#RolandMartinUnfiltered - AFL-CIO Bus Tour vs Big Beautiful Bill, Ivey on Trump, Trump Africa Gaffe, Couple Trespass at Home

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

7.9.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: AFL-CIO Bus Tour vs Big Beautiful Bill, Ivey on Trump, Trump Africa Gaffe, Couple Trespass at Home The AFL-CIO is launching a nationwide bus tour next week to raise awareness about how federal government policies negatively impact working families.    We'll speak with the International President of the Service Employees International Union about how workers are being taken advantage of by Trump's Big Beautiful Bill.  Maryland Congressman Glenn Ivey will join us to talk about Trump's bills and policies. Trump hosted leaders from five African nations and completely embarrassed himself. We'll show you what the orange fool did.  A black Florida couple gets accused of trespassing on their own property.  We have the bodycam footage.  And in tonight's Tech Talk segment: The Digital Equity Capacity Program, a federal grant initiative aimed at expanding high-speed internet in Georgia's rural and low-income communities, has been cut. We'll speak with an expert about how this decision is impacting everyday Americans. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/... This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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part of your talent strategy at tearthepaperceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Today is Wednesday, July 9th, 2025, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The AFL-CIO is launching a nationwide bus tour next week to raise awareness about how federal government policies are negatively impacting working families. Also, the Supreme Court decision allowing Donald Trump to fire thousands or hundreds of thousands of federal workers is going to be hitting hard. We'll be talking with the International President of the Service Employees International Union about this very issue. Maryland congressman Glenn Ivy will join us to talk about Donald Trump's treacherous bills and his shameful

policies. Today how embarrassing was it for African leaders to have to beg Donald Trump for resources. Not only that he looked like a complete dumbass by talking about the English and how well the Liberian president spoke. Yeah I'm gonna have to educate this idiot on the history of Liberia and the United States because you know, he clearly can't read, so I think I have a pictorial with me he may be able to learn from.

A black Florida couple gets accused of trespassing on their own property. We have the body cam footage, plus tonight's tech talk segment, the Digital Equity Capacity Program, a federal grant initiative aimed at expanding high speed internet in Georgia's rural and low income communities has been cut. But I thought Donald Trump cared about those rural voters. Hashtag we tried to tell you. It's time to bring the funk on Roller Mart Unfiltered with Lashley Network. Let's go. He's lost to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah, yeah It's Uncle Ro Ro, y'all

Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling Martell. Martell. Folks, we're one block away from the AFL-CIO and they had folks who were outside of their building today for the launch of their bus tour. They were bringing attention to that. They're gonna be

traveling to 50, having 50 simultaneous rallies nationwide on Labor Day raising the issue of the impact on Donald Trump's attacks on federal workers. Again, they kicked off the bus tour today. It aims to give workers a voice amidst federal government policies that negatively impact working families. When we talk about these issues, people don't realize we're talking about not just federal workers, but down the line families and Children and you name it. And so the Labor Federation plans to visit picket lines, support contract campaigns and hold rallies to highlight workers issues in protest against what they see as a tax on labor rights. Here's some of what was

said at today's protest outside of the F. L. C. I. O. International headquarters one block from the White House. Just like all workers are in the fight of their lives when we fight, we win because right here in D. C. Earlier this week, subcontracted hospitality workers, with the help of the DC Attorney General, won hundreds of thousands of dollars for wage theft, getting their money back. We can stand up, we can fight, we can win.

So get on the bus, let's go to these stops, and let's get rolling. We're here just calling, doing a big roll, a big call out that what's happening is not okay. We stand with working families, we support working families. We find these bus tours about going around the country, hearing the stories of everyday workers and how these horrible attacks from this administration are affecting working families. tax from this administration affecting working families. All right, folks.

Again, this is about bringing attention to the workers and their families. Able Rhett joins me right now, the International President of the Service Employees International Union, glad to have her here. Here's the thing that I have been saying for months. I remember I was on a call, I guess it was in January, early February, and there was a number of communication folks

with all different unions. And actually I met twice with them. And I said then, early on, you can't make this solely about federal workers. Because, like it or not, there's a hatred of federal workers. But you have to make it plain to people. And when you talk about a worker,

you're talking about a homeowner. You're talking about somebody who may be forced to be evicted. You may talk about people who may be single families who may all of a sudden be homeless. They have kids who are in college or private school. So you have a whole trickle-down effect. And so, I hate to say it,

I'm glad to see five months later that they're focusing on this because for me, that should have been the focus from day one to get people to understand what the cuts actually mean. Yes, these cuts actually mean that your grandmother is gonna have to sit on hold trying to figure out where her Social Security check is for six hours.

That cut is gonna mean my wait time to get the procedure at the VA is longer than it ever was before putting my life in jeopardy. That cut means, you know, because of the Doge buyout, that you have 15% less staff right now taking care of the tragedy in central Florida. Right, and now that's in terms of the cuts and the workers.

Sure. My deal is, but by expanding this, let's just say 100,000 federal workers all of a sudden get fired. Well, they have husbands, wives, partners, they have children, they have families they take care of. So now that 100,000 number, now swells to the impact is 500,000, a million,

a million five. Now all of a sudden, you see homes put up for sale. So people have to understand what this actually means when you attack, it's not that worker being cut, it's literal families being cut. That's right, especially for places like Maryland, and I'm sure the congressman, when you have him on later, will tell you,

a disproportionate number of the people that live in the DMV, in Maryland and Virginia, that contribute to those tax bases in the state and in PG County. And Fairfax County, whoa, right? That tax base is gonna get hit. These communities are gonna be devastated. And even when you go outside of Maryland,

people have to understand, you may have areas in Missouri, in Indiana, all of a sudden, two, three, 400 folks gone. And so now that's impacting those areas, because what I said, I remember when I had one of the calls, I said, guys, if you go outside of DC and now be able to show this is how this part of the state country is gonna be devastated

by these cuts, then all of a sudden you're making it plain for people to go, ooh, I never thought about it that way. Well, and also let's remember our history, right? People now hate federal jobs, but after the Great Depression, programs that were created to employ federal workers were done because people didn't have jobs. Those jobs were created to end poverty.

Those jobs were created to end starvation. And also, but to build stuff. And to build, yeah, that's what I was doing, and to build stuff. It's not like, oh well, it's just workers who are just there. It wasn't charity. I mean, people are now seeing that. You're now seeing, when you cut the suicide prevention

lines in the Department of Veterans Affairs, you're impacting folks with PTSD and being able to call 24 hours a day to get help. When you begin to the point of the cuts made and social security, yeah, now all of a sudden you're sitting on the phones two, three, four, five, six hours. So there's a real life impact. So people love to hate on government workers

and say, oh, government ain't working for me. Oh, you about to really see how government ain't working for you. Well, and people don't realize how many times a day their lives is touched and impacted by government. Well, first of all, your entire life. Your entire life, yeah. I keep trying to explain to people,

stop with this bullshit of, I want government out of my life. That can't happen. The moment you're born, to the day you die, government has a role in every aspect of your life. Yeah, and I think you care whether or not it is government running the suicide prevention line, or a private company that has shareholders

it's accountable to, because they're gonna make different choices and decisions about what that prevention line, for services they provide, how many people are staffing it, because they care about their bottom line. Their sole purpose isn't the outcomes, right? There is a role for government,

an important role for government in our lives, and we tend to forget that, because we've bought into this narrative that the right has tried to push down our throat's hook line and sinker about big government and government intervention in our lives. Folks, we want government in our lives. You don't want private business in your life to the extent that we're going to see it happen

real shortly. Well, here's a perfect example. This is a video here. A guy says this is a group of first responders for some reason, I can't pull it up right now. It's a video of a group of first responders praying around the giant cross in Kerr County, Texas, not far from where nine-month-old,

who didn't make it, was found in the debris a little while ago. Those are government workers. Government workers. See, the folk right now, where you have 170 people still missing in Kerr County, oh, they're begging for the government to come in. Not only that, you got races like Charlie Kirk,

who I'm gonna deal with that races later, but you have him complaining, calling the black fire chief in Austin, Texas, a DEI hire because they did not send support staff to Kerr County. First off, Austin Fire Department, government worker. Two, that's 120 miles away. He ain't saying jack about the sheriff in Kerr County, government worker. The county commissioners, government worker, who are white Republicans.

