous force to me, in American politics, the even fragile mandate that he's been given by the American people is the more troubling thing. But that's the thing, Van. It's like, I don't think this was an important issue for people who voted for him.
Starting point is 00:13:37 It's like every, we've talked before about one issue voters. I think if you talk to Trump supporters, they weren't even thinking about the fact that he was going to part pardon these people. They weren't even thinking about January 6th. There were a couple of things that are important to them. We know the economy was the biggest issue. That's what they were thinking about. It's a very self-serving vote. It's what is going to benefit me as a person for my family,
Starting point is 00:14:05 for my people, for the next generation of people who are similarly situated as me. They weren't thinking about this. Even I think like as you go down the list of the executive orders and all the things, you know, pulling out of the World Health Organization, pulling out of the Paris Climate Treaty, you know, the fact that Trump said, drill baby drill, and he's literally signing executive orders that backed that up. I don't think people cared about that. What they cared about is how it's going to help them in their everyday life function. And that's how they want. So we can move on away from this because I agree with you. I agree with you.
Starting point is 00:14:47 Right. No, no, no, no. No, you're right. I thought of something while you were talking. I was intently listening to you. And it's true. I was listening to you intently because I'm present in our conversations, listening to you and responding to what you say. It's very true. I was thinking about something. The inverse happens to the Democrats. And it's something that the Democrats have to fix. So whereas Trump and the Republicans have been able to make their big issues big
Starting point is 00:15:29 and their smaller, some would say egregious cultural issues, small, the Democrats have an inverse problem. So Trump is able to say I'm going to fix the economy. And while I fix the economy, I'm going to let racist thugs out on the street. And this is you got to deal with it, right? Just got to deal with it. You got to deal with the racist thugs out on the street. You got to deal with blaming fires on black people. You got to deal with all of that stuff because for all of that,
Starting point is 00:15:58 you get something that's actually material to your life, which is cheaper bacon. Okay. What happens to the Democrats is the Democrats can come along and say, we are going to give every single American $5,000 a week. Okay? Five grand a week. You got it.
Starting point is 00:16:16 All right? We could do that. Now, they actually don't do that. I think that UBI is an incredibly populous idea that the Democrats haven't really gotten by, but just have the hypo for them. They could come out and do that, and then Republicans would be like, okay, they're going to give you all of that, but in exchange for it, your taxpayer dollars have to pay for gender reassignment surgery.
Starting point is 00:16:40 And there are so many people who would say no. there are so many people who would say it doesn't matter if we get free and affordable health care. If my taxpayer dollars are going to gender reassignment surgery, if my taxpayer dollars means that DEI has to exist, if my taxpayer dollars mean that any of those things have to actually be real American conversations, I don't want it. the culture war becomes the overarching thing and not the policy. Meanwhile, on the right, the policy becomes the overarching thing and not the culture war. They're able to say, hey, don't worry about this.
Starting point is 00:17:27 Don't worry about that. Don't worry about this. We're going to make it cheaper. We're going to make it better. The Democrats have to figure out how to fix that right there. Yeah. That's a really interesting point about the reverse, by the way. Like, it's so true.
Starting point is 00:17:45 But see, this is what happens when I listen. People were saying I don't listen, but I was listening. And then really, that's your point, Rachel, give yourself. No, that's a good, no, no, no, that was a great point. It's a great point. You got it. All right, now we got Marine coming in. We're going to get to her.
Starting point is 00:18:02 She's going to give you a little bit more robust understanding on two particular parts of the executive orders. One, immigration, then two, some of the stuff that Trump did with the DEI. and the EEOC and all of that stuff. We'll get to her right after this 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,
Starting point is 00:18:30 advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more, restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors.
Starting point is 00:19:04 So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Trump in his early hours as America's new dictator slash vice president to Elon Musk signed into existence a sweeping gaggle of executive orders. Real dystopian stuff. The only problem is I am not smart enough to make hesitations. of it. Rachel is, but she...
Starting point is 00:19:41 No, not. But she's not feeling well. So we brought in some pew-phew big guns, Marine Edibor from the Brennan Center of Justice. She's an assistant professor of law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. She teaches and writes about constitutional law, voting, and elections.
Starting point is 00:20:03 Was the policy director and counsel for the Congressional Black Caucus? When we have these guests on here, I always feel like I'm not doing enough of my life. Everybody's so distinguishing the things that they do. Marine, thank you for joining us on higher learning to help us make heads or tails of the new America that we're in. I'll just start off right now. But what do the executive orders that President Trump signed into existence tell you about his administration? Great question. I mean, I first want to start with explaining that, you know, presidents can't rule and purely like kings through executive orders. Executive orders have
Starting point is 00:20:48 to comply with the Constitution and they must comply with federal statutes. So there are a number of things, a number of executive orders that Trump has signed that don't comply with either. So it was a preliminary matter, I think none of us should take many of the executive orders that seriously, because they are clearly unconstitutional. I mean, a couple of hours ago, a federal judge in Seattle, a Republican appointed judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan, found that the birthright citizenship executive order was, quote, blatantly unconstitutional and even admonished the lawyers of the Department of Justice that, you know, rubber stamps and constitutionality. of such a ridiculous executive order.
Starting point is 00:21:36 But the executive orders, I think, tell us, you know, where the Trump administration is going. A lot of it, they're messaging executive workers. There's one that's really just a restatement of the First Amendment, which, okay, well, fine, that's already in the Constitution. It does nothing. But, you know, I guess for his base, it's a little red meat, you know, it gives them comfort that Trump's not going to discriminate against them because now we're remaking the federal government into, you know, not a woke DEI haven, but an institution where to be part of the
Starting point is 00:22:12 federal government, you have to be loyal to Trump. And Trump will not respect the First Amendment because he won't have you in his executive administration if you are not loyal to him, if you are not his athlete. So, I mean, a lot of this is just like a vision of Trump's America, which largely, like he told us on the campaign trail. So, in a sense, like we shouldn't be surprised. He's doing what he told us he would do, and he's telling us where his administration will go. Well, quick.
