#RolandMartinUnfiltered - #AuntieMaxine talks John Lewis, Trump COVID fail; Chicago crime spike; Rep. Rush: #45 wants race war

Episode Date: July 26, 2020

7.22.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: #AuntieMaxine reflects on John Lewis and discusses Trump's failure on COVID-19; New info in the search for a coronavirus vaccine; WTH?!? is going on in Chicago? Violence spikes and Trump deploys troops to the Windy City; ; Rep. Rush says #45 wants to instigate a race war; Meet Marilyn Strickland, the Black woman who could become the Black person to ever represent Washington state in Congress; California city removes BLM mural after Trump supporter requested a MAGA 2020 mural; Entrepreneur Janice McLean DeLoatch launches the Black Shopping Network.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: CeekBe the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020-The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site 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. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee 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. 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. Today's Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin on the Filter. We'll be joined by Congresswoman Maxine Waters to share her thoughts about the loss of Congressman John Lewis, Trump's lack of leadership on COVID-19, and what will happen when it comes to unemployment benefits for people impacted by coronavirus. We'll also give you the latest research in the race to find a vaccine for the virus

in the United States. Giving nearly $2 billion to drug manufacturers for 100 doses of a vaccine, huh? 15 people were shot in the drive-by shooting in Chicago on yesterday at a funeral for a victim of another drive-by shooting. Now Donald Trump says he is going to send in federal troops to Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said, the hell you are.

Speaking of Chicago, Congressman Bobby Rush talks to the Black Eagle on SiriusXM, and he says that Donald Trump wants to instigate a race war. You'll hear what he has to say. And a black woman could become the first black person ever to represent the state of Washington in Congress. We'll talk with Marilyn Strickland. And a city in California removes a Black Lives Matter mural at the Trump supporter requested a MAGA 2020 mural. One is a campaign slogan, one isn't.

And entrepreneur Janice McLean DeLoach is launching the Black Shopping Network. She joins us with those details. Reverend C.T. Vivian is lying in state at the Georgia Capitol. We'll show you video of the funeral procession that went past the M.O.K. crypt today in Atlanta. Plus, we remember Charles Evers, the brother of Mega Evers, who passed away today at the age of 97. Plus, comedian J. Anthony Brown is in the house for Wildin' Out Wednesday. It is time to bring the funk

and roll the mark on a filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, 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. It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yell. It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's rolling, Martin. Martin.

Folks, today in Atlanta, Reverend C.T. Vivian, his body is at rest in the state capital of Georgia. His funeral will be tomorrow, 11 a.m. This is video here of a procession. Pull the audio up, please. In my heart, I do believe we shall overcome.... This also happened as his body was draped with the flag of the state of Georgia. The family broke out in song. Ten seconds. Ten seconds. The funeral of C.T. Vivian will take place tomorrow at 11 a.m. We will live stream that funeral right here on Roland Martin on filter. He passed away last Friday at the age of 95. The family of John Lewis announced that

they were not going to release any details with regards to his funeral until out of respect until after the funeral of Reverend Dr. C.T. Vivian. Members of Congress are still mourning the loss of Congressman John Lewis. We showed you yesterday the various tributes that took place on the House floor. We've had many CBC members who have been on talking about that and what he meant and really his impact on the members of Congress.

I also had an opportunity to, I'm gonna show you guys this in a second. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley sent me this photo here. This is a photo that was placed in his seat there in the House of Representatives. Therefore, Congressman John Lewis joining us right now from Capitol Hill is Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California.