He ain't said nothing about them. So again, the people right now complaining, I saw, I had a tweet that said that Christy Noem, CNN's reporting that the ice Barbie, it says Noem didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of urban search and rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began. Multiple sources tell CNN. That's government workers.

Government workers. And let's not think, and let's not forget about the National Guard. Right. Government workers that's saying's not forget about the National Guard, government workers that's saying, hey, we got storm season we need to prepare for. We don't have time to be in neighborhoods kidnapping people who ain't never did nothing to nobody.

Let us go do what we supposed to do and that's protect lives from storms that we know are coming, right? Because you've already cut FEMA by 20%. So they already short. So, like, I think that we are gonna see quickly the impact of this chaos and distractions from the destruction that this administration

is shoving down our throats. So let's talk about this bus tour. One of the things that Bishop William Barber does with repairs of the breach, which I greatly appreciate, which is really different how the rest of these people do these events, where he only wants impacted people talking. He doesn't want organizational heads. He doesn't want politicians. He wants impacted people. Is that what they're going to be doing on this bus tour? Are they going gonna have the voices of the people,

the daughter of somebody who's in college saying, hey, if mom or dad gets fired, I might have to leave the university because I can't afford tuition. So what is this bus tour actually going to be doing? Yeah, so the bus tour is a lead up to Labor Day, where as you said earlier, we're gonna do 50 actions coordinated across the country

that is really to continue to highlight the work that the AFL has been doing all year. We started with the Department of People Who Work for a Living to say, you really wanna know how to make government work more efficiently? Ask the workers who are there. And so this tour isn't just about federal workers, but we're getting out and we're going to places.

We'll be at the NAACP convention next week, right? The bus tour is stopping there. It's gonna stop in Washington, Michigan with iron workers who are being, who are gonna attend a training and a meeting. It's about getting close to the ground, to workers in places that don't get a lot of attention across the country to see what people really feel, and places that don't get a lot of attention across the country,

to see what people really feel, what they really think, and to hopefully send a message that working people across the country are ready to stand up and fight for our democracy. All right. So they're going to be doing the tour. Do they have infrastructure? Are they going to be streaming every stop? If so, where is it going to be? Because if they're hoping media comes out,

to me, that ain't smart. So how are people gonna be able to track each one of these stops? How can they watch it? What is that plan? So folks should be able to go to the AFL's website and also follow on the AFL social media pages for more information on all of the stops

and how you can join up. All right, questions from the panel. Rebecca Carruthers, Vice President, Fair Elections Center, Joe Richardson, a civil rights attorney out of LA. Of course, Dr. Julian Malvo, economist, president, emerita, been at college. Rebecca, I'm gonna start with you first.

Can't hear Rebecca, folks. Rebecca, go ahead. You announced me as vice president. As of last week, I'm now president. All right. So April, I lead a national

voting organization. I work with a lot of your people in preparing for elections in 2026. Understanding we do have some important elections this fall, but then we're gonna be really looking at the midterms. Can you tell me how SEIU and some of the other unions are preparing to connect issues of what's happening out of this administration and turning them into voting issues

so people understand why they need to show up and vote? Well, I think first and foremost, we cannot allow our memories to be short. We have to remember, come November 2026, the vote that was taken in July 2025. And we have to talk to voters, our members, other working people every single month, every single week between now and November.

We can't just show up on Labor Day of November, 2026 and start trying to connect the dots for people. We have to build the relationship with voters right now, in the moment. And let's not forget, a lot of the impact from the budget vote, for instance, that was taken last week, is not gonna be felt for some time to come.

And so it's really important that we do deep listening, deep learning for folks to connect these dots so that when voters go to the booth come November, 2026, they do so as educated voters, as high information voters, and not let the disinformation that is going to run rampant as it has been for the last few cycles, take control of the electorate. We gotta be smarter, we gotta be better.

We gotta lean into forms of communication like this show that we know works, not just traditional media. Like we gotta get out of trying to get on network news or cable news or in the newspaper. We gotta go to social media, we gotta go to the in the newspaper. We gotta go to social media. We gotta go to the podcasters. We gotta go to the influencers. And that's the work that we really need to do

to connect with voters in a different way. Joe. Thanks for the work that you're doing April. I'm wondering, it's kind of a buildup of what Rebecca was asking about, when you get back from the bus tour, it seems to me that there are two things that can happen here, not only continuing to let folks know what is going on and how important it is right now in this moment, and these jobs that are going away and not just government jobs, but also to remind people of how important unions are.

So tell me about what the AFL-CIO will be doing once you get back to continue to turn the heat up on people's one-on-one education about what's going on with this administration and how unions figure in and what we do going forward leading up to that all those all-important folks. So it's important to remember that the AFL is a federation. It's a federation of 63 different national unions and so I can speak a lot about what my union is doing and will be doing for the next couple of years. It's not just good enough to fight back in this moment. We have to go on the offense. We gotta get on our front foot.

And what that means for us inside of SEIU is organizing more workers at clips that's unprecedented. We need to build more worker power. We need to get more workers in our organization because we know when they're in our union, they are more politically active, they're more civically engaged. We stand a better shot of getting them to turn out and vote

and exercise their rights inside of the democracy. So organizing campaigns is our first priority, but we also need to create a vision for the future with workers. The right has done a masterful job. Make America Great Again isn't what I believe in, but it's what millions of people believe in. And in the absence of vision, people will drink sand.

They will drink sand. And so how are we actively engaging the American people in a conversation about what kind of life do you want? What's a good life? What allows you to thrive, to not live paycheck to paycheck, to just worry about surviving? For some people, it's gonna be wages, right?

Mind you, the Republicans still won't vote to increase the federal minimum wage, the $7.25 an hour. So let's talk about minimum wage increases. Let's talk about not just protecting Medicaid, but improving healthcare and access to quality healthcare. And so those are just a couple of the things that we know American people care about,

the cost of housing. How can I ever afford to buy a house if I can't even afford because my rent is too high? So let's build a vision for an America that is worth fighting for. To paraphrase Langston Hughes, together we can build a vision for an America that has never been, but yet must be.

And then we also gotta create a protagonist. Who is to blame? The right has given us immigrants and people that are different from us, right? That's who to blame. We believe who is to really blame is the unprecedented amount of corporate greed that is running rampant across our society that gets us bills like the one passed last week. So let's talk about what the real role of corporations need to be in our democracy and our economy and

the responsibility that they have to help make our country what it needs to be in our democracy and our economy and the responsibility that they have to help make our country what it needs to be. And that's holding them accountable to ending poverty wage work. Nobody should go to work and have to work multiple jobs to take care of their families. Corporations make enough money that they can pay people what they deserve to make.

And so we wanna go on the offense, we wanna be bold, we wanna be militant, we want to cause real disruption so we can take the strangle, loosen the stranglehold that is on the country right now. Joe? Thanks. Alright, did mine. So how should I put this? Do me a favor. I'll try. Okay, so you said how many different groups are part of the AFL-CIO?

63. Okay, 63. They literally are a block away. They had the announcement today, never told us. I did a call, Delane Adams set up a call last month. And I literally said it then, I was like, guys, everyone's like, oh, we're doing this, we're doing that, because it was about

seven or eight different groups. And I said, who you tellin'? And so what bothers me, this is what bothers me right here, that a lot of black people in AFL-CIO, a lot of black people in all of these different unions. And I sit on the call, you guys are a block away from my office, and you've never been on, you've never actually reached out,

and I just checked. They literally didn't even send us an email about today's rally. So if they're trying to communicate to people, and we're only one of the top 100 podcasts on YouTube, they might wanna tell some folks, please let them know this. I got you.