Starting point is 00:22:44 Can the lawyers themselves, this might be a stupid question. Can the lawyers themselves be sanctioned for rubber stamping or bringing ridiculous cases like the 14th Amendment case before judges? Can judges go? Is there any recourse for someone or any penalty, should I say, for someone acting on Trump's behalf, bringing frivolous cases before judges. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I actually am teaching a class this semester called professional responsibility,
Starting point is 00:23:17 which is about the model rules of professional conduct. And in those rules are, you know, rules that require lawyers to be competent, meaning you have to understand precedent and the law. And you cannot sort of seek to use the law in a way in which it was not intended. So that would include things like, you know, filing frivolous actions, for example. So when the DOJ is talking about like, you know, revenge prosecutions, if that prosecution, if those allegations are not based on, you know, real happenings are not based on things that actually occurred, reasonable violations of the law, you know, those attorneys could be subject to discipline.
Starting point is 00:23:58 But, you know, only if someone complains to the Bar Association. there has to be like some trigger or perhaps you know someone might start investigating on their own but largely like in this particular context um lawyers are kind of hesitant to report other lawyers particularly when they involve sort of issues that speak to political strategy i mean i think the january sixth step is kind of an exception because it was so outlandish and outrageous um but something Sorry, I've got a bargaining dog. But something like this, like the 14th Amendment citizenship order.
Starting point is 00:24:37 Yeah, it's to have a golden doodle. She's really needy. Something like the birthright citizenship issue, you know, that is something where reasonable people feel both ways about that. And even more, you know, we have a Supreme Court that's willing to change the law that's willing to change precedent. And if that's what the lawyers were banking upon,
Starting point is 00:24:56 I could see a court, you know, seeing that as a real, reasonable constitutional argument that birthright citizenship is not a requirement of the constitution as outlandish as it sounds to say? Yeah, it's it's very overwhelming all the information we're getting. It just seems like every day there's something new and not only even if it's not that the executive order is new, it seems that the implications of it are new. we learn more of like what it actually means the things that they're trying to do. And so my question is, I know that there's a checks and balance system in place.
Starting point is 00:25:37 It just doesn't seem that way. So even though, yes, he might be doing, like we're talking about, birthright citizenship, doing something that is against the Constitution, it seems like Trump is willing to ignore that for the purpose of, you know, his vision. So for some of the executive orders that have come out, can someone just ignore what the precedent has been or what the law has been and say, well, this is the executive order. I'm now going to follow what Trump has signed off on and just work within that structure. And until it's challenged in court, are they allowed to do that? So in essence, his executive orders are coming
Starting point is 00:26:23 into practice because it hasn't been challenged yet in court. Yeah, that's a great question. And you're exactly right. I mean, the immigration executive orders are a great example. You know, there is a lot of cruelty baked into immigration law and prosecutorial discretion. But practices of the Biden administration, which were that, you know, you could dismiss a case as an attorney and, you know, not deport someone if there were certain mitigating factors. Now attorneys at DHS have to ask their supervisors who are largely political appointees loyal to Trump, whether they can actually dismiss an action and allow a person to stay in the country. So yes, like a lot of this already is going into effect. And, you know, just because it is challenged in court, it could be years, months, you know, before a court finds that it's necessary to issue an injunction to stop the effectiveness of.
Starting point is 00:27:22 of the executive order. So, I mean, you're right. Like, it's not just a flick of the pen. A lot of this stuff is the practicalities. We're seeing them manifest already. And it's quite scary. Of all the orders that he signed, which ones were the most troubling to you?
Starting point is 00:27:44 I think the immigration executive orders were the most troubling for several reasons. I mean, the fact of the matter is that there are less, border crossings now than they were at the end of the first Trump administration. And yet, you know, the executive orders have declared that, you know, there's an invasion across the southern border that migrant flow is a national security threat such that we need to marshal the forces of the federal military, the National Guard, to engage in effectuating the mass deportations. What's so problematic about that is that it's illegal.
Starting point is 00:28:24 There's something called the Posse Comitatis Act, which bars federal troops from operating as like domestic police forces and domestic enforcement actions. Now, Trump has asked DHS to explore whether he needs to activate the Insurrection Act in order to use the federal military, but he's already signed an order saying the federal military will help with these mass deportations. So that's pretty scary knowing that they can work sort of in concert with localities, particularly in conservative places, to engage in really aggressive deportation practices. And what's unfortunate about that is that the law doesn't really have a lot of resources
Starting point is 00:29:08 to help the people who are being targeted. The only vulnerability is like process. So, you know, if DHS is not giving people an adequate opportunity to please, their case, provide evidence to say that they're legally in this country or that they have an asylum claim that is legitimate. If that's not happening, like, yes, we can sort of stop the deportations. Or if the DHS is not operating within the confines of the Fourth Amendment doing illegal searches and seizures or discriminating or racial profiling in the carrying out of the deportations, we could stop them in that respect. But largely, there's so much executive.
Starting point is 00:29:48 discretion with immigration. And immigration is something that is solely almost the field of the federal government. So Trump's authority here is quite robust. And so the mass deportations he promised, I mean, it's terrifying that that will start to happen. You know, if you are not a citizen, if you are not a person with legal permanent residency, if you do not have a legitimate visa, if you're here under temporary protected status, your case is being reviewed under the executive orders. Everything is being reconsidered. And that's scary. I mean, immigrants are like the lifeblood of the country. Many of them have more connections here than they do their home country. So there's a real like inhumanity about all of this that I think is sort of going
Starting point is 00:30:34 unreported. You know, one of the executive orders sort of stops the refugee resettlement program. And under that program, there are a number of people, I think, 1,400 people, 1,400 Afghans who had made plans to come here legally had been deemed to be people that should be coming to the United States because of certain fears of persecutions in their home countries. You know, they had flight plans. They had tickets. And Trump is not accepting them into this country per his executive orders. Like that is cruelty. And that will continue to happen. And I think it will only get worse. I mean, we had the Muslim ban, which the Supreme Court rubber stamped. So I mean, if that's a the floor, who's to say what the ceiling is? And largely, he has authority to do these things.
Starting point is 00:31:24 And so the immigration orders really scare me the most. Two things. One, is Trump right now seeking to deport people with TPS who are actually here legally? And then two, is it legal for the United States military to act in a law enforcement capacity on U.S. soil? Yeah, great question. So number one, yes, Trump is reviewing the cases of people with temporary protected status to determine whether they were legitimately granted that status. That's extremely problematic. Number two, yes, the federal government, the executive department can call on the national military to engage in enforcement actions against people in the United States. if it is deemed that there is some sort of domestic insurrection. That's sort of the purpose of the Insurrection Act. It says we can use the government, the military forces internally to sort of quell any domestic insurrection, which Trump is sort of arguing and indicating are migrants, immigrants to the United States.
