#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ala. Congressional Maps, Childcare Funding Expiring, Doing Business in Liberia

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

9.27.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ala. Congressional Maps, Childcare Funding Expiring, PA Judge Dismisses Murder Charges On Fmr. Cop, Doing Business in Liberia The battle over Alabama's congressional districts continues after the Supreme Court denied the emergency request to keep Republican-drawn congressional lines.  A court-appointed master proposes three options, but the black caucus of the state's Democratic Party objects to the plans and wants to offer its own redistricting map.  Janai Nelson, the President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, is here to help us unpack it all.   We are days away from a government shutdown if Congress cannot agree on a plan to keep it running.  We'll look at what's keeping the House from getting on one accord.  Federal Childcare funding is set to expire this Saturday, leaving millions of families without childcare options.  I'll talk to the President and CEO of The Children's Defense Fund to find out what choices those families will have.  A Pennsylvania judge dismisses the murder charges against a former cop who shot motorist Eddie Irizarry within seconds.  It's Time to Bring the Funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network.  Let's go. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms 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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars.

Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes

of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I am well, at least. Thank you. We'll be right back. The voice of Black America rolling. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. Thank you. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă! Thank you. Martin! Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Thank you. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Thank you. Să ne urmăm. I'm Martin. Martin! We'll be right back. I'm Lola Martin, unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The battle over Alabama's congressional districts continues as the Supreme Court denies the emergency request to keep Republican-drawn congressional lines. The court-appointed master proposes various options. We'll talk with the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund about this enormous fight. We are days away from a government shutdown.

Congress cannot agree on a plan to keep it running. The Senate, they passed a bill. Now it goes to the House. Republicans say it's DOA. Folks, federal child care funding is set to expire on a Saturday, leaving millions of families without child care. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer

Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast

season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We'll talk with the president and CEO of the Children's Defense Fund to find out what is happening there. Plus, a Pennsylvania judge dismisses the murder charges against a former cop who shot a motorist within seconds of confronting him.

And it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling.

Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin.

Yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real The best you know he's rolling Martel Martel White Republicans in Alabama

are really upset today, y'all, because they lost and the Supreme Court refused to hear their emergency request. They, of course, drew congressional lines, left them the same, even if the Supreme Court and lower court said you've got to redraw them because you were screwing over black voters. Well, then the Attorney General of Alabama releases, frankly, one of the most racist letters I've ever seen, where he really is angry and upset and said blame it on the leftists.

It's them. They're the reason why these things are happening. Even though a right wing Supreme Court refused to hear the case. You know what I mean? Now, the president, director, counsel, the legal defense fund, NAACP legal defense fund, Jenea Nelson. Glad to have you here. So, Jeneene, so here's a question people ask me. Is this actually over? Meaning, is Alabama now going to get a second black congressional district, or are these people going to try to figure out some other way to get the Supreme Court to rule? It is almost over, Roland. We still have a hearing next week where we will look at the maps that the special master proposed on Monday. The special master who took over the case as a result of

Alabama's obstinance and refusal to comply with the Supreme Court order, the special master has now given us three different options, each of which can help black voters elect a candidate of their choice. There you go. You got the map to write up. And one of them actually creates a second majority black district. The other two create a second district where the numbers are above 48 percent, so a near majority district.

So, we're very excited about the prospect of finally getting black Alabamians the political power that they deserve, that they have long been denied, and to finally put Alabama to bed. Because this is truly an egregious example of state defiance and massive resistance. And when I looked at what they were doing, I felt like I was living through Jim Crow. The efforts to defy, to stop nullification, all things that these Southern district cracks did. This is what white Republicans were doing in Alabama. I mean, to have the court say,

read your other lines and go to the Supreme Court and then for them to say, ah, the hell with Supreme Court, we think Kavanaugh is going to listen to us and hear us out. I just think this was an example where even these Republicans, these conservatives of the Supreme Court were like, we can't just have folk just ignoring the courts and then saying, we don't give a damn what y'all ruled. That's exactly right. What they did was they tested the court's authority. They tested the court's resolve to stand by its own word. And we know that the institution of the Supreme Court

is something that many people are questioning its credibility its integrity if it had done anything different in this case it would have been a death blow to any possible belief that they are acting as independent objective actors which is what the expectation is for Supreme Court justices I'm extremely pleased that they did not rehear this case, that they did not grant Alabama's motion to stay the proceedings, meaning that they would leave these discriminatory maps in place for yet another important election cycle. So many different things are going on as we speak. You have what happened in Alabama. You've got Louisiana.

It still has to be dealt with where the federal courts there said you need to create a second district. Everything that I've read, these Republicans in Alabama, excuse me, Republicans in Louisiana, were watching what's happening in Alabama trying to say, hey, that could be our roadmap. They sure did. What was really interesting about the Louisiana case, which is another case that the Legal Defense Fund is litigating, is that in the beginning, the state of Louisiana was saying, this case is just like Alabama,

because they thought that Alabama was going to go a different way. So they were trying to hitch their wagon to Alabama and say that whatever happens in that case should happen in our case. But what they didn't realize is not only is Alabama egregious, so is Louisiana. And the court can see that. And now they're trying to argue that Louisiana is different and that somehow the excellent ruling that we got in Allen v. Milligan should not apply to Louisiana's congressional maps. But we know that that's not the case, that that map is just as egregious, and they're not the

only state. We're going before the Supreme Court in October, on October 11th, to argue a case about South Carolina's congressional maps. So this is not limited to a single state. There are efforts to suppress the black vote across the country. And we're going to fight tooth and nail to bring that power back to the people. Today, a trial in Florida over Rhonda Santus getting rid of black congressional districts there. I love this story here, Janae. I thought this was hilarious, where one of his staffers, Alex Kelly, asserted that the maps violated the Equal Protection Clause. I love that.

It violated the Equal Protection Clause. And then one of the judges actually then said, I'm sorry, is that based on a court ruling? Where are you getting that from? And then the guy was like, nah, that's just our opinion. So even if you have these conservative

justices who's going, wait a minute, y'all just can't come in the court just saying something violates the Constitution, and a judge has never ruled on that. Listen, the license that so many extreme conservatives are taking in this moment to challenge laws that are tried and true to bring up cockamamie claims and frivolous lawsuits, they abound. And it's important that our judiciary hold the line and

make it clear that they're not going to capitulate to these claims that would upend prior precedent and doctrine and would distort key principles in our democracy like equal protection. But we are seeing a lot of that. We're seeing it across the board. Don't you love this quote, Jene? The guy said, the Florida Supreme Court got it wrong. I don't know if judges take kindly to a political person saying, oh yeah, the Florida Supreme Court, they got it wrong. I think you're right. And what I call this is overreach. And overreach will sometimes get you yanked up by the court. You're right. So you mentioned going before the Supreme Court, the South Carolina case in October. You got Louisiana. You're dealing with Alabama. This is Florida. You also have a trial going on in Georgia. We have a trial in Texas right now in the moment. Yes,

there are trials all over the country. The Legal Defense Fund is in the middle of a trial right now in the state of Texas challenging Senate Bill 1, which is a voter suppression law that makes it very difficult to vote by mail, to vote remotely, and also for people with disabilities to be able to cast a ballot. And we are proudly representing some wonderful organizations in this lawsuit, including Delta Sigma Theta. They've been with us every day at trial and showing out and supporting this effort because all of the organizations that we represent in this suit are engaged in trying to turn the vote out

and trying to ensure that black people can cast a ballot that will be counted. And so when we see an egregious law like the one in Texas, we are compelled to bring a lawsuit and bring our very best game to the trial court, which is what we've been doing over the past two weeks. And we will continue next week to bring more witnesses on the stand and to prosecute our claims in that case. Last question for you. I don't think people really, really, really understand the war that is being waged in the courtrooms. I often talk about on this show, battle in the streets, battle in the suites, and then the battle in the courts. And every day, I mean, we're talking about massive,

massive resistance. And what Republicans are doing, and I'm being very clear, what Republicans are doing, they are doing everything they possibly can to keep black people and others, including young white folks, Latinos and others, from exercising the right to vote. And I tell people, if you don't use that power, if you don't use that vote, then what you're doing is you're just wasting the opportunity to change this country. Y'all are literally in a war, a well-funded war. You're not wrong, Roland, absolutely. And for us, we are nonpartisan, so we don't care who's coming for the black vote.

If you try to suppress our vote, if you try to wrest our political power away, you will be met with the full force of the law, and we will hold you to account. There's no question about it. And right now, there are many states that are engaged in gerrymandering, racial discrimination in terms of voter suppression, mis- and disinformation, every possible tactic you can imagine to deny Black people and other marginalized communities their currency to change this democracy. And the worst thing we could do is sit elections out, to fail to register, to miss any opportunity to exercise the right to vote. We will be doing their work for them if we sit

our elections out. We've got to mobilize. We've got to bring our friends and family. We've got to organize our communities and we have to exercise our power. Indeed. Jadae Nelson, NWACP, LDF. Certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Keep fighting.