I mean, it's frustrating, because I talk to you, I talk to Lee Saunders, I talk to Claude Cummings, I talk to Lee Saunders, I talk to Claude Cummings, I talk to Becky Pringle, direct, but it drives me crazy when I hear folks complain about, oh, we can't get coverage, we can't get things, but then they don't actually reach out, and if they not reach out to me, I know damn well

they not reach out to a whole bunch of other black media. And so I'm curious to know what's their strategy when they go to cities. Who have they hit before they actually come in? Who are they talking to to talk to our people as opposed to hoping mainstream media shows up? It should drive you crazy, right? It should drive everybody who cares

about the health of our democracy and our economy. Especially when I know those frankly white PR firms are charging them a whole lot of money every month in retainer fees. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I am not here to carry the AFL's water,

but I'm gonna carry April's, right? And I can do a better job of making sure they know that the resources are available to tell our story that desperately needs to be told in the right ways. Absolutely, because I mean, the stories have to get out and be told, and our people have to be notified. I just don't want them talking in a bubble,

and then not, look, Joe Madison, God rest his soul, always said, you gotta put it where the goats can get it, which means you gotta go to places that people are going to, listening to, and getting information from, and too often, places like this are ignored, like to, and getting information from, and too often, places like this are ignored, like other black-owned media outlets,

then people go, oh, well, dang, I wish we had more coverage. Yeah. Can I tell people first? You know, and look, we are all still trying our very, very best, and many of us, and I'm not speaking about the AFL, many of us don't know how to do anything different

than what we've always done, right? And especially when some of us are paralyzed by fear, right? We just keep trying, oh, if I just do it a little bit better, if I work a little bit harder, as opposed to, that ain't working. Let's go figure out something else to do, because why the hell not? Right, well that's why when Delaney set that thing up,

it was all these different communications people and I literally was telling them, no that ain't working. And then one of the people hit him on the side, I was like, we're doing a great job. He was like, no you're not. Stop telling yourself you are because if you're not communicating to the people that need to hear your message,

stop patting yourself on the back. So I just think, and I have no problem meeting with anybody that communicates to this team and saying, let me look at your strategy, how you reach out, because for me, I look at directly, who did you reach, who did you call, who did you reach out to, how do we know? And I just, everybody, I mean, look,

Leader Jeffries, his people sent me a press release 19 minutes before he went live, and I was like, I think we need a I, leader Jeffries, his people sent me a press release 19 minutes before he went live. And I was like, I think we need a little bit more head start before you go live. Just a little bit. Just a little bit, I'm about to get ready. So we're looking forward to this.

Have y'all had your annual conference yet? We're on a four year cycle. Okay, got it. All right, so what is the next event that y'all are doing that people can tie into? So the next big national day of action that SEIU will be engaged in is July 26th. Okay.

And I would love to come back and tell you all about it. All right, that's good. National day of action, July 26th, all around the country. Yep, SEIU. Okay, all right, yeah, come back. All right. Talk about that one. I got you.

And then. And then of course, Labor Day. Gotcha. All right, so again, all right. Yeah, come back. All right. Talk about that. I got you. And then of course Labor Day. Gotcha. All right. So again, what I want to make sure till AFL see out of that. The other thing is what I want to know for those other events, are they going to be streamed? Because then if we can make the different ones, we can actually grab those streams and then not be able to restream it and then reach more people to the almost too many people who follow us. Yeah, and it may not all be streamed because what we are really about is

saying, so for instance, when David Huerta was arrested in L.A. and we did a national day of action, we put it out, you know, or mobilize and anybody that wanted to set up an action could do it. And we ended up having 40 across the country. Some were big, some were small. And so some of it will be streamed, but not all of it. Okay. All right. April, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Always a pleasure. Folks, we come back with, chat with Congressman Glenn Ivey, Democrats doing all they can to push back against this crazy MAGA agenda. And of course, we'll talk to him about the impact of these federal job cuts on his state

of Maryland. And it is a huge, huge issue. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered right here on the Black Southern Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr, the enigma of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. What really makes him tick and what forces shaped his view of the world,

the country and black America the answer I'm pretty sure will shock and he says, you know people think that I'm anachronistic I am I want to go backwards in time in order to move us forward into the future He's very upfront about this. We'll talk to Cory Robin the man who wrote the book that reveals it all That's next on on the Black Table, only on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change. Mass incarceration, Trump administration

is doubling down on criminalization and how it is profitable. And there's something really, really perverse about saying that we need to put people in cages in order for other people to have jobs. Like that is not how our economy should be built. Only on the other side of change on the Black Star Network. This week on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie,

we're talking faith, family, fatherhood, and the pathway to reentry. Most of us in some way, shape, form, or fashion have had someone in our lives, whether it was a grandfather, a father, an uncle, a brother or a cousin who has been incarcerated or justice impacted. What does that look like in rebuilding family and relationships? What does it look like for us to be able to have substantive conversations, come to the table, love on each other, while at the same time, get it all out in the open so that we can begin a new journey together.

You know, the last thing you want is in the midst of trying to piece your life back together or home to not be a comfortable place. That's all next on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie here on Black Star Network. Farquhar, executive producer, a proud family, you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered. So So do Folks, Trump signs his new bill. He's all excited.

Republicans are excited, but it's going to impact some real people, and they're quickly learning that it ain't just a bed of roses for all you MAGA people in your red states. They're going to be hit by it as well. You've got these farmers complaining about the arrest of workers and how they don't have any people working their farms. We tried to tell you. Look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, slashing staff, weakening oversight of banks and lenders.

In fact, Donald Trump has let so many people off, they've actually screwed taxpayers who are supposed to be getting millions of dollars back because of how they were being abused. They also were stripping protection from immigrants from countries like Nicaragua, Nepal. We could go on and on and on. And so many of you keep asking, well, oh my God, Democrats must be fighting back. But do you really understand how can you fight back when they control the House, the Senate and the White House? Congressman Glen Ivey of Maryland Jones is right now. Congressman, on that point, and I spent a lot of time

trying to explain to people that you need to understand politics. The reality is, in the House, you're extremely limited in what you can do. There are more ways to stop things in the Senate because of their rules. First of all, this bill was passed through reconciliation, which will require 51 votes.

Normally, you need 60 votes in the Senate, okay? You can put a hold on nominees. Lots of things you can actually do. You're limited what you can do in the House. You're virtually powerless unless four or five Republicans vote with your party. And we see what happened on this bill, where you had 10 who voted no.

They held the bill open damn near more than 24 hours, almost 24 hours, to get them to side with them, and they got the votes. And so, what do you say to constituents who keep saying, fight more, fight harder? Well, it's a great point, because this really comes down to math, you know? And if we don't have the numbers to win, we're not gonna do it. But I think the key points are, and you touched on this a moment

ago, the districts that Republicans represent now, where they're starting to feel the heat, we almost flipped some of those guys. In fact, you know, Massey from Kentucky did vote with us. So we picked that one up. We just need to pick up four altogether, you know, the next time we have a vote like this. But putting pressure on them in their districts, you know,

putting pressure on them in their districts, you know, like he did vote with us. So we picked that one up. We just need to pick up four altogether, you know, the next time we have a vote like this. But putting pressure on them in their districts, and that's like, you know, California, some of the districts in the suburban New York, Kigans, the one in Norfolk down next to Bobby Scott. I mean, districts like that we can pick up, and we have to also make sure we're explaining

to the voters in those districts Exactly what it is they voted for because when that local hospital closes, it's not because something you know random happens, right? It's a result of the bill that cut the Medicaid funding and you happen to be near a hospital that relies heavily on that revenue stream You know one of the things that and let me know that this actually happened, and because one of the things that I thought that should have happened, and maybe it did, and I missed it, I said to Ken Martin, I said to Leader Jeffries,

hey, you guys should have a David Letterman-like top 10 list of the most onerous, dangerous things in this bill. There was so much focus on Medicaid and SNAP, which I totally understand. It was almost a 10,000 page bill. And I guess how my brain works, I would have stuck 20 staffers in a room and said, you got 50 pages each.

Right. And to go through, So you take for instance, what was actually in the bill that allowed you to deduct gambling losses. And then you had Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, grassley, they were like, and another one was like,

we don't know how that got in the bill. But it got in the bill. To me, that's one of those things that yet. It's not Medicaid. It's not staff But it's one of those things where if you're showing, you know the whole deal with deducting, you know private planes to me It's those things that when they are being told people go wait it what the hell is going on It changes the dialogue around a bill. I think that's right I mean the challenge we we do a lot of work on that. The problem is trying to get it out in a way

that it gets picked up from a media standpoint. But yeah, I think that's right. And so there's a lot of pieces where, whether it's the rule of law kind of thing, where people's rights are being violated, how can we get those things out, impacts on like local schools, cuts to Pell grants, for example.