Starting point is 00:32:44 I feel worse listening to you talk. I'm going to be honest. It's even scarier than I thought. As a broad question, it doesn't, obviously Trump doesn't respect acknowledged or in any way care what the Constitution says. It seems like the checks and balance thing
Starting point is 00:33:04 is something of the past. As you already stated, the executive orders are coming into practice. People are already using them as pretty much the law of the land. Is there any type of of, and it seems like, so what he has signed off on is it, is what it feels like. Other than the Supreme Court, is there anything else that can check Trump?
Starting point is 00:33:29 And do you see that, do you feel in any way that the Supreme Court, if that is the only way that it could happen, will check him as far as some of these executive orders ago? Yeah. I've been thinking about this. I mean, the liberal, non-profit industrial complex, obviously, like, is ready to sue. They've been planning for this, and they have been suing on these executive orders. And obviously, we're successful with the birthright citizenship order. The Supreme Court, ideally, would be a stopgap, sort of a check against the president's power. But what we've seen is that they've actually enlarged Trump's power and honestly created
Starting point is 00:34:15 a legal and political situation in which he could actually win the presidency by reading the Constitution in questionable ways. So I don't necessarily think we can count on the Supreme Court. Who I do think we can count on or, you know, this is corny, but like we the people. I think in our past, when presidents and Supreme Courts have acted in ways in which the people find reprehensible. We've simply refused to give legitimacy to those actions. So I think Dobbs is a good example. You know, when the Supreme Court said the right to abortion is not a fundamental right in the U.S. Constitution, people enshrined the right to the Constitution and their state constitutions,
Starting point is 00:35:02 even in like pretty conservative states. And we saw the Biden administration largely repudiate the decision and seek to sort of circumvent it in certain ways. Those are things that sort of indicate like any state action, a Supreme Court action is looked at its illegitimate. And in like the legal academy, we would call it an anti-canon, a wrongly decided case that rests on like no reason or rule of logic. So I think it's like people are engaged and they see some that seems like patently illegal or unconstitutional or like a crazy reading of the Constitution. We simply have to articulate that we don't accept this.
Starting point is 00:35:43 that we think this is wrong. You know, the people created the Constitution, the people have something to say about how we construct the meaning of law in the Constitution in this country. And I think, like, we need to assert that power as a stopgap to Trump. I mean, the people who voted for him,
Starting point is 00:36:03 you know, I don't know, I don't want to devaluate their intelligence, but I don't know if they really voted for the cruelty in immigration that we're going to see. right? Like, if they already did children sleeping on aluminum foil and cages separated from their families, and they're continuing that policy cruelty, did the people that vote for him? Will they accept that? Like, it's an open question, and I hope they'll sort of reevaluate what they meant by mass deportation. But I think the stopgap right now, it has to be the people because all three branches of government and the federal government and largely state legislatures and gubernatorial, seats, there's an ideological capture. And I think it's a capture that's sort of at odds with
Starting point is 00:36:50 prevailing American views on like democracy, equality, civil rights and civil liberties, the value of immigrants. So that's kind of like my hope that people have to engage. So I'm going to answer one of your questions from my perspective. Then I ask you my last one. Yes, they voted for it, in my opinion. And let me tell you, why? They voted for it because they were conned to the point to where, hold on, Harry, it's not shining right now. Come on out. There you go, here. They were conned to the point to where a specific group was othered and made
Starting point is 00:37:32 responsible for everything that was going wrong. Immigrants were stressing our economy. They weren't contributing to it. And they were the reason why everything is higher while there's crime, why there's this, why they're that. So they voted for the elimination of what they see the threat to the American way is. They definitely voted for it.
Starting point is 00:37:54 I don't know whether or not images from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, wherever will be enough to make them course correct on how they feel about people working and living in this country. I do think that the economics of it might, though. I think if you start to see food prices go up because people are afraid to go to work, if you start to see your favorite restaurants shut down because people are afraid to go to work.
Starting point is 00:38:25 Because remember, people don't know whether or not they are the immigrants that people are looking for or whether or not they are the immigrants that, quote, unquote, they aren't looking for. So they're just not going to go to work because they don't want to be arrested and send back to the country that came from. So I think that could change them. But I think that we're, in my opinion, we're so cynical and selfish right now that unless it affects your bottom line, I don't, I think that those people have been, and I could be wrong, but I think that those people have been hardened and to a degree radicalized so much to where images of family separation and all of that stuff, they'll take that as a necessary evil. And we'll just have to see about it. I do want to ask you about one specific executive order. people see a headline.
Starting point is 00:39:11 Trump undoes executive order from Lyndon Johnson establishing the EEOC and putting in safeguards for fair and just hiring practices, housing, all of that stuff.
Starting point is 00:39:31 Trump undoes Lyndon Baines Johnson. So we're going back to the 60th. now executive order that establishes the EEOC. What does this really mean for black people? Deconstructed the headline and tell us what Donald Trump did and how problematic it can actually be. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:58 I mean, that is one of the worst executive orders. Essentially not requiring the federal government or anyone who interacts with the federal government from complying with anti-discuitary. discrimination laws that date back to the 1960s as far as the regulations in the executive branch. I mean, it's terrible. And I feel terribly for federal workers who seemingly will have like no administrative or like regulatory recourse for discrimination claims. But, you know, Trump's executive orders cannot override existing anti-discrimination law.
Starting point is 00:40:37 We still have the Civil Rights Act of 1964. where we still have the Equal Pay Act, we still have the Age Discrimination and Employment Act. We still have the Americans with Disabilities Act. You know, the federal government is an employer. They do have to comply with these statutes. So to an extent, not all hope is lost, but the federal government will seemingly like become a place
Starting point is 00:41:01 that is not going to be safe for people who have identities that are typically underrepresented, or identities that have been sort of subjugated under the law. They largely will not have a recourse for wrongs committed against them based on their, you know, immutable characteristics, race, gender, age, et cetera. And that's a shame. This question is not about executive orders, but just something that has come up in the last 24 hours. It's being described in headlines as a long.