Thanks. Take care. Folks, got to go to break. We come back more on Rolling Mountain Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Back in a moment. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser

Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at LavaForGoodPlus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes

that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. White nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

You will not be back. White people are losing their lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash.

This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white people. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, staying balanced is tough enough with the normal day-to-day stuff going on.

But what happens when we get the unexpected? It may come crashing down through a bad diagnosis for either you or a loved one. My son, he actually was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and it came at a very challenging time in my life. I had a lot going on with starting a new business. How to cope and even stay balanced when even the walls are crashing in. That's on the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. We talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns.

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I'm Faraji Muhammad, live from L.A., and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation, you and me. We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3

only on the Blackstar Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show. This is your boy, Herb Quay. And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks, my panel. I'm Robert Portillo, host of People, Passion, Politics, News & Talk 1380 WALK in Atlanta.

Jesse Hamilton, McCoy, a clinical professor of law, a supervising attorney at the Duke Law Civil Justice Clinic to run Walker Founder Context Media Atlanta. Robert, I want to start with you. Again, legal battles. The audience really has to understand that our black civil rights organizations, NAACP, LDF, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Transforming Justice Coalition, we can go on and on and on. These folks are doing battle. I mean, they are doing legal, you know, legal fisticuffs every single day all across this country trying to stop the onslaught,

onslaught of attacks on black voters. Robert, you're on mute. All right. I think that's better. Look, you're absolutely correct. And remember, it's not just black voters they are attacking. If you look at the farmers where the Biden administration allocated $10 billion to, you have Stephen Miller and his group suing, claiming racial discrimination against white people in that situation. If you look at the hiring programs that have been put in place

to increase diversity across the federal government, you're having conservative groups sue on that. The group of women who are investing in black, black female-led businesses, groups of conservatives are suing there. There's a reason that Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump attacked the judiciary. Donald Trump appointed over 300 judges while he was in office. Mitch McConnell stole Merrick Garland's seat in order for them to have a majority on the Supreme Court. It's because they anticipated this is that same battle to come. And these fights are taking place in courtrooms around the country.

And a lot of times they don't get the same headlines, they don't get the same attention. But this is where the new front in the civil war, the civil rights movement is. It's happening in courtrooms around the country, and we have to be aware of that. We have to donate to these organizations. Young people are going to law school. We need more civil rights attorneys. Don't just go to the big firms. We are going to have to be ready to fight this battle because, as you said, as white people become a minority in this country, they're starting to avail themselves of the 14th Amendment. They're starting to claim equal protection violations.

They're starting to claim that they're being discriminated against under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. They're taking the exact legal framework that was put in place to protect African-Americans or other minority groups, and they are using it to fight against the diversity, equity, and inclusion of black and brown voters nationwide. We have to be ready for these battles, and we have to be ready to fight back. You know, Jesse, the thing here, when I say it, well-funded. I mean, look, when you have this white conservative, former leader of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo, where this billionaire literally gives him $1.6 billion to use any way he wants to, that's serious. That's a serious amount of money to be going up against. And they are deploying that money all over this country.

Absolutely. And the issue is that they know that on the other side, it takes a coalition, it takes a joint effort for us to be able to even stand in those courtrooms and continue to fight with such money interests. But I think it's also a good opportunity for us to see how important and how powerful our vote is. The fact that people still walk around convinced that voting doesn't matter, yet there are groups that are willing to invest a war chest, a treasure trove of money, in order to keep people from coming out to vote and having the legal ability to vote or to minimize the power that your voting bloc can have through gerrymandering shows you just exactly why

you should be eager to go down to the polls and cast a vote to guide the direction of the nation that you want to see, not just the nation, but the state and local government that you want to see and the policies that you want to implement. So, Ron, we talk about, I mean, just lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. And then when you look at what they're saying, when you look at the attorney general of Alabama, when he was, you know, when he released this statement, I mean, it was so offensive to non-white people because he literally, go to my iPad, he literally says that the state is now going to be forced to have a racially gerrymandered court-drawn map

for the 2024 election cycle. No, dude, y'all drove a racially gerrymandered map. They are so angry that even conservative judges were like, you know what, even this is too much for us. You know, this is why I talk so much about the power of media narratives. I think we really need to have a conversation in this country, especially among black people who are concerned about the well-being of our culture and our political standing, to have a conversation about how you have to get control of the media narrative. And like it or not, the Republicans and the far right are very,

very, very good at controlling a narrative or taking a narrative, twisting that narrative and making it say something else. The people who believe in that, even though they may not even know that that's the truth or not, are going to run with that because in their mind, like you said earlier, white people are on the decline. And anything that's going to push back against that or feeds into that fear, they're going to go with. So that sort of thing doesn't play in a courtroom, but it does play in the court of public opinion. And people have to be aware of that. And like the other brother said, we do need to have conversations about voting, but we also need to have conversations about how we fund these fights and how we push these things. Billionaires on the right are very good at writing checks, like you said, and giving people carte blanche and blank checks to fight and push back against whatever they want to push back against. We've got to start going to people who have means.

We've got to start going to people who we know have resources and directing them to help fund some of these things to push back against that. Because if they don't, you're going to see more and more of these things happen around the country. These are test cases. They're going to happen everywhere. Indeed. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We're going to see more and more of these things happen around the country. These are test cases. They're going to happen everywhere. Indeed. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about how Republicans are going after child care.

I told you all these people are not pro-life. They're not pro-family. We'll break it down next on Rolling Martin Unfiltered. If you're watching on YouTube, hit the Like button, folks. It's important. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. See you at Chicken and Money. Go to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.,

20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Next on The Black Table, with me, Greg Carr.

Democracy in the United States is under siege. On this list of bad actors, it's easy to point out the Donald Trumps, the Marjorie Taylor Greens, or even the United States Supreme Court as the primary villains. But as David Pepper, author, scholar, and former politician himself says, there's another factor that trumps them all and resides much closer to many of our homes. His book is Laboratories of Autocracy, a wake-up call from behind the lines. So these state houses get hijacked by the far right, then they gerrymander. They suppress the opposition. And that allows them to legislate in a way that doesn't reflect the people of that state. David Pepper joins us on the next Black Table herey 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 going to 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 Blackstar Network.

Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. Louder and Prouder on Disney+. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. On Saturday, 3.2 million children will lose care because the funding for the 70,000 child care programs is set to expire. Those monies came from the emergency child care funding as part of the American Rescue Plan Act that helped improve workers' compensation and cover expenses, including rent and the cost of personal protective equipment. So what happens next week to families who depend on those funds?

Joining me now from D.C. is Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson, the president and CEO of the Children's Defense Fund. Doc, glad to have you here. So what then happens? What's interesting is that when you hear folks on the right say they're pro-family, they're pro-life, well, it doesn't really jive when you look at the cutting of resources for children and child care. Yeah. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the

time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibbillion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized

my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Thanks for having us on. Thanks for shining a light on this issue, Roland. You're right. It doesn't come through when you say you're pro-family to impact 3.2 million kids who are going to lose their childcare spots, 70,000 childcare programs

that are going to be impacted by this. So what's going to happen next week if we don't get congressional action is families will be scrambling to make sure that they take care of their children, a reordering, a reshuffling of households, and parents having to make decisions about whether they actually can stay in the workforce. of the return from the pandemic is we've seen a narrowing of the gaps between women who carry a disproportionate burden of child care in the home being able to return to the workforce, to be able to close pay gaps with men because of this kind of support making child care affordable. So there'll be difficult decisions that have to be made in families and households. But those who are Republicans who, frankly, who may not care as much about these families based upon some of their policy decisions may care about the impact on the economy.

Because we're going to see about nine billion dollars impact from those parents who have to leave the workforce or reduce their hours from them not having these child care supports. So this is a critical crisis for our economy. And this is one of those things that, again, I remember when Bill Clinton signed the new welfare bill. And when you listen to him, when you listen to Republicans talk about folks need to get out there and get to work. It's a lot of people would love to work, but they literally cannot afford child care because of low wages. And if I have a choice where I could go on, I can get welfare, I can get assistance, um, I can, and to care for my child versus taking a job and I can't get the child taken care of, then what am I supposed to do?

That's what drives me crazy the most in these conversations. Folk literally don't sit down and say, okay, hmm, over here you're bringing home $900 a month and over here the child care is $1,500 a month. Yeah, you're right. I mean, the child care is $1,500 a month. Yeah, you're right. I mean, the math ain't mathin', right? So it costs, by most estimates, about $11,700 a year for child care. Those are the estimates for those of us who are taking care of children in America for an individual child. So you begin to reduce that from a lot of folks' paychecks, including, frankly, those people who are taking care of our children.