Impacting things like that, we want to make sure we're trying to get out so people understand it. But if you look at what we did with Medicaid and SNAP, at the time this vote was taken, like half of the voters didn't even know this vote was pending. So we had a lot of good breakthrough. The bill was underwater by 21 points, according to the Fox poll. But still, we had work to do then. We've still got more work to do now.

We've got a little bit of time now to spool it out a little more carefully and thoroughly and give people a chance to hear about it. And there's over 200 members in the House Democratic Caucus. So we don't all have to be saying the same thing at the same time every place. We can use some of these all have to be saying the same thing at the same time, every place. We can use some of these other outlets to talk about the particulars and the impact

that they're having along the lines of your suggestion. Well, and I think that the energy that was being, energy you guys had before the vote should continue afterwards. Continuing doing these town halls in these districts, continuing putting the pressure there where it's constant. I was gonna chat early with some folks and we were talking about, well, what do you do? We were talking about, you know, what can you do?

And there was a frustration. And I said, guys, listen, we have to be thinking and operating with more than a year out from the midterm elections. And I say this on this show all the time, inform, enlighten, educate. Inform, enlighten, educate. Inform, enlighten, educate. That we have to connect the dots for the people.

And I think that that's what members of Congress have to do, literally walk people through and where it's literally a civics 101 lesson every single day Yeah, this is what you're gonna lose. This is what's gonna get cut This is what's gonna happen and then they begin to see that they're not buying this Oh, it's a big beautiful bill. It's gonna be great and wonderful. It's gonna unleash a golden golden age It's like no you're about to get screwed. Yeah, I think that's right. I'll give you an example

the the the tax break on tips supposedly You're about to get screwed. Yeah, I think that's right. I'll give you an example. The tax break on tips, supposedly. That's not in the bill. Yeah, I mean, it's just a total scam. But they keep talking about it. And they keep acting like people are going to get some kind of benefit from it. But they really aren't.

And so making sure we push those points, AOC was pushing that because she was a waitress and had a chance to live that life and she can speak from experience on that. But getting that out is gonna be important because there's a lot of folks, middle class, working class folks, who are hearing the promises they're making and not realizing how fake it is.

Or, well, the stuff they're trying to give you, that's just temporary anyway. The big stuff that goes to the big dollar guys, that's permanent. And so why are they giving you temporary but giving them permanent? You know why that is. And they're giving you temporary just long enough to get you past the midterm vote coming up. And then when it drops off the table, they're going to hope forget. And we gotta make sure we're doing it every day, like you're saying, to keep people's focus on it and to keep connecting the dots

so they don't forget about it. Questions for the panel. Joe, you first. Congressman, hello and glad that you are in the fight there. Roland kind of stole my question about town hall, but let me ask this. Tell me about if there's ways for you to potentially be a help to your constituents with constituent services with one of them being, you know, and often my friend is Pete Aguilar from California, and you know, when he first came into Congress, they weren't in charge.

And so one of the things you always say is you could be really good at constituent services. Is there a way for congressmen's offices, for your offices to possibly be well on constituent services, particularly in terms of coordinating alternative sources of potential benefits, maybe connecting with state government, connecting with state resources, and maybe even sometimes people don't know.

There's a lot that's gone, but maybe there's some things that are still there that people don't know about. Has there been some talk about coordinating with state and county to really identify resources and have it amped up just because of the necessity that so much of this being missing is really going to create. Yeah, that's a great point and yes, I think is the answer to that. Now here's the challenge. So in Maryland, we did a town hall meeting and one of the things we talked about was, well guess what, Governor Moore is rolling out efforts to hire out displaced federal workers because we love to have them in the state government.

They do great work. They're very talented, et cetera. Now, and we've had some success with that, but here's the challenge. There's a lot of states, and Maryland's one of those, and localities, and Prince George's County's one of those, where we've got financial challenges from a budgetary standpoint as well.

So it's not always easy to turn to them so they can pick up the slack. But we're trying to work in coordination to make sure we're doing as much of that as possible to get the message out. But it's also important to get the message out at their level too. So I'll give you an example.

One of the things Hakim did in his nine hour speech was he pulled out a resolution from the Louisiana State Legislature where they had passed the resolution asking their federal delegation not to support this bill because of the impact on Medicaid in Louisiana that would be falling out from it. Now people didn't know that, but you know, it's heavily Republican, you know, state legislature and guess what?

The speaker and the majority leader are both out of Louisiana. So having, you know, state local people make these points at their level, I think is important too, to help support the messages coming out of Congress, help support the messages coming out of Washington, but also to give more trusted voices to people in their localities. Because a lot of these red states and red jurisdictions, when the hospital shuts down or when they lose their OBGYN unit or whatever, they're going to want to say, well, that must be some democratic thing. It's going to be important for their state people to say, it was what happened, what

I told you about before. And guess what? We can't pick up the slack because we can't raise taxes enough to cover the hole that was left by the federal cuts that were made. So I think you're right on the money and we need to find new ways and additional ways

to get any kind of support we can from state and local and private, by the way, and also to make sure they're getting the message out too. Rebecca. Congressman, I'm one of your constituents. It's great to talk to you tonight. So you went to El Salvador and you received a lot of criticism for that trip. Can you talk about why it was important for you to show up on behalf of Mr. Garcia? Well a couple reasons.

Due process is something that not just Mr. Garcia needs, but African Americans need it too, and everybody across the board does. If you look at what's come in the wake of when Trump met with Bucalli, the president of El Salvador, one of the things they were joking about was building five more prisons down there so they could send quote homegrown people down to those prisons in El Salvador. Well, I think I know who that might be and I wanna make sure we're not in harm's way. And that connects up with the efforts

to denaturalize citizens. I didn't even know that was a possible concept, much less a possible action. They damn sure wanna do it. They damn sure wanna do it and eliminate birthright citizenship. And the Supreme Court, I thought was going to rule on that, but they just focused on the universal injunctions piece and left that standing, even though it couldn't be more

straightforward in the plain language in the Constitution. So I think it's important for us to make sure that everybody gets due process, whatever this is he's trying to roll through and however far he wants to go, we need to nip it in the bud now because if we're not careful, African Americans could get rolled up into this too. And by the way, they're deporting people. Like Kilmar got a lot of the focus, but there's like 50 Venezuelans who were deported out of the United States and sent to that same jail, the Seacot Prison in El Salvador, who were here legally. Their paperwork was in order. They hadn't committed any crimes in the United States

or even civil violations. No crimes in El Salvador, no crimes in Venezuela. The Cato Institute identified this. So you know it's not some kind of democratic talking point. But they've been sent to El Salvador indefinitely. They're in jail down there indefinitely. That's the kind of stuff we got to fight against and make sure we don't let it stay. And so they to El Salvador indefinitely. They're in jail down there indefinitely.

That's the kind of stuff we have to fight against and make sure we don't let it stand. On that particular point, you go in there and the due process issue, let's just be frank. You've got a lot of anti-immigrant feelings among some black folks, including black immigrants. And there were people who were highly critical of your actions and of Democrats.

But the point that I kept, and then of course, you had the Republicans who were saying, oh, they're playing right into our hands. But what I kept trying to explain to people is, do understand if we are silent on due process for undocumented workers, you heard Trump say he wanted to send American inmates to El Salvador prisons. So we need to understand, they will apply that to us.

So you can't be silent because it's undocumented. You gotta say, actually not, the rule of law is the rule of law. That's right, and the other part too was, if you remember the court struggle with this, because you had courts, including the Supreme Court. Say, bring him back. Bring him back.

They were like, hell no. And the courts have been our only, you hate to have to rely on these guys, because it's the Trump Supreme Court, but they gave us some rulings and continued to do some. So if we're not going to stand up with those guys when they're ruling for us, I don't think they're gonna keep ruling for us.