Starting point is 00:41:39 long shot, but seeing what that the Trump administration doesn't care about laws or anything, any type of system that's in place, I'm just wondering the likelihood of something like this happening. One of the Republicans in the House has introduced or proposed amending the 22nd amendment to allow Trump to serve for a third term. Is that how likely is that that that could happen? not saying that Trump would disregard. We know he's willing to not play fair. But just as far as the Constitution, how likely is it that that could be amended
Starting point is 00:42:19 and we could see him possibly serve a third term? I love and hate this question because what it indicates is something really scary. We have Republicans controlling the presidency, the judiciary and Congress. We have largely upwards of 27 Republican-controlled state legislatures. To amend the Constitution, you know, we need Congress, but we also need two-thirds of states. And I feel that we almost have the numbers. So doing something like amending the Constitution to allow a president to serve a third term, honestly, might not be that unrealistic.
Starting point is 00:43:08 since Trump won, there have been like rumblings of having a constitutional convention to rewrite the Constitution and conservatives' image. And I don't think that's unrealistic. And there are certainly, you know, I know the House of Representatives is like closely split, but there are Democrats who are in like red-ish areas. I think of like the North Carolina Democrats that are sort of more blue dog or like maybe some of the Montana Democrats who might have like perverse incentives to agree with something like that. So I don't think we're far from being in a situation where Republicans are really enthralled by the idea of remaking the Constitution now that they have the opportunity. And we'll see something like a third Trump presidency. It sounds outrageous.
Starting point is 00:44:03 Like I sound like one of the women ringing the alarm bells when we said like, versus Wade is going to be overturned. But it happened, right? Like, stranger things have happened. Everything's on the table now. So I do think something like that would happen in the next four years. Wow. Maureen, thank you for joining us.
Starting point is 00:44:25 That was dystopian. Thank you. You delivered the bad news with like a twinge of, of optimism, which is hard to do. It's hard to do because you still believe in the people. You said earlier you believed in the people, and I scoffed. He does. I'm done with the people, Maureen.
Starting point is 00:44:51 I'm done with them. I only believe in my people. But I'm glad that there's somebody that still believes. And we would love to have you back to track the dismantling of America from a legal perspective, you know, as much as you can come. And next time, send her the dog. Bring the dog. We're, this is a dog friendly podcast.
Starting point is 00:45:09 We're dog friendly, yes. Like, bring him there. Don't. Amazing. You know what I have to say before I leave, I have been a thought warrior since day one. And law school, Rachel had Bachelor at Watch parties for your season. Thank you. In the Reddit.
Starting point is 00:45:25 So I just have to say, Van, when you complain about the Redditors, the Thought Warriors, who simply want to engage in cerebral conversation about the podcast, I take that personally. Like Michael Jordan personally. And I literally protest the podcast and I don't listen until I feel like it because my feelings were hurt. So consider that next time. I got the Redditors. Okay.
Starting point is 00:45:49 Maureen, I got to be honest with you. I love that you. I love that. You know what it seems like to me that you are? I got to be honest with you, sister. It seems like to me your soulless jackal. I got to be honest. Well, have a good one.
Starting point is 00:46:05 This is fun. Thank you so much for joining us, Mauree. Thank you. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies.
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Starting point is 00:47:36 Ask your doctor about Trimfaya. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya, including important safety information. kicked off with some controversy. We all expected controversy, but I don't know if we expected exactly this. Elon Musk had people talking about whether or not this motion was a Nazi salute or not.
Starting point is 00:47:57 And I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you. Yeah, it's a Nazi salute. It's a Nazi salute even if he doesn't want it to be. You know? Like, what does this mean? Like, this means, fuck.
Starting point is 00:48:18 It means fuck you. Oh. Yeah, Rachel. Yes, I'm sorry. I was muted. What does this mean? What does this mean? What does that mean?
Starting point is 00:48:25 It means fuck you. It means fuck you, even if I don't want it to mean fuck you. This is fuck you. This is what that means. I'm holding up a middle finger for those that are listening. But you should be watching on YouTube and watching. Watch the podcast. This means fuck you.
Starting point is 00:48:41 Even if I don't want it to mean this. And if I do this to you and say, hey, this is me saying number one or me asking, for a number one at McDonald's, even though it was number four, this still means fuck you, and I have to explain it. So, yo, he didn't see how he did it twice. He did it twice.
Starting point is 00:49:01 He, I mean, there are videos mirroring him doing it versus some white nationalists, I believe, doing it. It's exactly the same. And, you know, for all those people who are saying, oh, after he did it twice, he talked about, you know, his heart or my heart, thanks you or whatever. No, not the same thing. For all the people who are blaming it on autism, I would be highly, highly offended if I was
Starting point is 00:49:33 neurodivergent because you can't just write off every act that is inappropriate, anti-Semitic, racist or whatever and say, oh, that's because they're autistic and they just have motions that are different. No, that's extremely, extremely offensive to a whole community of people. Even if you try to say, okay, maybe he was doing something, maybe he was a little awkward. Maybe he got caught up in the moment because he walked on stage, you know, doing a weird motion, pumping the air, jumping up and down, running around. His speech was off. It was weird.
Starting point is 00:50:13 Even if you want to say all that, oh, he's an awkward man. if you look at things that Elon Musk has done in his past, they align themselves with being pro-Nazi. I mean, he runs X. Since he has taken over X, people will know how pro, there's so much more pro-Nazi content and how it's flourished on the platform. He has given back X accounts to neo-Nazi people like Nick Fintetz.
Starting point is 00:50:43 he has gotten in trouble on social media for saying things that were anti-Semitic or that were pro-Nazi or, you know, towards someone who is neo-Nazi. So there are a number of, there are a litany of things and that doesn't even include his support of people outside of this country that are in the far-right groups
Starting point is 00:51:06 who have aligned themselves with Germany's past or things from, that are pro-Nazes. There's so many things that I'm not saying he's a neo-Nazi, but I'm just saying that he has done things in the past that either promoted or he has aligned himself with people who align themselves with that culture. So you can't tell me that he did not know what he was doing when he grunted and beat his chest. He put the right hand over his heart and had his hand in the air in an upward motion with his palms down. There were so many other motions he could have done to thank people. You know, if he was talking about his heart and how thankful he was, he could have put two hands over his heart.