The average child care worker in America makes less than $15 an hour. So we've got razor-thin margins in the child care centers. We've got folks who are working there not able to take care of their own kids in the same way. And when the average American is trying to make decisions about whether they can afford to work, engage in the self-fulfillment that comes from the dignity of work outside the home and in the home, they're making that decision based upon economies where child care is just not affordable. And the reality of this support going away is that the folks who are running these child care centers are going to have to make decisions about whether they can continue to provide the kind of subsidies and scholarships that parents have come to enjoy over the course of the last few years or whether they're going to have to raise prices, thus making a challenging circumstance and challenging decision for parents to make even more difficult when the price of child care goes up. What's the possibility of the money being restored? Well, it's looking really challenging. There are congressional leaders like Suzanne Bonamici from Oregon,

Bernie Sanders and others who are trying to drive this, Patty Mary in the Senate trying to drive this. But with the conversations about a potential government shutdown, this is getting tied up. So there has been, two weeks ago, a Child Care Stabilization Act bill was presented. There were attempts and continue to be attempts to attach this to the supplemental spending bill. But with the pressures, particularly in the House, to reduce government spending overall by 8 percent, there's still a lack of alignment on government spending overall. So this is tied up when people are having a conversation about a potential government shutdown. They should be mindful that we're also talking about raising prices for child care, talking about the crisis for child care and families having to make this decision, and frankly, compounding this by

tying up things like the Health and Human Services Department, which won't be able to issue support for Head Start. So that'll impact another 10,000 young people. So the chances seem slim right now. This is a work where we need people to call their congresspeople, particularly those in the House who are keeping from some alignment on a spending bill, to make sure that this is a part of the conversation for extending government spending and making sure young people have places of nurture and care. All right, Ben. Pastor, we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. All right, folks, when we come back, we're going to talk about, again, first of all, we're going to deal with these Republicans and their craziness when it comes to trying to shut down the federal government. And this case out of Philadelphia. Indeed, there's now dropping charges

against a former cop who killed a man seconds after literally arriving on the scene. We'll talk about that as well. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Blackstone Network. All change is not growth. But thoughtful change is real good fertilizer.

And that's what has been so beneficial to us. But you also were not afraid of the pivot. Well, and I'm a black woman in business. Come on, I don't care how I dress up. I don't care who I'm speaking with. I don't care what part of the world I am in. I still am a black woman in business. Being afraid of the pivot, being fearful of change is not what got me here.

Respectful of change, respectful of pivot, yeah. Fearful, no, uh-uh, no. hatred on the streets a horrific scene white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn lives there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial.

This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hi, I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder.

I don't play Sammy, but I could. Or I don't play Obama, but I could. I don't do Stallone, but I could do all that. And I am here with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means

to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart

radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skill through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. All right, folks, take a good look at Jordan Gross. He's a missing, endangered person who walked away from his Philadelphia home on September 22nd and has not been seen since.

The 31-year-old is 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Jordan was last seen wearing a red shirt, gray shorts, and gray Adidas shoes. Anyone with information about Jordan is urged to call the Philadelphia Northwest Detective Division at 215-686-3353 215-666-86 3353 Folks, chaos erupted Tuesday night in the streets of Philadelphia after a judge dismissed

charges against a former Philadelphia police officer charged with murder in connection with the death of Eddie Irizarry. Judge Wendy Pugh concluded during the preliminary hearing that the case against Mark Dial lacked

evidence to allow the case to move forward. The DA's office has refiled the criminal complaint against Dial on all charges. Dial was charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime,

simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person, and official oppression in this April-August 14th shooting of Eddie Israri. Dial and his partner say Eddie was driving erratically. Come on, guys, roll the video. They followed the vehicle for several blocks before approaching the driver who turned the wrong way down a one-way street

and stopped. Dowell and his partner stopped their cruiser in the middle of the road, immediately drawing and pointing their guns at Eddie's parked car as they exited. The officers commanded him to put his hands up. They say he had a knife when he was fatally shot at point-blank range.

You know, we broke this video down, Jesse, and I tell you, it was shocking. But for this judge to make this decision, it's crazy. They claimed initially that, oh, we saw a gun. They didn't. Then the lawyer for Mark Diles said, initially that, oh, we saw a gun. They didn't. Then the lawyer for Mark Diles said, you can clearly

hear on the video, they say gun. No, they didn't. They didn't. And he had a knife in a car with the windows rolled up. How was that a direct threat to this cop? Well, I think it's clear that it wasn't.

And I believe that initially they also said that he was outside of the vehicle. And we see on the video that's not true either. To me, it just sounds like the same story that we've been hearing over and over since the beginning of time, where officers are going to make up whatever they want to believe. I guess they forget that there are still cameras. And they're going to try to feed off of a narrative that they were afraid for their life, something had happened, and it resulted in them having to use deadly force, when clearly in this situation, there was no need for deadly force. And it's on their own body cams. We also have to only imagine what the victim in

this case was going through when you see random officers hop out of a car and pull out their guns before they even come to your window, ask for ID, tell you anything about what they're stopping you for. Your life is already in jeopardy by the time that encounter starts. Tarun? You know, I've said this before and I'll say it again because it's still true. If you are a black man, if you are black in general, your skin is your weapon. When you're dealing with a system that sees your black body as a weapon, that sees you as a potential threat, you're always going to be carrying a deadly weapon. And this guy right here was a Latino.

You know, I mean, even with that, though, you know, anything that looks browner than a white hand is going to be seen as a threat. What's sad about that is we've seen police time and time again. I mean, we know the story of how they treat people in these situations, but the thing is, we've seen them react nonviolently or be very understanding when there's a mad dog in the street, whether it's a pit bull, whether it's a white person wielding a weapon, swinging it at the police, or having an actual automatic weapon or fully armed. A lot of police, they see white skin and they know how to move in those situations. Whenever they see anything that's brown or black, they automatically get on the defense and they get on the alert. What's sad about this is, unfortunately, there's a system in

place that allows these men to make up whatever story they want to make up. And the system will back them with that. And this is really just a manifestation that we see time and time again. And again, until there's financial consequences of these actions, until there are legal consequences to these actions, you're going to keep seeing this sort of thing repeated over and over and over. Nothing moves in society except money, and until you start making people pay for that financially with these situations, this is going to continue, unfortunately. Robert? Look, Kyle Reddenhouse murdered two people in a big, crowded area.

He then walked towards police with an AR-15 on his back and went home. Police didn't shoot him. They didn't surround him. They didn't attack him or cost him. He just went home after that. And police are going to, at some point in time, explain why people like Kyle Rittenhouse, why people like the Buffalo shooter, why people like the killer at the Mother Emanuel AME church, Dylann Roof, why those people are suddenly able to leave the scene alive. while people like the killer at the Mother Emanuel AME Church, Dylan Ruth,

why those people are suddenly able to leave the scene alive. But when there's a black or brown person who is unarmed or potentially has a knife inside of a car with the windows rolled up, why they are such an existential threat to require an extrajudicial execution by the federal government. I think that's a conversation that law enforcement needs to have with the community about why Kyle Rittenhouse can murder two people and have an AR-15 on his back and no officers feel panicked enough to shoot him, or Dylann Roof can murder nine people and get taken to Burger King. But yet, if a Latino boy or a black man has a knife or is unarmed, they see that as so somewhat to a threat that they

have to make the fight or flight decision to murder that individual. This is a conversation that America is not ready to have. And this will put an extra emphasis into Congress going into this election year. We've been talking about passing comprehensive criminal justice reform and police reform for decades now. We had the entire George Floyd summer of 2023. We had promises made to communities that we would pass comprehensive police reform and criminal justice reform. It has not happened yet. You've got a dozen Republicans running on that side of the aisle. Force them to have a conversation about what they will do about this issue. Force your congresspeople and your senators to explain why they have not made this a top

priority. I saw on conservative media, they spent so much time last night talking about the protests last night, talking about people who decided to start looting during the protests last night. But what they didn't talk about is what caused that. And what caused it is a legislative failing in this country that still allows the extrajudicial execution of individuals with no consequences or repercussions and a legislative system that refuses to address it until it is addressed. We will continue seeing this happen. Folks, I got to play this for y'all because I just saw this and it was just way too much fun. So, you know, these Republicans have been out here talking about, you know, going after Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. And one of these people is Jason Smith, Republican from Missouri.

And so that was a news conference where he was bringing things up. And so this NBC reporter began to then question him on his timeline. And if you want to see what happens when you just sort of ask a basic question, and all you're looking for is a basic answer, and they can't give you a basic answer, then all they do is act a fool. Watch this.

... ... ... ... ......... Attorney General and Donald Trump was the president. So explain to me where the two-tiered system of justice comes into play. And then the WhatsApp message you have, I believe, is dated June 6, 2017. Joe Biden is not vice president or even a candidate for president at that time. So where is the direct connection to some sort of criminal malfeasance within these two pieces

of evidence? Well, I think the facts speak for themselves. There's over 700 pages of examples of where people should be very concerned. When you're talking about the, what was your first question? It doesn't matter who's in the White House. We need to make sure that the Department of Justice works for all people and doesn't treat those who are politically connected or wealthy much differently. You suggested that Joe Biden being the president now is unfairly treating Donald Trump in his indictment? What I'm talking about is the 700 pages that we have before us, which is all the information that came from the IRS whistleblowers. Can you explain the timing then of the August 6th WhatsApp message? Why is that evidence of some wrongdoing?