Especially if you remember, the Republicans, as soon as Boasberg, the judge here in DC, and Zennis, the one in Greenbelt, came out and said, you gotta bring these guys back and give them their due process day. There were seven members of the House, Republicans of course, who went after them on impeachment grounds, put together resolutions

on impeachment. We've got to let those judges know that we're not just going to let it go by just because they're not black or white or whatever. We're going to fight it because it's due process, it's rule of law. We got to make sure that everybody gets it because if they're not getting it, there's a good chance that we ain't going to get it either. Absolutely. Congressman Ivey, we certainly appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, folks. having me, I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch folks. We go to a break, we come back. I keep telling y'all Donald Trump is an idiot. This man thoroughly embarrassed the United States and showed his level of stupidity in talking to five African leaders.

Wait till we show you what happened. And I have an education, a book reading list for all these MAGA idiots who know nothing about Liberia and their relationship with the United States. Folks, you're watching Roller Mark on Filch on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club.

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20037-0196. PayPal, R Martin unfiltered, VIMO, RM unfiltered, Zelle. Roll in at, roll in at smartin.com, roll in at rollinmartinunfiltered.com. Folks, we'll be right back. This week on the other side of change. Mass incarceration. Trump administration is doubling down on criminalization and how it is profitable. And there's something really, really perverse

about saying that we need to put people in cages in order for other people to have jobs. Like that is not how our economy should be built. Only on The Other Side of Change on the Black Star Network. This week on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie, we're talking faith, family, fatherhood, and the pathway to reentry. Most of us in some way, shape, form, or fashion have had someone in our lives, whether it was a grandfather, a father, an uncle, a brother, or a cousin, who has been incarcerated or

justice impacted. What does that look like in rebuilding family and relationships? What does it look like for us to be able to have substantive conversations, come to the table, love on each other, while at the same time, get it all out in the open so that we can begin a new journey together.

You know, the last thing you want is in the midst of trying to piece your life back together for home to not be a comfortable place. That's all next on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie here on Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, less than 5% of the top executive positions in corporate America are held by women of color. We know it's not because of talent. A recent study says that it's microaggressions, unconscious bias, and limited opportunities being offered to women of color. On our next show, we're gonna get incredible advice

from Francine Parham, who's recently written a book sharing exactly what you need to do to make it up into the management ranks and get the earnings that you deserve. I made a point to sit down and I made a point to talk to people. And I made a point to be very purposeful and thought provoking when I spoke to them.

That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr, the enigma of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. What really makes him tick and what forces shaped his view of the world, the country, and Black America? The answer, I'm pretty sure, will shock you.

And he says, you know, people think that I'm anachronistic. I am. I want to go backwards in time in order to move us forward into the future. He's very upfront about this. We'll talk to Cory Robyn, the man who wrote the book that reveals it all. That's next on The Black Table, only on the Black Star Network. Music So So So So do So So So So do So do Martin! It really is difficult to say that the occupant of the Oval Office is truly one of the stupidest people you have ever seen. But without a doubt, Donald Trump is an idiot. When you see these right wingers trying to label anybody black or Latino or female as being a DEI hire when something goes wrong, and then you look at the sheer incompetence

of this white man, you go, really? Really? Y'all want to call somebody at DI Hire? Today, five African leaders came to the White House for bilateral meetings. And I felt sorry for them because here they are sitting there having to kowtow, beg, you know, coddle, beg, you know, coddle, praise, this egotistical maniac because he so desperately needs attention. At one point, one of the leaders from Senegal was talking and Trump literally was like, I need you to hurry up. Do y'all have the video?

Play that video. We have a great deal of resources, many, many resources and we have a lot of opportunities to offer in terms of investment. We have minerals, rare earths, rare minerals. We have manganese. We have uranium. And we have a good inclination that we have lithium and other minerals,

where the second largest producer for the last 60 years in Africa of iron. Iron ore. We produce a lot. And we have a lot of resources in our seawaters, so lots of fishing and whatnot. I don't want to spend too much time on this. But I appreciate it very much. I appreciate it. Maybe we're gonna have to go a little bit quicker than this because we have a whole schedule.

If I could just say, you know, your name and your country would be great. Thank you, please. It was five countries please It was five countries It was five. Oh my god. We're going way too slow It was sheer idiot it was just idiot But this moment right here Shows you how absolutely dumb this man is.

Listen to this. We want to encourage American involvement in the investment in Liberia. We'd like to see that happen. We want to work with the United States in peace and security within the region, because we are committed to that. And we just want to thank you so much for this opportunity. Well, thank you. Such good English.

Such beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Were you educated? Where? In Liberia. Yes sir. Well that's very interesting. That's beautiful English.

Sure. I have people at this table can't speak nearly as well. I know sir. They come from. We want to encourage American involvement in the investment in Liberia. We'd like to see that happen. We want to work with the United States in peace and security within the region because we are committed to that. And we just want to thank you so much for this opportunity. Well, thank you.

Such good English. Such beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia. Yes, sir. In Liberia. Yes, sir.

Well, that's very interesting. That's beautiful English. Sure. I have people at this table who can't speak nearly as well. I know, sir. They come from... Joseph Bokai is the president of Liberia. Also happens to be, fraternity brother of mine, Alpha Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated. Trump is so stupid that he literally has no clue.

He don't know where Liberia is. He don't know how many people are there. He doesn't know anything about his history. If they had showed this dumbass the Liberian flag, this idiot probably would have went, oh my goodness, that's the Liberian flag, this idiot probably would have went, oh my goodness, that's the Liberian flag? That looks like the Texas flag, oh my God. That looks like, that looks like the United States flag.

I'm curious, Mr. President, why did your people pick a flag that looks like ours? Maybe because the country was colonized by formerly enslaved people of African descent who actually were sent to Liberia by the American Colonization Society. In fact, y'all, it was a merging of two forces. You had the American Colonization Society,

you had these abolitionists and these racist plantation owners who actually came together to say, hey, let's ship these folks out. A lot of them came from Virginia. And they traveled from the United States to Liberia. And what's crazy, we're talking about colonization. These formerly enslaved people of African descent brought that, frankly, white plantation mentality

to Liberia, and they basically colonized the indigenous people in Liberia. And up until they had the civil war in Liberia, these descendants of formerly enslaved people ran the country. Yep, they ran the country. Then they had the Civil War. And what you've had is you still have these battles going on between those folks who are indigenous

and those who came from the United States. See, Donald Trump is so dumb, he's never read, he knows nothing. So just like years ago when I had to give Bill O'Reilly an education about patriotism and black Americans when he criticized Colin Kaepernick, how about this Donald? Hmm, a book by Stephen Ellis is called The Mask of Anarchy, The Destruction of Liberia

and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War. How about you and Magga read that? Huh, how about this, Madam President, The Extraordinary journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by New York Times writer Helene Cooper, who's also from Liberia, the first woman to be president of an African nation. Yep. How about that, you idiot? Oh, here's another one. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great, Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.

It's her book. It's her memoir. You might learn about Liberia reading that book. How about this, Donald Trump? The Price of Liberty, African Americans and the Making of Liberia by Claude A. Clegg III. How about that? Let's see here. What do I have? Another America, the story of Liberia and the former slaves

who ruled it. James Cement. See this right here? That's them, you idiot. How about this here? Hmm. An African Republic, black and white Virginians in the making of Liberia. Marie Tyler McGraw. How about you read that, dumbass? Let's see here. Oh, Donald Trump ever heard of Goodyear? Guess what?

Goodyear was built by the rubber from Liberia. Here's a book called Empire Rubber, Firestone Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia by Greg Mittman. How about you read that book? Let's see. How about this? Liberia, America's African Stepchild. This book, way too many pages for Donald Trump by David Gene Reese.