Starting point is 00:51:51 He could put one hand over his heart and waved at the crowd. There's so many things he could have done. But instead, he decided to do that salute, and he knew exactly what he was doing. And I'm not going to be made a fool to think that it was anything else. The ADL defended him immediately. They said he made an awkward gesture in a moment. moment of enthusiasm. It was not a Nazi salute. The organization said all sides should give
Starting point is 00:52:16 one another a little bit of grace. Okay. I have a couple things to say about this. First, addressing that, Elon Musk later took to X and made jokes about the Holocaust and about the Nazis and the ADL took issue with that. I personally believe that the reason why they took issue with that was because of the blowback that they received from giving him a soft bed to lying as it relates or in regards to the gesture that he made during the inauguration speech or whatever at the event. So I think that they took some heat for that and then they wanted to show they weren't soft on Elon Musk. So they came back and they gave Elon Musk. Musk a little bit of grief. Two things to say. One is
Starting point is 00:53:12 this reminded me of Jamie Fox. So Jamie Fox said, and this is a frustration. I've talked to a couple of people about this and while good points were made, I still feel the way that I feel. Jamie Fox said they killed Christ
Starting point is 00:53:32 and think about what they would do to you. They killed Christ. It's very common saying in the African-American community. What it typically means is that the world killed Jesus. The Jewish people specifically killing Jesus is a white supremacist thing that I personally never heard from black people until, I didn't hear that from black people, period. I never heard it, period, until I got more well-versed in the white supremacist world. And I saw KKK people on Donahue and all of that stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:54:05 And Jamie Fox was made to apologize for that. He was made to apologize for saying something that we all recognize in our community is innocuous and is referring to what the Bible refers to as the world that Christ had to sacrifice himself for in order for it to not be destroyed, die for their sins. It was that triggering to people
Starting point is 00:54:32 that they had to say you need to clear that up. We have Elon Musk giving two Sikhiles, like identical gestures to the Nazis, the Third Reich, their most recognizable, recognizable gesture that signals loyalty, not just to Adolf Hitler, but to a specific ideal, right? Right, right.
Starting point is 00:55:01 And automatically, automatically, automatically, So many people were saying he didn't mean it. Automatically, that's an issue for me. That makes it feel like the people who is legitimately low stakes to kick their ass like a Hollywood celebrity, you want to kick their ass. But the people who might be able to bruise you up in a fight that you take it easy on them. Can't respect that. And you shouldn't.
Starting point is 00:55:34 I can't respect that. I can't respect it when somebody is made to apologize for something that doesn't even directly. Look, I could respect it if both sides were made to even if it gets, even I don't care how it looks or what you meant. You got to say sorry. But when I see Elon must there and I see the ADL go through such links to sane Washwood, he did. I just, I do not respect that when I know that in the past, that is not the way they comport themselves. It's just not what they do. They look at it and they say the talk leads to action and the action leads to Jewish people being harmed. So we're going to nip this right in the
Starting point is 00:56:22 butt. And they just didn't do that with him. And I saw a lot of people that were unwilling to do that. And to me, it makes me realign everything I believe about, how seriously these things are taken. Yeah, no, no, no, absolutely. If this was a one-off and he never had any affiliation with doing anything on social media in person, taking meetings with people, befriending people, if he never had anything to do with that,
Starting point is 00:56:55 I could see how you could say, guys, this was just an awkward gesture. But in 2023, Elon Musk endorsed a post on X that accused Jews of hating white people and described that claim as, quote, the actual truth. And the ADL responded and actually condemned Elon Musk for endorsing this post. And they called it profoundly disturbing. And they said that he engaged with a highly toxic, anti-Semitic campaign on his planet. So I would ask the ADL, what is the difference between that in 2023 to actually seeing him do a full gesture that mimics in every single way, a Nazi salute in 2025?
Starting point is 00:57:48 What is the difference in what changed for you in less than two years? I don't know the answer to that, but that is the question I would pose to them. He has literally said that he has literally accused Jews of hating white people and called it the actual true. Okay. So can I think you can I tell you what I think Elon Musk was doing? 2023 or now? Now. Okay.
Starting point is 00:58:17 This is going to be. Okay. I'm going someplace here. All right. Take a time. But first I have to ask you a question. And it's a personal question. Are you ready to answer it?
Starting point is 00:58:33 Yes. Did you receive massages from guys in college? I'm sure I did. You remember if you got massages? No, but I don't know why I wouldn't have. Sure, I'm sure I did. Okay. Let's talk about the massage phenomenon.
Starting point is 00:59:02 You're with a girl. you're not sure how to initiate physical contact mainly because you ain't really got it like that. Normally, if you got it like that, you don't really have to do this, but the massage phenomenon exists. You're not sure how to initiate physical contact. Your relationship is to the point to where
Starting point is 00:59:25 there can be physical contact, but it's not to the point to where there can be sex-slash-fucking. So what do you say? You're in college. Hey, you want a massage? The massage now initiates the physical contact. You're now doing something to her, for her, that feels good, that familiarizes her with your hands being on her body.
Starting point is 00:59:56 Sometimes you touch to, A, what you want me to just, you want me to take these off, or you want me to, you can just pull them down a little bit where you might, see a little bit of butt crack, the whole not. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. It was shoulder massages. No, no, no, no.
Starting point is 01:00:13 See, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about massage, undo the bra strap. Oh, I never did that. I never did that. Undo the bra strap. You can feel the back, right? No. Like, hey, you want me to massage your butt?
Starting point is 01:00:26 And before you know it, you're fucking poking around. You know, you don't, you mean? You're looking around. But here's a deal. Here's the deal. Now, all of this stuff is with your, with her consent, she's letting you do stuff just by not saying stop, right? You asked for the massage.
Starting point is 01:00:49 She, you asked her, she said yes. And now you're massaging her. You're breaking down barriers to get what you want. What you really want is to fuck her, but you're massaging her first to lower the barrier of entry. I think that Elon Musk's salute is a massage. He's trying to see how far he can go. I believe that.
Starting point is 01:01:15 He's trying to see at what point someone will say, no, don't want any more, don't touch my vagina. Right? And the deeper you let him get into the massage, the more he's going to think he can touch your body. Sure. So what I'm telling you right now is it's not something to take his word for or to give him the benefit of the doubt on. You're supposed to say to say to him right now, don't touch me.
Starting point is 01:01:50 This is an area you cannot touch. This is an area you cannot massage. This is an area you cannot in any way fuck around with. and if you don't, before you know it, he's going to be opening your butthole, ready to fuck him. Okay, all right. And I'm telling you right now,
Starting point is 01:02:14 this is the way it happens. They don't just take off, it's not Scooby-Doo. They don't take off a mask, and all of a sudden it's a goddamn, uh, demon under there. What they do is they change their face ever so slightly. And you look at them and you go, huh, okay.