I'm not an expert on the timeline. I would love to have President Biden and his family to tell us about all the timelines through- But he's not the president or the vice president at that time. Where's the wrongdoing? He wasn't even a candidate for president at that time. He was a candidate in August. So apparently, uh, parent, what source are you with? I'm with NBC. So apparently you'll never believe us. Um, but that I'm asking you a very direct

question. You presented a piece of evidence that you say came on August 6th, 2017, that demonstrates that Joe Biden was using political influence to help his son. Which wasn't a political figure at that time. The first WhatsApp message you put up. How does that demonstrate that there's some sort of political influence being put over him if at that time he is not a political, he's not an elected official? I'm definitely not going to pinpoint one item. I think we've outlined numerous.

So apparently you don't agree with it. It's a report that you disagree with it. I'll take the next question. I'm not mistaken. Oh, my God. Yo, Robert, it's kind of a basic question. How are you going after somebody for so-called illegal acts when they were president or vice president when they weren't even in office? I'm not going to lie to you.

I did not expect his voice to be that light. Like, I never saw that guy or heard of that guy before, but I had no idea his voice was going to sound like that. So it took me out for a couple seconds. You know that boy that had no bass in his voice? He got a little bit of... You know he had no bass. He all traveled. Look, I'm just saying, I didn't expect it.

I expected a smaller man to have that voice. I expected him to come out sounding like Bull Connor. I wasn't expecting that. But look, this is the thing that Republicans keep doing. They keep shooting themselves in their own foot every time they think they have some momentum. You know, you have the poll numbers showing Donald

Trump up 10 points. You have questions about Joe Biden's age. You have questions about inflation and the economy. And then they just come and do something stupid to take attention away from that. So first, you have the poll numbers come out that aren't looking great. Then Lauren Boebert heads down to the theater and has her good time. Now that becomes a story. Next, you have the poll numbers come out that aren't looking great. Then Lauren Boebert heads down to the theater and has her good time. Now that becomes a story. Next, you have these questions about economic growth and GDP numbers. Then Republicans decide they're going to start this debt ceiling fight for no apparent reason and take attention off of that. Then you have this question of Joe Biden and assistance he's providing to Ukraine and whether or not people agree with that. And the Republicans come up with this crazy-ass idea that, hey,

well, we found something about the president's sons, homeboys, text messages that show something. They can't keep on message. They can't create any kind of winning strategy. It's one thing that you lose every election. It's another thing that you are the cause of your own loss. I think we'd be in a healthier nation if you had a functioning Republican Party that actually had competing ideas. But when it's just a series of crazy people and scandals with surprisingly white voices, it becomes very difficult to take them seriously. And that forces people to really pick one side or the side of sanity.

Well, I guess that can't take you seriously when your timeline is all screwed up. Hell, you can't count. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. But I think what's interesting is when all else fails, they always go back to this kind of deep state mechanism. You don't believe us. You obviously won't believe us because you're partisan, right? And this is the narrative that was already created to justify anything that our former president was able to do that was highly illegal.

Anytime that somebody shines a light on the information that he's doing or the bad things that he's doing, it's always a witch hunt. It's always the deep state. It's always convincing people who want to believe in racist ideology anyway, that somehow the country and all of the mechanisms that we didn't necessarily design, but that they designed, are now working against their interests. So to the point that even a member of the media, of respected NBC media, who's just asking simple questions about the timeline and trying to understand what the argument is that is being made with the pieces of evidence used, can't get a straight answer. And when there's no straight answer to provide, we run back to the, oh, the government is after us.

Tell Ron. You know what, while watching that, you remember the old Saturday Night Live clip for Chris Farley when he played the motivational speaker, when he had to tie a button up to his neck with a too tight shirt and he was doing all this? That's what that looked like, man. It was crazy to see that. But what's funny about it is this shows you the power of ideology over ability because that guy knows, even though he was woefully underprepared for that press conference, and I got to commend that reporter for staying on him like that, his fan base and the base of that guy is going to still rock with that. Because as long as you say certain buzzwords like, you know, you're not going to believe us, you're fake news,

you know, you're the government, you're the media, people are going to just accept that and they're going to go along with it. What's crazy about that is if you are a Republican and if you have any concern about your party, I would think that you would try to find people who are more competent to be able to get in front of the media and explain your points. That was just sad to watch. It was crazy seeing that. And I can't believe that that really that guy was able to get out there and do that. But we live in this economic time now. We live in this political circus and we live in. So anything is possible. It was wild. I think it was hilarious. First of all, to run, Jesse, Robert, I appreciate both of you all being on today's show with our panel.

Thank you so very much, folks. Got gotta go to break. We come back. When we went to Liberia, I chatted with a number of different people, including a Liberian businesswoman talking about what she is doing to grow the economics of that country. We're celebrating its 200th bicentennial last year. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself.

Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Founded by formerly enslaved people of African descent. And so we have that as part of our continuing conversation of the country of Liberia. You're watching Rolling Button Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.

We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, wait to $100,000.

We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Your money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. The Cash App is $RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at Roland unfiltered. Venmo is rm unfiltered. Zelle is

roland at rolandsmartin.com. Next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes, the amazing Drew Dixon. She gives us the details behind the HBO documentary that shed light

on the alleged sexual assaults by Russell Simmons. And we're talking about the Netflix documentary Ladies First right here on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. Carl Payne pretended to be Roland Martin.

Holla! You ain't gotta wear black and gold every damn place, okay? Ooh, I'm an alpha, yay! Alright, you're 58 years old. It's over. And you are now watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. Hey, folks, we're here in Liberia, of course, celebrating the 200th bicentennial of this country. And we've been having different conversations during our visit.

And so I want to talk about economics and not from the government perspective, but also from the private sector, from the business perspective. And so we had the VIP dinner on our first night. Ran across this sister who was the CEO, and I said, well, look. I said, let's chat. And then I went to her LinkedIn, and I swear she got about 15 businesses. And I said, what's going on here? I said, it has to be a great conversation. And so, for a while, I said, sure, I would love to sit down and chat with you. Come on out to my facility, one of her many different ones, and that's where we are right now.

And so, let's have this conversation. How are you doing? I'm very good, thank you. I'm doing great. So, Virtu Companies, am I pronouncing it correct? Virtu Group of Companies. Virtu? Group of Companies. Got it.? Virtu Group of Companies. Virtu? Group of Companies.

Got it. Okay. First of all, how did that start? Where did it originate from? It started eight years ago when I came back from Lebanon and decided to relocate to Liberia. Started off by opening a restaurant, a continental restaurant. And after a year of running that, diversified into construction. And then on and on. So you've got, it was a restaurant. Yes. Then it was a construction company. Right. Then what else? Then we got into mining. We did artisanal mining. And then after we decided to go into agriculture

while doing the mining. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. And then decided to also open a foundation. Because, you know Because everything came handy. Being in the rural area, doing farming and mining, then you see that you need to help more, and then new ideas comes up,

and decided to do a foundation. So you said you moved from Lebanon, but you also, you're Liberian. Yes, but I, with the war, we all moved different places. During 2003, I moved from Liberia to the Ivory Coast, then Lebanon, where I stayed for like six years and decided to relocate back home. Yeah. So we'll talk about the business. I'm going to come back to that.

But give us a sense of what was life like in Liberia pre-Civil War? Well, I was very little when the war took place. So most times when I'm asked the question, where did you grow up, I get confused because I was very young. And then we had to run to the nearby country, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. But Guinea first, where I stayed like three, four years with my mom and then moved to back to Liberia and got married. And yeah, then I had to relocate to Lebanon because there was a little bit of conflict going on. There was not really perfect stability at the time. So I had to go back. And then came back in 2006. And so the war came about, what, 15 years?

Yeah. So it ended probably about a couple of years before you came back. Right. So when I came back, there was a little bit of stability. And then we thought everything was OK. Then 2003, something happened. So it was like on and off.

It was not like the real war before, but it was like on and off. It was not like the real war before but there was not stable. So then I Went through my divorce and moved to Ghana Where I established my first business Yeah, but before that like barrier was not what it is now, you know after coming back After the war It was it was it was really bad. I mean, you had massive destruction.

Massive battles. Thousands who died as well. And so you literally had this crown jewel of Africa that was destroyed in many ways and had to be reconstructed. Right. And so when we had the first stable government, elected government, which is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, which was Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, there was a lot of changes that took place comparing to when I came back in 2006 from Ghana, because I came first, 2006,

and tested the waters, thought I could stay. I actually moved all of my business here and then realized that I could not even drive like 10 miles per hour. And I was so frustrated. I was like, no, I have to go back, take my kids out of here, go to the neighbor in Ivory Coast, maybe learn a little bit of French. Then I can come back when things are much better, which I did.