That's this right here. Now, some of y'all may be saying, dang, Roland, that's a lot of books on Liberia. Man, why do you have all those books on Liberia? I don't know. It could be because in 2022, when they had their bicentennial celebration of those folks traveling from the United States to Liberia,

they actually had a celebration. We were there covering that whole deal. We spent 10 days there. We did numerous specials on it. Y'all can go to the black Sun Network app You could go to our YouTube channel and see the coverage we did So I'm gonna give you about 15 minutes or so or some of the coverage and you can actually hear us talk about The history of Liberia, but these idiots know nothing about it except. Oh my god, you speak English

So well, it shows you how dumb and clueless these people are he wouldn't even read a briefing paper his staff provided of him because Donald Trump is an absolute dumbass. Press play. and where we're standing right now is this massive monument to the first president of Liberia. It's Joseph Jenkins Roberts. You see this statue, you see this just amazing display here, and it shows you two things. It shows you the history, if you will. It shows paying homage to the past, but it also shows, gives you a glimpse of what this place used to be. So we're standing right here and above this space here. And if you look out around here,

you will see at this high point, overlooking all of Monrovia. You see this amazing edifice. You got the ocean that's to the right over here. Again, gorgeous views. Then of course, then we look over here is what was called the Ducour Hotel. And so what is essentially now ruins

sits there right there as well. This is all greatly impacted. That hotel was destroyed by the Civil War that was in 1989. Remember, there was a coup in 1980. Civil War 1989 lasted 15 years. So I've talked about this a lot, what this country used to be. In many ways, Liberia was the model for African nations. It was the first republic

on the continent as well. Ghana, so when people talk about Ghana becoming the first African nation gaining its independence in 1957, that's not necessarily true in terms of that was colonized by non-whites. So Liberia was long before that own republic, served as the model, if you will. You think about where the country was in terms of its infrastructure, in terms of its roads, its education, all of that was in many ways not destroyed, but was significantly hindered by the 15 years of civil war. That's an entire generation. And so now what you have is an effort to restore.

Any other place, you talk about the United States, any other place, I mean, any other place, this area right now, there will be, will be the focus of massive development because literally, because of a statue like this here, because of the location of a hotel like this here. And so in fact, what's interesting about that sign to the Ducour Hotel, it says, the future starts now.

But you see the old sign as well. And so there's so much to think about when it comes to the effort to restore this country, to rebuild this country, and to actually make it a crown jewel again. And so it really is amazing to be up here to see these cannon displays, these cannons that are here as well. And I can only imagine what this place, what this spot here looked like 30 years ago, what

it looked like before the Civil War. It had to be absolutely magnificent because of the hotel and also this building that's right here as well. And again, as you can see, overlooking all of the city from this high vantage point as well. We didn't want our trip to Liberia to be all about politics. I also wanted to learn about the history of this country from the founders to even the National Museum to get a better understanding of this country founded by freed people of African descent 201 years ago. The first floor of the museum is primary cultural and the decoration is called Waves of Time. And Waves of Time takes you through Liberia's history, which is on the second floor.

The entire bottom floor represents all the different cultures, our characters, our music, our dance, our... A lot of masks. You know, Liberia, you have all the different tribes are represented with masks. And these masks all have different representations. So all this over here? Pretty much on your base shape, you know, indigenous culture. This all represents our indigenous culture. So for example, you have here, for example, most of our huts, you know, we use a lot of natural materials. So this represents some of that, you know, showcase that we do use our natural materials.

This is a little thing called tapa. But it's a flower patch. This thing is like zinc on top of the house. And then you have the slippers, pretty much what people wore back in the day before we were starting to wear what we have now. This is a game called makala that people also use for a soccer board game.

So this morning, at Julie and these, you say that's a ceremony where you were named, you saw the masquerade dancer. All right, so these masks represent some of that. And so what you saw this morning is a representation of one of our cultures. And so this is from the Don tribe, but all of these tribes are pretty much represented by the mask. And these masks, the ones that they have at the museum are all antique, I mean very, very old, old masks. Wow.

Yes. Salta. A drum? This is a drum? That's a drum. Yeah. What if they stand on a plane? That's all the tukpa drum.

A talking drum. Yeah. Wow. That's a big drum. Right. Liberia has a lot of heritage, a lot of history. You saw the plot by the country plot. So that's what you were given this afternoon.

Primarily comes from Luka. And so that's Liberia's hand woven fabric. Very, very traditional woven normally by the people of Lofa County and this is the wheel that they use to weave the fabric that's used and this is exactly what they use today it's still pretty much the same so it's similar actually it was similar to what I actually got it when I was in Ghana okay Okay. Where they did the kit-deck for. Okay. And actually did that. So yeah, that was interesting.

Yes. So that's pretty much, okay, so- That requires a technique. Yes, but I want to show you something before we leave. This is also one of the masks. Great, this is one of the, one of the drives. What, somebody wore that thing? Yes, it's a mask.

Man! What somebody wore that thing? Yes, it's a it's a mask um Man You're gonna have a strong neck for that All right, what's this so providence island in 1822 Is where the three the first three blacks that came with the Liberia coast, this is where they landed. So around the Providence Island, so when you read the history, the Sephardic initially went on to Shebro, then they came on to Providence. So this actually was done, I up the fire still in the air. But this is basically what the island looks like when the temperature rises.

Wow, okay. All right, we're headed upstairs. I'm just showing you the depictions of some of what's in our rainforest. Liberia is close to 40% of the upper-level rainforest. So we are still a very green country. They've come to 40% of the upper-class rainforest. So we are still a very green country. And at this time, so now we're heading up

to the second part where we have the history and heritage exhibition. So we'll start here. This is Chief Suwakoko. And she was one of the greatest warriors of Liberia and one of the toughest chiefs of Liberia. She was informed part of the early firestone. So what is this film from? What is this film? This is from the ceremony for firestone so if you were to watch this it really

goes into firestone coming into Liberia but it has other things going on in there as well. That's an old film there. Yes, it is. Okay. Then we'll come to this slide. We go into the colonization story. We've heard of Paul Cuffee. He came in as the first African American to try to refatricate

African free blacks onto the continent and he died, you know, before the American colonization was formed. So Paul Coffey sort of is the one who started that whole concept. The American colonization took it from that point. You also heard about Mike Perry this morning. He was instrumental in bringing, getting people to sign up to come on that ship. When they got to Liberia, he, at Providence Baptist Church, was the founder of the church and has been very instrumental.

This is your ancestor? That's my ancestor. That's my great, I think my great, great, great grandfather, Elijah Johnson. And he also was a part of that first group that arrived and became the first black governor. So first of all, so Paul Cuffee, Elijah Johnson, lot carried. Yes.

So Paul Cuffee is the first African- American that tried to encourage African Americans to come back to the continent. He came, I believe, on one expedition and then he died shortly after. So when the American Colonization Society was formed, it really stemmed from Paul Coffee's principles. So he was really the first African Americans really push that concept. So the first people in 1822, this is he was moving he took 38 to Freetown Saint-Cyrillion in 1816. Yes. Wow. So he was I mean he was he was really. So let's talk about those

enslaved people after the dissent first coming here, they actually went to Sierra Leone first. Yes, yes, yes. I didn't know that. Yeah, so the initial ship that came into Africa settled on several islands in Sierra Leone. And the conditions there were really, really harsh. And so some people died, and those that survived were then transferred to up Cape Mestigrado further up north onto Providence Island.

And others joined them on the Providence Island. That migration continued I believe until 1862, 1864, somewhere in there. Now when we were at the church, that's who the pastor was? That was the first pastor of the Providence Baptist Church. So you can see you're the pastor of the Providence Baptist Church. So you can see you at the counter Providence Baptist Church. I'm you know the Baptist minister and the position very intelligent and there's a school today called Black hearing we have a street named in his honor.

Tesla is finished. Elon has failed that is what they want you to believe but tech. Your ancestors that's my ancestor direct ancestor on my is what they want you to believe. Tech experts. This is your ancestor. That's my ancestor, direct ancestor, on my mother's side. So Elijah Johnson also was on that initial ship that came to Liberia. And most Liberians know him as the man that said,

here we are and here we shall be made. But the Septors began rumbling about the hardship. So he became the first black governor after the Hootie Ashman. So the decoration was signed in 1847 so he passed just a couple of years after. Yes. Wow okay. I think he became the governor in 1827. Wow and his son became president? His son became president, Hillary Richard Wright Johnson. Okay, so your family has a little history. We have a little bit of history, but these are just some of the, you know, showing some of the showing slavery, letting people understand, you know.