Starting point is 01:02:38 Then they change it a little bit more and you go, huh, okay. And you're so used to it to by the time the Scooby-Doo underneath mask is in front of your face, you've accepted it. That is to me what's happening. He's massaging you. Oh, for sure. Don't let him break out the baby oil. Well, it's already out.
Starting point is 01:03:04 and to all those people who are making excuses for what he did, I would tell you, you do it. You do it. What would happen? What would the reaction be if you did it? Or why would you be hesitant to repeat the same gesture he did? Ask yourself that question. You know what, Donnie's choice now.
Starting point is 01:03:26 Whatever, Donnie, just get us into what do you want to hear us talk about? Let's talk about sexy red. Who? Oh, Donnie. She posted this picture. I've seen it before. So this isn't the first time this is out on the internet. But it was a picture of her with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Starting point is 01:03:46 Holding hands, looking at each other's eyes. Looks like he was at a club. But she posted it on Martin Luther King Day. And it got the attention of Dr. King's youngest daughter, who we've talked about on the last episode. Which, I will say, Texer Red apologized after Ms. Bernice King. spoke out against this picture.
Starting point is 01:04:07 But this had the internet of buzz when everybody was talking about Dr. King in the inauguration. What do you guys think about sexy red's response and the posting of it in the first book? I really do applaud sexy red in the maturity that she showed in her
Starting point is 01:04:21 response to Bernice King. I really do. I mean, that's first of all, first and foremost. I applaud sexy red for that. I actually, I agree with you. And I actually
Starting point is 01:04:35 think that she felt that posting it was very innocent. I think she saw somebody, or maybe she did it herself, I don't know, but she saw an image of herself with Dr. King. I think they were holding hands, which was a little bit much. But I think she innocently posted it. It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. She liked it. She saw it. And I think that that's evident in how quick she was to not defend her. Because a lot of people were coming out of Bernice King. saying, oh, it's because it's sexy red and you view her a certain way, which Bernice King responded back and she's like, that's actually not true and explained why she felt it was distasteful and it was dishonoring.
Starting point is 01:05:18 And sexy red didn't play into any of that at all. She immediately responded, said she didn't mean any disrespect and took it down and moved on, you know, to release her new single, what is it called, fat, juicy and what? She had bigger things to focus on. Is that, Donnie, is that what is called? Her new songs called? Yeah. At least called fat, juicy and wet.
Starting point is 01:05:38 Feature in Bruno. Yep, that's it. Pretty pussy type of pussy. You ain't never going to forget. You ain't never going to forget. Fat, juicy and wet, wet, wet, wet, wet, wet, wet. Have you not heard it? But it was just so funny to the way you delivered that.
Starting point is 01:05:53 To reach her new single, I think it's called her. She had bigger things to focus on. Apparently, she got fat, juicy, wet things to focus on. I'll have a conversation about Bruno Mars pretty soon, by the way. we just got to talk about we got to talk about Bruno Mars I feel like I want to know the real Bruno Mars Oh
Starting point is 01:06:17 I can see why you say that Yeah I mean couldn't argue it be made that he shifts With the time Or do you Well because we've seen him do a 90s R&B album we've seen him do a 70s album and now he's on the
Starting point is 01:06:34 The fat, juicy and wet hype, you know? Yeah. Bad juicy and wet. Featuring Bruno. I just want to have a, it probably needs to be a Bruno Mars conversation at some point. Not sure what about,
Starting point is 01:06:49 but we do need to talk about Bruno Mars. We have to have a conversation. We're going to do a whole higher learning on Bruno Mars. It's a whole podcast. Not a whole higher one. I want fucking 90 minutes on Bruno. Okay? Because I just got,
Starting point is 01:07:05 because Bruno has been on. around for so long, and I still have more questions than answers. I want to know. Okay. So two things. One, Bernice King, if Bernice King wouldn't have had a problem with this, I probably wouldn't have seen a problem with it. But I think people have to understand something. Oh, I would. See, Bernice King has a problem with it, so it's problematic.
Starting point is 01:07:31 Bartlett King, Jr. is a cultural figure to us. It's her father. So it's her dad. Right, you know what I mean? It's like it's her father. But so when she puts it into context of how she feels, it's probably how we should feel. But I think that Martin Luther King Jr. has become such a thing that a lot of people don't look at him as a human being anymore. So when you see his face on a flyer, when you see his image somewhere, it's almost always. for a point and not to talk directly about the life,
Starting point is 01:08:10 the true life of the man. It's almost always to make a point. So for her, she doesn't want to see her dad, just to be honest with you, like famous Amos or Uncle Ben or somebody like that, just another black face that represents some sort of brand or statement and not looked at as a human being. Obviously, this guy's a Martin Luther King's a real guy.
Starting point is 01:08:33 So she wants to stop that. When I first saw it, I'll be honest with you, I laughed. That was the first thing that I did. It is funny. Yeah. Because it's ridiculous. Right. It's funny because it's ridiculous.
Starting point is 01:08:47 They look like lovers. Yeah. It looks, and that's ridiculous. So, yeah. What's ridiculous about it? You're saying that Dr. King too good for sexy rape? No. It's just, it's obviously disrespectful.
Starting point is 01:09:04 To her mother, to her family. I get it. joking. Yeah. I, like, it's, I laughed too when I saw it because I was like, what the hell is this? It's just them holding hands, looking into each other's eyes. It's just odd. It's just an odd AI image. I would have rather than if, I don't think Bernice King would have had a problem if they were standing next to each other. If she put an AI picture and they were standing next to each other, or even if Dr. King was in one in the audience at one of her. concerts. I don't think it would have been as big of a deal. But them in a close embrace is what it
Starting point is 01:09:42 looked like. It's just, it's just why. That was my thing. I like because it's like, why? It makes me think of a boomerang. Like, when I see this picture, I think of the scene with Eddie Murphy and Robin Givens in a jazz club and boomerang before they have sex a scene later. Well, also you think that this was the precursor to something going on between Dr. King and sexy red. in this world, in this multiverse. That's where my brain goes to it. Yeah. Freak.