So I left and came back and much, much better. You know, roads are good now. I can speed because I'm a fast driver. You know, and going to my mom's village used to take weeks, sometimes months. Really? Yes. Now it takes me three hours. Whoa, whoa, whoa. So I can go and come back.

Now it takes three hours. Yes. It used to take weeks or months? Weeks or months. See, that's the thing that when, look, I've been gone twice. First time here in Liberia. But I've had conversations with other African leaders, and that's a thing that so many people take for granted. People talk about restaurants and this, that, and the other, but things as basic as roads, that changes cities and counties.

It changes countries. For many Americans, look, they were born, their road's already there, but that was a time when you had rural America. You didn't have roads and bridges, and all of a sudden, you were pretty much cut off from the rest of the country. Right.

So road connectivity, like you just stated, is very, very, very essential. I wouldn't have ventured into everything that I'm doing now if there was no road connectivity. Of course, we still need more. We need so much more done. But I'm the kind of person that tries to appreciate the little good in everything, because it's important,

because you always have to build on that. Right. And you can't do it, one person cannot do it all. So, and development is continuity. So, we're hoping, and we see that there's even more going on with our new government. We see other developments going on. And movement is much smoother.

Yes. I mean, as a business owner, the reality is those are things that you need in order to grow a business. You talked about the village where you grew up, where it used to take weeks and months, now it's three hours. You mentioned all the different businesses, but the agriculture, what are y'all growing? And is that happening in the village where you grew up? Yes, it's happening in the village. That's a little bit of a challenge up to now because we have the main road from here,

like two hours drive, which is perfect drive. And then we get off. And when getting off. Yeah, then that's where the real, you know, deal is. So when it's dry weather, you're fine. Yeah. When it's rain. Even with dry weather right now, this year is scary.

Wow. Yeah. But, you know, it's still manageable, still manageable. We're still talking about, you know, community development. We're talking amongst ourselves on how we can maintain the road until the government can, you know, take it to the next level. But from my village to my farm is also another challenge. So what I did a few years ago was I had to take on the responsibility to open a road that was open for the first time in 1977. And so you can imagine since 1977 to 2001,

so it was all forests and everything. So I had to open that road. You did? Yes, I had to. Because? I had to. That's my grandfather's land, and we also have neighboring farmers. So I opened it in a way where we could all access, you know.

But we still do have some challenges, you know, moving the crops from farm to market. Most times if you don't have, you know, easy access, you know what happens. You know, things go bad, losses and all that. So how does somebody who majors in fashion end up construction, agriculture, restaurant? I mean, what, were you bored? Or did you say, you know what, I have all these interests. I'm just going to do multiple businesses. Yeah.

I think the thing is I'm a multitasker. I get bored easily. And I see possibilities and opportunities in everything. So started in fashion, was married, and then needed to just... Do you have a fashion business in Ghana? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In Ghana, yes.

Yes, but the school... But you made clothes. Yeah, but the school came after Ghana. Ah. So I actually got some of my inspiration from there. So you were making clothes, and then decided to go to a fashion school. I had a partner that lived in from there. So you were making clothes. Yes. And then decided to go to the fashion school. I had a partner that lived in New York, and she was a model. So we kind of collaborated because I had the space.

I had a nice lounge and a restaurant. Then I had a fashion boutique in there. And then I started making my own little clothes. So when she came by, she loved the idea because my boutique opened only during the night. We don't open the store during the day. Yeah, restaurants open during the day and everything, but the fashion side of it is open during the night. So we used to do like fashion shows and then put our stuff on display. So she was like, I'm interested. I'd like to work with you. So we collaborated and

had our own fashion line which was called Rima Fame. Though it was my main thing. Yeah. Okay. So that's how we called it. Now, do you steal my clothes? Yes, but occasionally, not at the level that I want to take it later because it's my

passion. So you want to go back to expanding that part of your enterprise? Yes, that's going to be the fun part of it. Yeah, where you can come from the bush and from the farm and then get into another building and just be a different person. Beautiful, nice, in different clothing. And just show the difference in between there that you can enjoy both life what what is the condition what is the situation here for

business owners for entrepreneurs are you are you getting the kind of growth that you expected are you seeing people excited about starting their own ventures and building them up? And then what kind of assistance is the government giving? Okay. First of all, let me start with the last question. So far, no assistance from the government. I'm not complaining, but there's no assistance from the government since I started my business. But with my personal business that I started seven years ago, eight years ago, at this point in time, my expectations was not what it is right now. Because when I started... I mean, were they bigger or smaller? No, they were bigger. They were better. They were moving. I mean, there was prospect.

You know, you had hope that, okay, there's stability in my country now. Development's going on. Now we have a younger, you know, government coming in play. So, you know, it can only get better, you know. And so we started since 2012 in Liberia. And that was like the growing stage for us. So in 2018, I thought, okay, I'm not there yet, but I can now sit and observe a little bit and see what I've worked on, see how that is going to play out.

Right. And then COVID came. So COVID came. We had all of this open. So you were moving. Things were, you had this upward trajectory. Yeah. Multiple businesses are going fine.

And just like, look, 41 41 of black businesses went out of business during covid right covid hits and bang yeah so that's what happened i think you can see from the building when you entered um but this building was actually constructed for maybe a future university or a hospital, you know, just lease out the stores to different multiple businesses. But because of COVID and everything else that's going on, we had to just be creative.

So you got, so when did you acquire this building? I built it from scratch. You built it from scratch? Yes. And so, so you, so when you say it was supposed to be for school... Yeah, I built it not to run it like what I'm doing now. I built it hoping that maybe somebody can take it and turn it into a nice university. Right.

Or a hospital. Or an office building, you know. Yeah, but we built it from scratch this construction started from scratch and then When this so then when you move in then what did you put so was this was a? open restaurant No, it was an empty land and And I decided in 2014 to start something, you know, like a structure.

Because with construction, the projects don't come consistently. And in Liberia, you can't just do one business because sustainability is, you know, it's a little. So you have to do something to kind of support the other businesses. So when I noticed construction. So you need one. You got to build one business. Yeah. To support the other businesses. So when I noticed construction... So you need one, you got to build one business to support the other business. Well, not 100%, but you have to have that balance or something to fall back on just in case.

Or as we say, you got your primary and you got a side hustle. Right. So, exactly. So the construction was my... Primary. My primary. And what became your side hustle?

Building a multi-purpose building and trying to lease out or open maybe construction building materials. Right. Since I'm into construction. Because don't you have another building down the street? We saw a virtue something. We saw a sign down. So this is your only building here? Yeah, this is my only building right on this part of the road.

But going farther up, that one I don't have a sign there. Okay. I don't have a sign there. But I have a property on the beach there. Ah, I got it. That I'm trying to turn into a little boutique hotel that was supposed to be my residence. So, and it's right on the beach.

So very beautiful scenery. Yeah, so for this one, this is the only building on this side. So what would you say, so there's somebody, I mean, I know people have been doing this here. Folks, they've moved to Nigeria. People are moving to Ghana.

People are leaving the United States. If the person watching or listening to this and that idea, hey, you know what? I'm thinking about moving to Liberia to open a business. What do they need to know and understand? First thing is you have to find someone on the ground with experience. in a business, what do they need to know and understand? First thing is you have to find someone on the ground with experience. And that's the mistake a lot of us make. Because when we come back, we're so excited about the opportunities.

You've got an idea. Yeah. But it's the reality there. The reality is there. You have to speak to someone like me that have had the first hands-on experience. So what you're saying is don't come here trying to build nothing and you don't talk to Rima. Because you're a construction company, what do you build? I do structures and I do maintenance of roads and yeah. But when you say also talk to someone who's on the ground, you have to understand the

dynamics of, it's like somebody may have an expectation for workers. And we were talking earlier, you said, not necessarily what you think it's going to be. Right. Like any other country. It's not only with Liberia. Like any other country, when you come to do something, sometimes you think the unskilled workers are reasonable and they're easy to maintain. So you take them in and then you get carried away and you invest so much and only to get what you didn't pay for. So it's part of the issue in this country, you mentioned earlier how young it is, the lack of skill set. Yeah. And so skill set development is vital. It's very vital.

Like I'm the chair lady for the female construction contractors in Liberia. How many here? We're like 50, 60, maybe more, but the ones that are registered with the association. Yeah. Yeah, and this is one thing that I always try to push on the table, that we need to go down to the ground level and stop thinking our job is at the office level. It's not the office thing. You know, you have to get dirty. You can create a company, but at the end of the day, you got to have skilled workers who are handling the project to get them done right. And that is harming us seriously because when those things happen, the only thing you hear

is Liberian construction contractors don't know their jobs. And that's not the case because I have an eye for what I really want and I know what I want. But you're the skill guy. So if I tell you this is what I want and you give me what I didn't ask for, then I'm like, and these are bricks. You can't just break them so easily because they're very expensive to build. So I tell my people at the association that I think the one way to fix this problem is to go into the fields, find the unskilled workers, you know, and kind of work closely with them. I know trainings and, you know, other internships and all of those things are going to be very vital. So are there apprentice programs?