And these here are actual photos that were shot here in Liberia. Yes, a live hall of three black women to the continent meeting. Wow. Yes, these are very... Yeah, you can see how they were dressed. Yes, very different and meshing with the culture. This depicts some of the African Americans back in the day. These are the first presidents up to Tolbert. He was the first, I think, dark-skinned African-American because most of them were

very, very fair complexion. And so he became, Edward J. Roy became the first dark-skinned George J. Roy became the first dark skinned president. And like I said, Truick Party, you saw the Truick Party building, so they were all Truick Party members. Then of course, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, you have that story. This is a table, this table was given to Joseph Jenkins Roberts by the Queen of England.

This is the original table to the first president of Africa, the first black African free republic. So here you have Liberia going through a war. Many people have heard of presidentsidents for a League winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Leymah Boley also joined the Presidents for a League and she was also a Nobel Prize winner. She was one of those who did sit-ins when President Taylor was President and demanded peace for Liberia. So they led the cause for Liberia's freedom and peace in I believe it was 20. So how many women were so was it awarded to her or the group of women? It was awarded to her because she led the group. The women of Liberia mass act some more than a thousand women. Yes the women the women came out as you can see there are some in the group.

More than a thousand women. Wow. Yes, the women came out. As you can see, there are some in the group. Just basically saying peace. And from my understanding, they actually took, they went to Ghana, I believe, for peace talks. And the men were in the room talking, and the women came and they, I think, held hands

and said that the men would not leave, they pretty much held them hostage and said you will not leave that room until you bring Liberia to peace. And so that's what happened in Lima, Bomi. not leave, they pretty much held them hostage and said you will not leave that room until you bring Liberia to peace. And so that's what happened in the name of Bomi. Wow. She doesn't get talked a lot about. Yes, but she's here. I mean, she's here, she's working and she's doing her thing.

We'll never talk to her. and she's no longer a thing. What's your mother called to? She's here. These are atrocities of war on the side, very graphic images of the war. Once again, a reminder of how much Liberia lost during this war. Severed heads, bodies. How many, what's the estimate number of people who died during this war?

I can't. Who he is, when I'm talking to the panel. It was a very adrocious war. It was 15 years? It went from, well, it went from 1990 up until 2003 is when we finally brought like, you know, decided no more. So that's President Tubman, he and President Talbert.

So Tubman and Talbert. But Tubman is known for the longest, he was the longest running president in my opinion. See, that's not all over there, Rebecca, but I want people to understand that Liberia and America are completely linked. Later we went to Providence Island, where those first folks arrived.

There is no Liberia without the United States of America. That shows you the sheer ignorance of this man who has no idea about how these two countries are linked. Donald Trump, it is a constant embarrassment to America. Absolutely before I get into the orange man's ignorance What I thought was really interesting. I really appreciate you telling the story of what happened when the former enslaved blacks from America showed back up and

to that area to the continent and the level of discord and the destruction towards the indigenous folks. Thank you for talking about that, because even as we think about some of the return to Africa movements now, or folks who want to leave the United States or even purchase second homes, possibly in Ghana, it is understanding that in the United States, it is based upon white supremacy. All of us have ingested that. So when we go to other parts of the world,

especially when we're going back to the continent, we have to be conscious enough to do the work, to practice anti-racism with ourself and anti-white supremacy with ourself. So we're not taking that toxicity from America to the continent because that's not helpful either. And that even leads to some of the diaspora wars that we see now between black Americans

and those on the continent. But what I really enjoyed hearing was the history of former president Johnson Sirleaf who is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and being the first woman president on the continent. I appreciate that was highlighted. But going to the ignorance of Donald Trump, the thing about the white supremacy ideology is so flawed and it's inferior.

It's based upon—it's not based upon logic. It's not based upon actual factual information. And it's a morally defunct and bankrupt ideology. But of course, Donald Trump thought that he was in the right, and he thought that for what—he thinks that he is superior to those leaders, those leaders who showed up to the showed up to the White House with honor and with the dignity. It's unfortunate that those leaders and other leaders from sub-Saharan Africa is showing up to the White House. I get why they have to. I understand the current world stage.

But it's, he's not fooling anyone. The entire world is watching and they understand how ignorant and morally depraved the current leader of the United States is. Joe, the folks recall AmeriCo Liberians the folks were called AmeriCo Liberians. And they ran that country until Samuel Doe became president. And the thing here, you had two civil wars there, and Charles Taylor, rebel leader, took over.

And then, of course, they finally had peace. And then, of course, we saw what happened with Earl Johnson's relief becoming president. And what's so sad is that because of Doge's cuts to USAID, that has negatively impacted countries like Liberia, 250,000 people died in their civil war. It's an extremely young country. There are some, if you guys advance it,

we actually, when I was there, we visited Providence Island. We had drone shots and everything of, that was the place where those first people of African descent, the founders of frankly Liberia, first arrived on that land. And the country, guys, kill the audio please, loud.

You don't have, unfortunately you don't have significant manufacturing there. The rubber plants, unfortunately what happened there was the good years of the world, Firestone, they basically stripped the rubber and then sent it out to America to be actually produced. So unfortunately you have a young country that doesn't have economic opportunity because they have they lack manufacturing in the country. And so we see the same thing in Ghana. Liberia was the first country to declare,

first African nation to declare independence. And so here's a country that has been tied to America since 1822, but it's literally still economically poor because it's rich, it's rich minerals and it's being raped. Unfortunately, that video we showed, here you have these African leaders coming there, we've got minerals, we've got this.

Look what happened with what Trump did to Ukraine, demanding $500 billion worth of minerals. So the United States doesn't want other countries to thrive economically. Frankly, we want to rape them of their riches and not really have them grow and prosper. And that's what we see happening. And that's why it was so sad to see them

have to just genuflect and bow down. And one of the countries talked about, hey, maybe we can build a golf course and you're so smart and brilliant and that'll be helpful and maybe this will help us. I mean, that's what we're having to deal with. And that's so damn sad. It is.

I mean, like you're saying, Liberia is the first and the oldest modern Republic in Africa. It was a founding member of the League of Nations, founding member of the United Nations, supported the war effort in World War II against Germany. Liberia has done a lot of things over the years, but they've always been mineral rich. To your point, the problem now is there's no built up infrastructure. So, you know, when you really want to build up a country, you want to build up the infrastructure

so that they can maximize the possession of their own minerals. And listen, Joe, when we were there, listen, huge trash problem because you don't have wastewater treatment facilities. Now, we were able to visit some places along the coast and amazing resorts and beaches. It was so serene being out there,

but then when you go inside, we traveled, we traveled, and we were only in Monrovia. And here's the problem, George Weah was a president at the time. Well, his native village, because of the roads that were destroyed during the Civil War, it literally takes a couple of days to travel to where he's from, and it's treacherous,

and then when it rains, and so that's why I said the video, unfortunately, that 15 years, the 15 year Civil War destroyed the infrastructure. The reality is, if that Civil War doesn't happen, Liberia is essentially the most advanced African country. The first five-star, what I was describing there, the first five-star hotel in Africa was right there in Monrovia.

And so they are still trying to recover from a civil war that ended more than 20 years ago, and they're having to come to the White House to talk to an idiot begging for help. Yeah, and that's what's so tough. I mean, during the civil war, their economy with the pot, it dwindled 90 percent, right? And so they're effectively, they've got this incredible rich history, but they've had some serious bumps in the road and basically have had to start all over.

And now it's kind of like they're groveling and Trump is sitting there with his arms folded like a Lakers fan in the Clipper game saying, what can you do for me? And so it's going to come to stripping them of minerals, not building them up, not helping them self-determine all the better, not recognizing the longstanding

relationship Liberia and the United States have actually had. Liberia was really one of the only non-Western countries and, you know, one of the only African countries that was on the front as it pertains to the League of Nations, as it pertains to the United Nations and these types of things. It would be incredible if a staffer actually put that together and put that in front of him and said, here's the best way to take advantage of what it is that they're trying to do in a mutually beneficial way. But he's not thinking that way because he doesn't understand history. He's not trying to understand history. And that's what's

particularly difficult because for all of these African natures that are often mineral rich, in their case they've got magnesium, they've got manganese, etc. You know, the United States' thing, Trump's thing is, well, let's just strip of the blind, not help them self-determine, give them a couple pennies of dollar on it, relatively speaking, and then we'll just go off into the sunset in exchange for something we promise to do, but we really don't do anyway. And so it is sad that way. And hopefully this is something that at least people can be more aware of, understanding this history, understanding how important it is going to be for private investment and other folks to help come in and build up these countries on some level because the United States is not

going to do it with a mutually best interest at heart. It's going to be just here's what we do. We take the minerals and we go do what we want to do without contributing to infrastructure, without contributing to building. And any country that the United States is honest about building and rebuilding, we didn't skip infrastructure. We involved in infrastructure. We didn't skip construction. We helped facilitate it and helped it happen because this is what pushes democracy forward.