Starting point is 01:10:11 That's not my favorite scene from Boomerang. My favorite scene from Boomerang is, what's your favorite scene from Boomerang, Rachel? Oh, what is my favorite scene? It would have to be one of the funnier ones. Like, I love when Gina, I can't think of what her name is, called you Tisha Campbell. I love her interactions with Marcus.
Starting point is 01:10:39 I love when Eartha Kitts interacting with Marcus, Marcus. Like, I love Grace Jones in it. That's the best one. That's it. Okay. Okay. Whatever about the kid. When are we going to fuck?
Starting point is 01:10:54 Excuse me? Jacqueline tells me you really know how to move your ass. Jacqueline told you, you know, I know how to move my ass in bed. Pussy, pussy. That's hilarious. Grace Jones. Underrated, man. Yeah, so, look, this is not a thing.
Starting point is 01:11:14 They kick Carlos Miller's ass a little bit, 85 South Show. I might be the single biggest fan because he jumped in on the jokes. Look, people, Dr. King is a cultural thing, and sometimes people use it to make jokes. But we have to, then, set a rule now. So posting Dr. King with the goals
Starting point is 01:11:32 and Dr. King in a rap battle, all of that stuff's got to be out now. Now that we know that it's out. Because I thought it was cool, But now that we know it's a real guy, real family, his family doesn't like it. It's got to be out. Rach, what do you think about the idea that Trump has declassified some of this JFK stuff? And there might be some files coming out about Dr. King.
Starting point is 01:11:53 Bernice actually said that she wants a chance to look at these files before. The family wants to see what's in these files before the public sees them. Because there might be some stuff coming out about Dr. Keene's assassination that's not quite so flattering. Do you care? Do you want to know? Well, at first, I mean, I'm a curious person. Of course, I want to know. But I think that my first thought, I was like, why is he doing this?
Starting point is 01:12:19 This is so disrespectful. And then I thought, oh, I think he's doing this to show people why you can't trust the FBI. Right. Because he's talked about wanting to. But that wasn't my first reaction. My first reaction was, oh, my gosh, why is he doing this to a family? you know, like it's hard enough that they lost their loved ones in such a big and tragic way. Why is he like adding insult to injury and reopening a wound?
Starting point is 01:12:46 And then I was like, oh, no, he's obviously doing this to back up his claim that we should dismantle the FBI. And he wants the FBI to look so bad. But I feel sorry for, I mean, on top of what we're already talking about, I feel like as we, as we get, whenever we get closer to Martin Luther King, Junior Day, it's like, I feel like there's always Bernie King has to put out some type of statement, has to defend her family legacy. And it makes me sad, too, because I think when they're gone,
Starting point is 01:13:17 who will defend? Who will step up? And like, what will happen to the legacy? Well, that we continue to see these AI photos of Dr. King to be depicted in a certain way. Will his image be watered down and tainted? Who will honor
Starting point is 01:13:33 and respect the legacy? Who will call it out. I just don't know. And so she's already has to deal with this anytime we get close to this day. Party flyers showing our greats on the party flyer telling you to come out and, you know, twerk and get drunk. It's just a lot. And now she's got to deal with this. I just, it just, it seems never ending for this family. So those are my thoughts. Donnie. All right. Let's close it out with Let's do the Jamie Fox, Django News.
Starting point is 01:14:08 To Jamie Fox, he did an interview with the bandity fair recently where he's looking back on some of his most iconic roles. And I think one of the biggest and one of my favorites is him in Django. And he spoke about Leonardo being uncomfortable saying the N-word. The subject matter, the N-word, specifically. Leo had a hard time saying the N-word. We're doing a read. And Leo's said, and then he goes, hey, man.
Starting point is 01:14:35 Guys, cut, I just can't do this. This is not me. Samuel Jackson, say that shit, motherfucker. It's just another Tuesday. Fuck them. And I told Leo, you know, in slavery days, we would never talk to each other. So I'm not your friend. I'm not Jamie Foxx.
Starting point is 01:14:56 I'm, you know, I'm Django. And as I told him, I said, you won't be able to play that character unless you really understand what slavery was about. It was tough. It was horrific. Ain't no key key in with slaves. So the next day, I see Leo. I see Leo.
Starting point is 01:15:07 He walks in. Leo, what's up? Elle. Elle, what's up? He don't speak to me. He ready. I'm curious as to your thoughts because I've heard this story before.
Starting point is 01:15:20 That he was very uncomfortable in the role that he had to play. I know you love his role. Leo's? What was his name? Calvin. Oh, Calvin. Yeah, Calvin Candy.
Starting point is 01:15:31 Leo was fantastic in the movie. Samuel Jackson was fantastic in the movie. This is one of the one. of those things is kind of not that big of a deal to me, you know. It would be an awkward situation to be in to have to convince a white guy that was okay to say the N-word. Nigger, hard ER in the way that it was being said. But once again, the sentiment of what Leo was saying in Django, when he's using phrenology
Starting point is 01:16:03 on a skull to talk about how docile and easily control. of what black people are, is significantly, significantly, to me, more racist than just one word could be. The word is the encapsulation of all of that stuff, but the reason why the N-word is so charged to me is because there's an intellectual and physical violence that comes with the word. That's backed up by, that's backed up by hundreds and hundreds of years of real world. action. Now, if you play around with it in regular everyday life, it bothers me. But if it's in a script that's reflecting a character, the word, it doesn't really bother me there. It's, it's,
Starting point is 01:16:47 now, I will say that in the past, Quentin Tarantino, particularly hasn't had enough respect for the uses of the word. Jango is the only time to where the N-word has been in a Quentin Tarantino movie to where I felt like it belonged in the movie. and maybe the hateful aid. In Pulp Fiction, dead nigger storage, all of that stuff, he's just saying it to say it.
Starting point is 01:17:14 And he's saying it because he thinks that he's cool. And partly I believe that Django was an opportunity for him to actually give the word its own place in the movie where he could use it like he likes without having people question why it's in there so often. But, you know,
Starting point is 01:17:33 to that end, you know, Samuel, Jackson been working with Quinn for a long time. He's heard it a bunch of times. He's said it a bunch of times. He's been a while white boy, so he's probably like egging him on because of that. For Leo, I think part of that was probably performative.