Are there, are there, because you talked about, you know, hoping this would potentially be a university. A need is having a very structured program to teach folks plumbing, electrician. And so now all of a sudden, you've got 100 people going through the program every year. Let's say it's a one-year program. Now they've been trained. Now folks like you can hire them. The next prop come in to learn that skill set. Correct. That's what we need. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers,

but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We need that so badly, especially when it comes to finishing. You know, like when I travel out of the country, I'm touching people's walls.

I'm like, but why can't I was here? Why? So it's my major until sometimes... So you're going to people's houses going... Yeah. I'm like, you know, and they know how to do it, but I don't know what it is. I mean, I guess... Well, but it's simple.

If you don't have the skill set, you don't have it. Yeah. That's the point of skill set. If you've got a high skill set, then you can deliver on what it is. Sure. So having a university that can just focus on finishing and sometimes maybe even giving a scholarship after they've completed the courses here to go out there and just see how it really is, like how it really looks when it comes to life, you know, and also get some other, what do you call it, professionals to come down. Like the Mexicans, sometimes I'm like, oh, I can't wait to get money so I can be able to afford to bring some of these Mexicans and stuff from America to come and teach our people on how to do proper finishing and also to get all of the right materials needed

for that. So the opportunity for African Americans would be if you're in the construction area or in the teaching area, you come teach. Yes. And build. Yes. That is, you know, it was interesting. We were at the Monrovia Day celebration. You were there as well. And it was amazing to hear the emcees say that 75% of Monrovia are young people. Listening to the mayor, listening to others talk about having such a young country, but to your point, not being skilled. And so now all of a sudden, you've got high literacy rate, you've got economic issues. You've got jobs issues.

You've got folks who want jobs. They want to make money, but if I don't know how to do anything, then you sort of have a difficulty because you're trying to build something, but you need people. Right. You need staff. Yeah. And you have all of our young people, a lot of them in the ghetto, you know, high on drugs. And that's one thing that is affecting, you know, our young population.

It's a very serious issue. So every time I drive down the street, I'm like, I see all these strong young men, you know, out there. So now you have more women trying to do stuff that men do, that men are supposed to be doing for them or with them, you know. So that's one of the depressing part. And like the ambassador said, yes, a lot of the population, maybe 75%, are young people. Yeah. So, and I think we talked a little bit about it this morning before the interview. You were like, well, how did that happen?

And I said, I think it's because of the war. You know, people lost their parents. Kids went astray. And you had young children having children. So there was no education. There's nothing. It's like you're not able to teach your child, you know, all of the fundamentals of, you know, of life. And for you, you had mother and father.

Yes, but they were separated since I was a baby. So I spent most time with my mother and a few times with my father. But I didn't have much opportunity with my dad because right after kindergarten, first grade, then the war came. So he went back to Lebanon and I had to run through the forest with my mom. And we lived as a refugee in Guinea for years. So, yeah. So, you know, the... You still don't get... I still didn't get the feel of having a real, you know, that family, family.

Yeah. So when people think about... We talk about Liberia becoming the first republic here on the continent of Africa. Some 12,000 freed enslaved folks coming here. So from 1820 to 1820, you had all of this progress, all of these things happening. Then you go through the 20th century,

and Tutman becomes president, and often referred to as the father of Liberia, and these things happen, and the close relationship between the United States of America, and other African nations are looking towards Liberia as the symbol of greatness. I was looking at the Ducor Hotel and listening to the minister talk about how this was the crown jewel of Africa, sitting high atop the hill there, overlooking the ocean, this massive pool there as well.

And now it's sitting there, now it's ruins. Right. And it's a fence around it. So for me, being on this hill and looking at it, and I'm going, I can only envision what this looked like, how magnificent it was, and how gorgeous it was. And so now you are, in essence, going back 50 plus years, and now having to restore what Liberia already had. So you're like, hmm, how can I be part of this change?

And being an entrepreneur, if you're not careful, then you keep thinking, okay, I think I can solve this problem. I think I can fix this. I think I can do this. Because you hear from people, because I didn't enjoy that time in Liberia because I was still pretty young. But when I hear people talk about it, I'm like, so why can't we restore what we had? What's the hold on?

What is the problem? This is a very small country. It's infrastructure. Yes, I know it costs money. But I guess you just need the right person to say, okay, this is the time, you know, to change this. How are, in terms of financing the business, is it? Go ahead. First of all, when somebody goes, uh-huh, there's a story behind that.

You know. Uh-huh. So I'm like, you know what? My business is falling. I need to reopen, and I need to start off from where I stopped, you know, before COVID. Well, how can I do that? And people will be like, oh, you got the property here.

You can put it out for loan or something. Then I hear someone else come and say, ha, you got the property here. You can put it out for loan or something. Then I hear someone else come and say, ha, you got to be careful because most loans we take, we lose our properties. And then the interest rate is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. On loans. Yes. So are you and others essentially self-financing? Yes.

And you're basically doing pay as you go. Yes. What comes you and others essentially self-financing? Yes. And you're basically doing pay as you go. What comes in, pay for it. Exactly. That's what we're doing. We're doing, we call it in Liberia, hand to mouth. That's what we're doing now. Because you're not getting assistance from the government. No. It's totally private sector.

It's totally private sector. And all of the private sector organizations that we try to work with, it's like everything is still a work in progress. You know, you never know when something is going to. So we're just putting our eggs in different baskets, trying to be optimistic and hoping that, you know, things can get better. So now that we are, we're not out of COVID, but are you seeing things being restored? And so what's now next for you? What are you, what's, you know, you,

first of all, of your businesses that right now, what is still ongoing? What is, what is still operating in? The farm. We are maintaining the farm. Got it. We were unable to do new projects this year because of financial constraints. And the second thing is we have a mini water factory. So we produce like sachet waters. That is a hand to mouth. That's the one that's actually, you know,

taking care of the fuel generator, you know, salaries, repairs, and all that stuff. How many people are working for you? I had about 13 here, but now I think we're down to seven or eight. And the farm? The farm, we had, you know, you have contractors. Right.

So we had like 100 contractors, and then we had eight employees. So now we're left with five employees on the farm because we have to cut down everything. Yeah. And then we contract, we subcontract. Gotcha. Yeah. So what do you see, let's say, five years from now, ten years from now, economically, what do you see? Where will this be? Where should this be? Where do you see where will this be where should this be where do

you want to be well five years from now it's unpredictable like it's just it's kind of blurry but I'm the optimistic person I always look into the future as, you know, something that can get better and that will be good. It will be better. Looking at the progress that the government is making now, trying to connect roads, the little improvements that are going around, it's kind of giving us a little bit of hope. But we still long for more. Of course.

And we hear that there's a lot of things in the pipeline, so that is kind of hopeful when you hear those things. What do you hope comes out of this 200th Bicentennial celebration and the effort to tell the Liberian story in the United States and globally? What I expect of this Bicentennial, which I really look forward to, because when Ghana did theirs, I was kind of jealous. Jealous in a good way. I was like, you know.

I was there? Yeah. Liberia is known to be the trendsetter in Africa because the AOU and all the other stuff. But why didn't we do this first? But then the reality hit me. Even with Ghana and all of the developments, I heard from some of the or, you know, visitors that there was a lot of challenges. Right. And you can imagine how developed Ghana is right now compared to Liberia. So the reality hit me and I'm like, okay, we're not ready yet. But when I heard that this was coming up for us,

I was very happy. And I think more could have been done. I think we still have time to do more. But I hope the government can focus more on connecting those touristic places, because we have beautiful places in Liberia compared to a lot of other African countries around here. So if we can focus more on tourism and rural connectivity, this will make a big difference. Because when people come from overseas or from the diaspora, they get fascinated by stuff they're not used to. They don't see on a day-to-day basis. By the history, the culture, the scenery, all of that. Right. But if you can take them out of this, out of Monrovia,

and really show them the beauty of this country, that could be, you know, something else. Well, speaking of showing, now's your time to take me on this tour. Okay. So we'll go through the building building and you'll explain to me. So I want you to show me what your vision is for this space that you've constructed. Okay. And I wish we could go to my village, like I told you, because I have a very nice football club.

And I have about 130 footballers. Wow. All young people that I take care of all by myself also. Really? Yes. And... See, you should have... If they're in the club, you should have them on the skill side.

Yeah. Have somebody teaching them carpentry and construction stuff. Yeah, so we have a tent in the village because we can't afford to construct a building right now. But it's a huge tent. And that tent was put there to start something like that. So you have three kids of your own, but you got another 130 kids. Yes, I do. 130 kids plus the ones here and the employees.

You got a lot of mouths to feed. I know, I know, but that's, that's the best part of it. It makes you feel accomplished, makes you feel like you're giving back. Uh, though it's very challenging. And sometimes she's like, but why am I doing this? I'm not, you know, how they call that lady? Uh, sin, no, how do you call that lady? No, how do you call that Indian? Oh, Mother Teresa? I'm not Mother Teresa, you know. But then your heart, your heart. Because you're someone that they look up to as an idol.