This is what promotes democracy and security and prosperity. But as it pertains to these black African nations, he's not trying to do that. Absolutely. So folks, do me a favor. If you want to see more, just simply go to our YouTube channel and type in Roland in Liberia. You'll see when I spoke in Monrovia, that was not planned. They asked me just to come up and speak. We covered the whole ceremony with Monrovia Day while we were there. There were so many other things that we covered. We actually visited, like I say, several resorts. We visited a housing development that was being built. And so you're gonna get a real sense of what it was like

for us to be there in Liberia for the 200 Bicentennial celebration. That was three years ago, that was February 2022. So please do that. All right, folks, going to a quick break. We come back. We're going to talk about, got our next story talking about rural Georgia. Real quick, rural Georgia, how they're impacted by the broadband cuts from Donald Trump.

We'll be right back. Roll it, Mark. I'm Phil Chalmers on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change. Mass incarceration. Trump administration is doubling down on criminalization and how it is profitable. And there's something really, really perverse about saying that we need to put people in cages

in order for other people to have jobs. Like that is not how our economy should be built. Only on the other side of change on the Black Star Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the newest Sherry Schreffer Talk Show. You're watching Roland Marc on Tilted. to Folks, Donald Trump's cuts to rural broadband has been devastating impact on his voters. Folks, Georgia, one of the places he won, they're seeing the results of that.

The Digital Equity Capacity Program was a federal grant initiative designed to expand high-speed internet access in rural and low-income communities. They had 22 million loaded to Georgia. Boom, that's now gone. Joining us right now is William Bamis-Sparks, Chief Marketing Officer of Coach Road Wireless. And so, tell us William, how are y'all dealing with that to provide internet because again,

this was something that was significant under President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris. There was massive billions being allocated by Congress for rural broadband. And then, what's crazy to me, I was talking to one of these idiot MAGA people, they said, oh, oh, Trump is cutting the program because too much money was allocated.

And I was like, are you serious? Yeah, yeah, that's ridiculous. I mean. No, no, I'm serious? Yeah, yeah, that's ridiculous. I mean. No, no, no, that's what, now we had Shelley Winter, who was the conservative radio talk show host in Atlanta, he said, yeah, they're changing the program because too much money was allocated and so Trump isn't getting rid of it,

they're cutting the money to make it better. I've never heard that excuse. No, he literally said I'm getting rid of it. He said that it was a handout and it was racist on top of that. He tweeted that on May 8th and it's been a part of his plan to shut it down ever since. So, right now we're just trying to get our bearings together

and still execute the solution. Every state was awarded some funds. I think the total was 2.25 billion. And the state of Georgia, like you mentioned, was supposed to receive $22 million. And those funds were going towards access to technology, internet, and digital skills, which is an issue, not just in Georgia, but it's also an issue

in the urban communities. All right, so how are y'all trying to plug that gap? Well, here's a perfect example. He froze, so I mean, I hate this perfect example. You need high high speed internet. So William, I guess the feed, your feed proves what the problem is. Exactly, exactly.

Just like that. And one of the issues in Georgia, it's not necessarily just access to internet, is the affordability. And I don't know if you know a lot of people in the hood, but you know how it goes. People don't have access to laptops, computers, or during COVID it was exposed.

A lot of people had to go to libraries to actually study or work their remote jobs or do whatever. So one of the main issues that this program was helping was too late fiber to add access to these places because it's so expensive to do it. So what are y'all doing? Again, the money was cut, so what now? I mean, is Georgia stepping in?

Because the people in the areas, they still need the resources to get a high speed reliable internet. Yeah, so what's happening now is, companies like mine, Culture Wireless, we have to step in and continue to execute the plan. So it's not necessarily depending on those federal funds, but now we have to raise.

So right now, currently, Culture Wireless is doing a raise on WeFunder. We're crowdfunding. Actually, shout out to my brother Isaac Hayes III. He was our lead funder on that round. So we're raising, we're raising a million dollars. We have access to some technology that could be creative to help solve that issue to where we don't have to be so dependent on fiber. We can actually utilize some of this other infrastructure with the

major carriers. Questions from the panel. Rebecca, you first. Thank you so much for being on the show this evening. So, my organization does a lot of work across HBCU campuses, including many in Georgia. Broadband access, still an issue on many of the campuses. Are you all looking to do specific work, maybe at least in Georgia, in supporting HBCUs and upgrading that part of their infrastructure? Yes, 1,000%. I actually attended Auburn State University before I went to Georgia Tech. So

I have a deep love for HBCUs. We've already had conversations with Clark Atlanta, Morehouse and Spelman about helping their infrastructure. We've actually partnered with some other people to bring programs, skilling, access to jobs, like call center work, and actually been able to run fiber themselves so we can help the community out because I believe it's 67% of HBCU students drop out because they don't have access to capital

to fund their tuition. So one of our mission and goals as Culture Wireless is to help bridge that gap. Joe. Thank you for all of the work that you're doing. Talk a little bit about the extent to which, I mean, you are a Black company that's coming in to fill in the gap.

How do you feel about being able to partner with other companies that are doing similar things, Black companies and maybe even otherwise, and tell us about the next frontiers in terms of other things that you're gonna be seeking to do? Of course, this is a very, very worthy endeavor. Of course, I think you've alluded to it a little bit

in Rebecca's question in terms of connecting with HBCUs. There are some larger issues, I think, to connect with. But talk some about not only more corporate involvement, including other black companies and your partnering with them and some of the further frontiers in terms of other work you're trying to do. Yeah, sure.

So we've already partnered with another black owned company called A2D in Clayton County. So currently we're running fiber in Clayco covering over, I want to say, 5,000 homes to help bridge that gap. We also just signed a deal with Fort Eisenhower to help out their issue. We won the Beltline contract maybe like two or three years ago to expand internet into other communities outside of the Beltline. So yeah, we have no issue with partnering with major carriers to provide cell service, devices, also partnering with other infrastructure companies like A2D. So we you know, we all have similar missions. You know, a lot of these guys,

we work with our HBCU grads, so we want to make sure that we stay focused in the community and provide access. All right, so you guys engage in fundraising, so walk us through that. Yeah, so we kicked off on Juneteenth. We had a magazine launch release, we needed a cover with Len Lenison Parker and from there

we did a celebration, we invited the community out and so far I think we're at like $12,000. Our goal is to reach a million dollars. We've already received $100,000 previously from Andreessen Horowitz, which is the largest VC firm in the country, but this was our opportunity to get the community involved, to build, you know, generational wealth within the black community. So right now, we're allowing people to invest 10% of the company of equity will go back to the community. So right now, if you just go to, you know, wefunder.com forward slash culture wireless, you'll see

the link and you have an opportunity to invest. All right then. Well, look, good luck with that, William. We appreciate you joining us. And again, people, you're seeing the real effects of the doge, Donald Trump, Elon Musk cut and how it's affecting real people. And he lied when he said he wanted to help people in rural America.

And we always say, hashtag, we tried to tell you. Yep. All right, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, thank you. Folks, so we're gonna end here. First of all, we lost power earlier. There was a tornado warning here in Washington, DC,

Prince George's County. Massive storm came through. That's what knocked us offline and so that's what we lost our connection and all of that. So we're back online and so we appreciate everybody for being patient supporting us. Let me thank Joe and Rebecca as well. We couldn't get

Julie on because of technical issues as well. So again everybody's safe. We're all good but that's what happens. We got Mother Nature storms do those things and so we appreciate both of y'all being on today's show. Folks, you wanna support the work that we do, please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your support is critical for us to be able to do the work.

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