Starting point is 01:17:50 I can't say this word. I think he probably wanted permission. So he acted as if he were asking for it, but I don't think he gave that much of a fuck. I just can't see it. You know, I have my wife. It might have made him uncomfortable to say it. in front of other black people, but that's, I, I, I'm not denying what you're saying,
Starting point is 01:18:15 but I would imagine there was a little bit of like, he didn't want to come in just being like, nigger. Like he wasn't bothered by it at all. Yeah. Like he had said it, like he had said it a bunch of times. But that's more for them to me than it is for him.
Starting point is 01:18:29 To your thing. 100%. But. I agree. Also, you know, I do the, I do the equation. once I know a white person, once I've been around a white person, I can pretty much guess how many times they've said it. And when I look at Leo, when I look at Leo DiCaprio,
Starting point is 01:18:46 I think about all the things in Leo life. I think about the pussy posse, right? So he's around Q-Tip a lot. Donnie, look up where Leo Leonardo DiCaprio is in the world. Tell me where he's from. I look at his long career in entertainment. You know, I look at some of the different people. And I can, Donnie, he's an LA local.
Starting point is 01:19:09 He's an LA local. What part of Los Angeles, though? Good question. Let me see. Like, look at his Wikipedia. What area was Leonardo DiCaprio born in? Hmm. It just says Los Angeles.
Starting point is 01:19:24 I got to dig in deeper. Yeah. He went to John Marshall High School. John Marshall High School. Seeds Elementary School. So John Marshall High School, I'm pretty sure that's in Burbank. Is that in Burbank? John Marshall High School?
Starting point is 01:19:37 Look up John Marshall High School. It's in Los Feliz. Los Feliz. Okay. John Marshall High School. So not in Burbank. I'm going to put Leo's 50 years old, including Django,
Starting point is 01:19:52 I'm going to put Leo's in-word number at 3,000. Wow. That's a big accusation. That's not a big accusation. 3000 is actually, when you think about it, For somebody who's 50 years old, look, I know people that are fucking 25. I haven't said it 3,000 times. You're lying. You're lying.
Starting point is 01:20:16 It's a lie. You're lying. You're at 50,000. Easy. You just don't know. Between songs, first of all, you've got 3,000 in words, racial, just in music. Just in rapping, you've got 3,000 in words. The fact that you say that you don't have 3,000 in words is so weird and odd.
Starting point is 01:20:37 me. You got 3,000 N-words just in no-limit records. I really did start using the N-word until like from 20 to 30. Oh, 20 to 30. When you got to Texas and figured out that you were black, like your homeboy.
Starting point is 01:20:55 Well, at least I stayed with it. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. I'll say Leo, 3,000 is not that bad. Leo has said the N-word 3,000 times. Dotty, does 3,000 not sound terrible?
Starting point is 01:21:15 That's a hefty number. That is hefty. Okay, wait. Okay, so let's do the math. Let's do the math. Let's do the math. Based on what? This is, I can, I know how to do this. So Leo is 50 years old. Okay.
Starting point is 01:21:28 So how many, how many times per year would that be that he said to N-word? 3,000. Donnie, do the math. I hate math. But what age are you starting? What age are you starting from? You don't start at like age, eight or nine,
Starting point is 01:21:45 when kids start saying the N-word, he probably was an early adopter. So, like, if Leo, let's see, 50 years, how do you do the math on this? Is Ashley here? Yes, I am. So he's 50. So he's 50 years old.
Starting point is 01:22:01 Is it 50? Is it 30,000 divided by 50? No. That's 60. I don't know if that's what we're looking to do, though. Is that good math? Wait, I don't know. How would we do the math?
Starting point is 01:22:13 I think we would start at eight. You said that eight years old would be, so it would be 50. But it's every 365 days, that's a year. That's what we're not missing. That's what we miss it. Hey, somebody in the comments. Jesus. This is fucking ridiculous.
Starting point is 01:22:30 Okay. Somebody in the comments do the math on this. 365 days in a year. How many times per year would this mean that Leonardo DiCaprio, I said to inward? 3,000. That's not that many times. Here's my hypothesis. He has to have said it 71 times since he was eight per year.
Starting point is 01:22:55 So it's not that much. That's not a lot. 71 times. I guarantee you he said it that many times. He's probably got days where he said it 71 times. Like, that's not a lot. Every time you do this, I'm going to ask if you do it for some of the other white people in your life.
Starting point is 01:23:19 I do it for all of them. I'm laughing because you're so serious. I am. Marky Mark. I know you put real thought into this equation that you've adopted into your head. Marky Mark, that's a 20,000. 20,000. Think about it.
Starting point is 01:23:37 He's kind of the same age as Leo. It's not that much older. Marky mark. That's a 20,000. That could be a 25. What's Trump? Oh, shit. Get out of here, man. Off the charts. The little infinity sign?
Starting point is 01:23:49 The little infinity sign. Infinity sign. Yeah, Trump is in the 70s, man. Trump way up there. Off the charts. I can tell. I use a factor of who you are to determine your inward number. You asked. All right, we got to go.
Starting point is 01:24:01 We got to get out of here. Before we get out here, I'm going to say something real quick. I'm not going to talk about why I'm coming to this. why I'm saying this, but I am going to make a pledge to the audience. I am going to do my best in the times that we're living in, my absolute best. I'm going to hold myself to a standard to giving accurate and honest criticism or dialogue about something that someone has did
Starting point is 01:24:34 irrespective of my relationship with that person. in the past we've had conversations on here about this and I have leaned on my humanity in order not to do it. I don't think that the times that we're in can actually, I think the times we're in demand more. They demand a brutal and brave honesty. Even sometimes about people you ride with, people that you're with,
Starting point is 01:25:20 people that you've had relationships with. And if I am going to be on here during the podcast, I at least have to be willing to do that. And just some of the dialogue that I've seen around some things just recently, I'm like, oh, I see what people mean. And it's not that I can just pretend like I don't know someone, but I have to commit myself to being loyal to you guys when I'm giving opinions,
Starting point is 01:26:02 to being considerate of friends and understanding, but to being loyal to you guys and consistent with you guys. And I'm going to do my best to do that. irrespective of my relationships that I have with anyone. And that's my New Year's resolution. It took me a couple of weeks to get to it. Okay. Beautiful.
Starting point is 01:26:22 Nice. Speak for yourself. Gosh. No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm with you. Tell you thing, caps, all, but do not stop learning on Van Lathen, Jr. Thank you to Marine for joining us today on the show. And I am Rachel and Lindsay.
Starting point is 01:26:37 Hi, guys.

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