Right. They want to be like you. You know, you give them so much hope. So you want to tell them, yeah, it's okay. You know you're here, but you're like, it's okay. You know, you can do it. You can be better than me. You know, so here, but you're like, it's okay. You know, you can do it. You can be better than me. So then you tend to take everything

and, yeah, just keep expanding. Cool. All right, let's go tour. Come on. We'll walk this way. We're going through. All right, we're going to come shoot. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams,

NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne

from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real

from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up.

See, retirement is the long game we gotta make moves and make them early set up goals don't worry about a setback just save up and stack up to reach them let's put ourselves in the right position pre-game to greater things start building your retirement plan at this isreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Multi-purpose building. Okay. All right. So what was happening in here? So in here, just buying time, like I said, the initial, you know, idea was to open like a building material in here, but like upscale building materials. Uh-huh. Like selective items. Right. Nice lightings and chandeliers and all that stuff.

But due to COVID, we couldn't. So we had to, we had to do something else just to keep the building going. So we got a very nice pool room set up here. Very, very nice. It used to be really good before COVID. Now, you said before COVID, this joint was packed. Yeah, I used to have like 350 people

come here, and sometimes I have to bring my living room chair and put it out there. You had to go to your house and bring an extra chair? Yes. You know, the kids, the parents, and, you know, we had everything going and it was really good. So that was my office right there. So I'm able to observe and walk through.

And so I built it having two things in mind, that I could run the businesses in here by myself, or maybe lease the stores. So if I'm gonna run it by myself, then I need to have access to all the stores. So I decided to put doors in between. So the doors, they go all the way down? They go all the way down.

Okay. So my office is here. I can come out here, monitor this, monitor whatever, and then walk through and then come back to my office. So basically, this was like your... My walkway. My private walkway. Or your hideaway. My hideaway.

Yeah, so you're all behind the scenes. So everybody's over there, and I'm like observing without you knowing that I'm there. Okay. Yes. All right, then. All right, so we're talking about, so you had, so how many total businesses are there? It's like five different stores.

Uh-huh, okay. So we have the VIP pool room. Okay. Set up here, and then we have the bar. Right, right. The restaurant. Uh-huh. And next door, we have. And you open, what, five days a week, six, seven days a week?

Seven days a week. Wow. Yeah. And then this was the cafe. So this is the cafe. So what was... Okay, so what were you doing... What were you doing in here?

We sold ice cream, you know. We had, like, a little pastry place, popcorn, juices, you know. So this was the kids' favorite room. Really? Yeah, so kids would come in here and then be so busy. But it was really a nice experience. We had like TV on the wall, so they come in and they can watch like, you know, cartoons. At the same time, we had chairs all here, so parents can sit out there, have their drink, and the kids are in here safe.

So basically, if you brought the whole family here, so if mom and dad want to go eat at the bar, they're over there. Right. If one of them want to go play pool, they're over there. And then when the kids, they got their own space over here. So everybody has their own spot. Right. And then the kids sometimes go out there. We have like those little, those mini cars.

So the kids go out there and then have a ride around, have fun with some of the employees, you know. And yeah, just to distract them from their parents. So that they enjoy. Well, in many ways, this was truly a multifamily, multipurpose facility. And I always got the question, like, oh, this place is so nice. We're having fun. You know, we don't want to go back to town.

Can you create something upstairs, like a nice, you know, resting place and blah, blah, blah. So I was like, okay. So I started thinking about, you know, transforming the last two floors into apartments or a hotel. Okay. You know, so that is still in the pipeline. That's something I'm still looking at. Okay. The location, that has a lot to do with it.

So your first floor was really where you had things going on with development. Yeah. You had to develop a second and third floor. No, the second floor was just sometimes we used the space for, what do you call it, weddings. Got it. And occasions. Okay.

Let's go to the next spot. So this is the kids' spot. Yeah, this is the kids' spot. Okay, all right. Just go step in. All right, so we'll go on. Okay right, so we're going, all right. Okay, so in here we have a mini-mart. We have like American products.

Yeah, like, you know, all the nice lotions and makeups, you know, food. So rice wasn't in here? No, rice wasn't in here. Oh, that's just for now. Right, rice was next door. Okay, all right. Yeah, but we just moved't in here? No, rice wasn't in here. Oh, that's just for now. Right. Rice was next door. Okay.

Yeah, but we just moved it in here. Oh, so I see with the shelving and everything. Yeah, so with COVID, we lost all of the products, like everything else that was in here. Yeah, because everything expired. We had to shut down because businesses were not allowed to open. So I had to move to my village because I couldn't bear sitting here and seeing the business close. So I moved to my village for seven months.

And when we came back, everything was messed up. Yeah, so we had to just clean the whole place. So this was a market? Yes, this was a market, like a mini store. Right, right. When you come in, you can get a convenience store. Got it. Okay. So one more next door? Yes. Alright, let's go to the final room on this floor to see what we're working with.

Yeah. So this last room right here. Okay. Have a story. Oh, this has a story? Yes. Alright. I want to hear a story. Oh, this has a story? Yeah. All right. I want to hear the story. The story is, this is where I slept on the floor. I think you can see this is where I have my TV on the wall. Uh-huh. And then I have my mattress right here. I have a little bathroom there.

And these doors were closed permanently. Well, I see those are some heavy-duty doors. They are. They are, but they were shut. It some heavy-duty doors. They are. They are, but they were shut. It's like a bank vault door. I know. You had to do it for security. So those ones were closed,

and this was where I hung my clothes until I did all of the projects in this place. Wait a minute. So when you built this, you stayed here? Yeah, I stayed here when it was not completed, like when I was still doing the upper floor and the last one. How long did you stay here? Three years in this room.

Are you serious? Yes, I'm serious. But it was, it was peaceful. No wonder you said there's a story in this room. Wow. So yeah, so this is where I stayed and then did everything that I did in this yard. So was this the first room?

So you knew you were going to stay here? Yeah, I finished this first. So you said the first room? So you knew you were going to stay here? Yeah. I finished this first. So you said, hold on. Basically build my apartment first. Right. Yeah. So, because most times I used to sleep in my car outside. So I'm like, okay, I'll just fix this one up

because I have to do other construction. I work for the World Bank, the National Housing Authority, you know, the GIZ. So doing those projects, you don't have time to do stuff for yourself, and that's why sometimes you don't get things the way you want because you're not on the ground.

So you had a mattress on the floor? Yeah, yeah. So you didn't bring a bedpost, you just... No....mattress on the floor? It was so comfortable. It was comfortable. I enjoyed it. Wow. Yeah. So doing other people projects, you come from the sites, the other sites, pretty late. It was comfortable. I enjoyed it. Wow.

So doing other people projects, you come from the sites, the other sites, pretty late. And then you need to spend time at your project. So you don't have time to go home or live somewhere else. So I just decided to move on ground. For three years? Yes, for three years. Wow.

So it took three years to build? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, because you have to do a little by little. You work. Then whatever you get, you put, you work. Make money. Wow. So it took three years to build? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, because you have to do a little by little. You work, then whatever you get, you put, you work. Make money. Yeah. Put it to the building.

Little by little. Put it to the building. Yes. Okay. I got you. And that's why I took everything out of me, hoping that, okay, I'll just invest. I'll just do whatever, you know, put everything into it. And then I'm very sure that in a few years things will be great.

And then when I started the little restaurant and all that stuff, it used to really do well. And I was like, okay, this is helpful. So I kept on putting in everything only to get COVID coming in. Let's go look at the upstairs.

Because I think you said you had a banquet or something like that. You mean up? Yeah, we're going to go look at the upstairs. Because I think you said you had a banquet or something like that. You mean up? Yeah, we'll go up. All right, so we got big old wide open space. Yeah, so this is the place we use as a hall for now, just to keep the space going. But the initial intention for building it the way it's built was for furnitures,

like local Liberian furniture. Oh, so that's why you have- Slanted windows. So that way they can see the furniture from the window and stop by. Right. So we tried to build a workshop in the back of the building so that we create all of our own furniture using the local Liberian wood.

But yeah, the space is here. Now, we didn't get to do that yet. So we use it for weddings, you know, trainings, et cetera. Got it? Yeah. Got it. Yeah. Got it. So you thought about that, but, clearly the furniture thing, how that changed, then you just simply said, all right, let's do something else. Yeah. So what you did, wedding

receptions in here? Weddings, parties, you know, conferences, like little, you know, trainings and stuff like that. But this is where I was telling you about hoping this place can be turned conferences like little you know trainings and stuff like that but this is where I was telling you about hoping this place can be turned into is kind of training institution right I mean as a third that is even wider than this one because with this one we have petitions so basically all so I'll say this one So upstairs is what, the one that's larger? Yeah, it's just one large room. Okay, all right.

So... Yes, we go upstairs. We go upstairs? Yeah. All right, then we'll go in the back. Yeah. To get the water. Right.

All right, cool. Yeah. All right. So, I'm ready. So, in here, we have a drawing that can give me about 12 nice suites. How many? 12 nice suites. 12 nice suites?

Yes. Okay. And then like a little gym area, maybe like a few machines. And people can come and have conferences, weddings, and still come up here and sleep. Or maybe on the way to the airport because this building is strategically located. So how far we from the airport? We're like 10 minutes. Oh, that's it? Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. 10 minutes when I'm driving. So that's 30 minutes for everybody else. Yes, but it's 15 minutes. Okay. Yeah, 15 minutes. So it's very strategically located. So you said 12 squeeze gym.

And so you've got sort of these larger windows like this one, both looking out. Yeah, so some of these windows are going to end up into some of the suites. Like most of the suites will be along this side. Right. And then the single rooms will be along this side.

Okay. Alright then. Alright, so we got water outside? Right. Okay, let's go see. You ready? Yeah, let's see what's happening outside with the water. I know it's hot, but, you know, it's summertime in Liberia.

All right. Check out this water. All right, guys. Ah! Oh! I hit my head. I'm good. I'm good. Oh, my. Oh, I got a hard head., and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This has kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players I started a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback.

Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirementtirement.org brought to you by AARP and the ad council. And in here, we have our boys quarters and a generator room. Then we have our ball hole over there for the water factory. Okay. And so what, what, what are you producing? We're producing the sachet water. Okay. Got it.

And then there... And you're bottling yourselves? It's not bottles yet. We're doing the sachets. It's like plastic, you know. Plastic bottles. Like those plastic waters. So this is your son's project? Yeah.

All right. That's your son right there? Yes. All right, Kodak. What's your name? Just? Yeah. All right. That's your son right there? Yes. All right, cool, Doc. What's your name? Mr. Ben. All right, then. So she tells me this is your pet project. Yes.

All right, so tell us about it. We have a sachet mineral water factory behind us. We produce the sachet water, which we distribute in the local community. Okay. How many do you do? 600 per day right now. community. Okay. How many do you do? 600 per day right now. Wow. Okay. And when did you start?

Late last year. Yeah, that's when we really started to establish. Look, if your mom was an entrepreneur, you kind of got no choice but to do something. Yeah. So this was your idea. So what, you came to her, and so tell me how that happened. Uh, and what was her reaction when you, when it was your idea? Um, we, well, initially I noticed

that there was a lack of safe drinking water here. So I brought it up to her and she definitely was interested and she started to implement, and we started putting ideas together. And then we managed to get one machine and then one truck. That's what we've been on. So you have, so when you say, okay, so what is happening here, here, here? I see all these pipes and everything. So what's going on?

So what's happening is this is a borehole, which is where we get the water from. So that's the water source. Right. And then there's a submersible pump in the borehole, which pumps the water through these pipes into the polytank. So then from the polytank,

it's then transported straight into the machine, which makes the water. Got it. So that's going straight into the machine, which makes the water. Got it. So that's going straight into the filter. You have the filtration system. And then it passes through all the filters at the end there. Where's the end? It's all the way.

Where the little boot is. Got it. In the corner. Oh, I got it. OK. So you maximizing all the building space, all the land space. Okay. So what's this here? This is the boys quarters. This is actually the first building I built before I finished it. Okay. Because I needed the contractors to be comfortable. Yeah. Got it. Yeah. So you just got it all in one spot.

Yep. Yep. So there we have a cold storage, imported cold storage, and then a handmade, locally made cold storage, the other two. Right. And we did that because considering the water idea, he wanted to sell frozen water also, and Kool-Aids, you know, and stuff like that. Milk, like yogurt milk, stuff like that.

So we got this, this is a cold storage. And the other second one, the white door, was for the fish, because on the farm, we wanted to do like last year we wanted to fish farming yeah so our intention was we do the fish we grow the fish ourselves and package and freeze and sell locally so that's locally grown liberian cold water fish But, yeah, so that idea is still there. Okay. We've started, you know, on a little, on a smaller scale,

and we're looking to finding the opportunity to expand on that idea because we have the ocean in Liberia, but then most of our fish is also imported. Yeah. And I'm more into organic eating, like organic food. So I thought it would be wise to bring local fish, you know, like the cold water fish. Plus, what you're importing, you gotta pay

more. Right. Got it. And then, of course, you live here. So you got everything in the same spot. Yeah, because I want work to be accessible. Yes. Like I told you earlier, I had my experience in Ghana when I had my first business.

And I had to drive hours away to come to work. Like a three hour drive? Yeah. Depending on traffic. It could even go more. Yes. So I learned from that. And I was like, no, if I come back home

and decide to do anything, I'm going to live there, you know, so I can take advantage of it. Well, considering you lived in the building for three years, I think you've accomplished that. And I lived there and ran the business and it was very successful before COVID. Well, hopefully you will get back to things on and popping as it was before COVID. Yeah, but I wish we can bring a better idea and, you know, have partners come on board so we take the idea to another level. Because I would like to see a hotel like stranded behind here, like all the way in the air. And then this whole front building could just be a reception area.

Well, you never know. You never know who's watching and listening to this. Right. So that might happen. Yeah. All right, so it's real loud over here. So let's... Oh, you're slippery right here.

Okay. So this one, you saw like 600 a day? That's what this is? Yeah. So... So... The truck is 600 a day, that's what this is? Yeah. Oh, so. So, so, everything coming through that, coming down, and then in there. And then who's their baggage? And then you're bagging it in the factory. And then you have to come out of here, then you're loading it in the truck. Oh, sorry.

Okay. Wow. Yeah. Very massive warehouse. This was the place where we were supposed to do the workshop. Uh-huh. So this building holds all the equipment. Yeah.

And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And then we had to move it to the other side. And the place where we were supposed to do the workshop. So this building goes all the way in the back. So now Mustafa is hoping when he can afford to upgrade the factory, he's going to expand into this space.

Good. Yeah. So you get more machines and then produce more. I'm saying. Upgrade for the bottles. Exactly. And that is the main thing. Yeah.

And then you have the Yeah, so you get more machines and then produce more. I'm grateful to bottles. Exactly, and that's the water. Yeah, five of them literally do it. 30 minutes. And so, what, make a drink out of this? Just a straw or something? Just rip it and drink it. And it's very safe.

Rip it away. Anywhere. Yeah, right away. He knows how and drink it. And it's very safe. Rip it well. And you're right away. He knows how to do it. Oh, you just take it? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's it. You're like a Capri Sun in Liberia.

Yeah, Capri Sun. You just squeeze it. This is one of the best water around the neighborhood. Our water, we have one machine, but we have so much customers. So many. How many customers do you have now? 400. 400? Do you have numbers? 400. 400. Excluding the ones that I have, which is 130 customers on my phone.

And they beg every day. And, like, there's a lot of this statue around. Right. But we pay attention a lot to how our water is spent. The process. Do you taste anything funny? No. It tastes fine.

Yeah. That's Musa Faspera water. That's the water we drink. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you.

I'm glad you're taking us around. Yes, you're welcome. Thank you for all the effort. All good. All right. Cool. You got some tan also. I got you some tan.

Yes, tan. Of the population. Well, you got to finish the water because you can't put the bag in your pocket and then your pocket is going to be wet. Yeah, my friend used to do it. He's like, I'm trying not to crash the street. See, I finished it. He's like, I'm trying not to trash the street. See? I'm finished. I'm finished it.

Right. I'm going to say, hold on, I got to finish. You can't even leave a little bit because all of a sudden it's going to be

a wet pocket. So like I was saying, I hope that they can look at it from a different angle. We know we don't have all of the infrastructure and all of the attractive

things happening right now compared to other countries. But it would be nice if they can also come and experience life from the dimension that we as entrepreneurs in Nigeria are experiencing. You know, we need 50 cents to come there. To me, 50 cents looks like a pedigree from my mother's village.

You know, serious. You know, he can pass so easily for that. You know, and he can make so much difference, so much impact. Just by coming down and, you know, going beyond his comfort zone. Right. And then I say, what's his name? Kevin Hart? Yep, Kevin Hart.

He looks like a guy. You know, Liberians are very diverse people. So he looks like someone from the president's county. Uh-huh. From, you know, Basa. And then I said, he really looked like a modern boy from Limbaugh. I'm serious. That's how I see them.

And I think... So which county am I from? You are from Lopa. You're from Lopa. You can county am I from? You are from Lofa. You're from Lofa. You can pass so easily from Lofa. Really? Yeah. They're all local.

They're like you. And they are very productive people. They should be in the food basket in Lofa. And my country will protect them from harm. Okay. Cool. Right, right. And we're going to work hard. Like I was saying earlier, again, that the tourism sector needs to work with creative people who have a little bit of mind and can collaborate with them

to really bring some of these things forward. Some of them don't come from the bottom. They just need the idea. Well, trust me, they'll be watching, and we need to let them know. All right, then. I appreciate it. All right.

Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches. I'm real revolutionary right now. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? you Thank you. you you I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals.

Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of theugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it

brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast Season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.