She, of course, served a number of years with Congressman John Lewis. Congresswoman Waters, glad to have you back on Roller Mountain Unfiltered. Well, thank you so much. And I'm so pleased you invited me to be on today. And, you know, you're so thoughtful. And thank you for sharing with us those moments with C.T. Vivian because he was a very, very integral part of the Civil Rights Movement and worked right along with Dr. Martin Luther King and with John Lewis, a very gentle man. I'm so pleased that you gave time and attention to him also. When we talk about these two giants, Vivian passed away at

95, Louis passed away at the 80, both in Atlanta, both on the same day. Their impact is immeasurable, but I think one of the things, and we talked about this yesterday and the last several days, is that we sort of want to lock these two into time, but the reality is with Vivian, he started in 1947. He never stopped. Andrew Young said he was still active until two weeks ago. Congressman John Lewis was at Black Lives Matter Plaza just last month. They were active fighting for equality for black folks and others until their last breath. They never stopped. You know, first of all, when I think about John Lewis and a 17-year-old, you know, having the wisdom and the understanding, even what was going on with discrimination and racism and wanting to do something about it, joining the civil rights

movement at 23, you know, speaking at the March on Washington, I am amazed. But of course, I've been in awe of John Lewis for quite some time, in awe of him, not only because of his history, the leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the sit-ins, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, all of that. I was in awe of him because of his ability to forgive and to love and to have no revenge in his heart. I thought that was quite unusual and outstanding, given that he had been beaten, he had been jailed, he had been treated, you know, very bad.

And yet he led a group to meet with George Wallace and to forgive him. And so I've been in awe of his ability to do that and to preach nonviolence and to live it. I mean, he didn't talk the talk. He actually walked the walk. An unusual young man that someone, a historian referred to as a saint.

When we talk about members of Congress, I think a lot of people out there really don't understand. They say, well, you know, how many bills did somebody sponsor? How many were passed? But the reality is the job of a member of Congress is a lot of stuff that happens people never, ever see. And so what was his value? What did he bring to the Congress when it came to the work? Well, first of all, let me just say that he was so revered, so loved, so respected. When he took the floor of the House to speak, everything was quiet. Everybody listened attentively because they knew that when he spoke, he had something very important to say. And so, first of all, before I even talk about the Voting Rights Act and the work that he did on legislation, on gun control and all of that, his presence here was a quietening presence, one where he could, you know, get people focused and talk about not only the issue, but helped us to conduct ourselves

in certain ways that I think, you know, added to his importance here. Of course, he's going to be known for the Voting Rights Act and the fact that his bill is still on the desk of McConnell over in the Senate, where after the Supreme Court decision, where they literally changed Section 4, which, of course, caused Section 5 to no longer be operative, where we would be able to stop, you know, jurisdictions from changing laws and doing things that would impact voting in those jurisdictions. So not only was he important on public policy and was able to give the history

on certain pieces of legislation, to work with his colleagues, to have guide the entire Congress, to provide leadership. He was someone that everyone respected. And when, you know, things were rough inside our own caucus and there appeared to be division, he could bring us all together. Of course, when he led folks to sit down right there in the House to to commandeer the stage, Congressman Jim Clyburn said that he thought that crystallized the moment that that really united the Democratic Party

and played a role in them winning so many seats in 2018 because it sort of galvanized the party as well. A lot of people were obviously shocked by that. And it was sort of weird. We played the video, though were people looking around like, well, I guess if he going to sit down, we better sit down. And he sort of challenged Democrats who frankly, we don't really know that's not how a member of Congress is supposed to act. These are non-black folks. Called him and say, yeah, take a seat. This is what you do when you got to make a point. Well, you know, the fact of the matter is the way that we thought to conduct ourselves, talking about the gentlewoman and the gentleman and, you know, all of that,

no one would have expected that people who had never dreamed that they would sit down, that they would get on the floor. They did it. And, of course, this changed a lot of individuals, you know, members of Congress who had never experienced what it is to do a sit-in, to do a sleep-in, to do that kind of confrontation. And so I think Jim Clyburn may have had something

when he talked about, you know, the impact that it had on the election. We talk about what's happening right now. Certainly. And I said this and you already mentioned it. I really right now don't want to hear anything from Mitch McConnell or any Republican talking about John Lewis when the issue that he cared most about voting. They've done nothing. they've done nothing. They've done nothing. And you know, Roland, I have been to Selma practically every year since I've been elected, marching with John across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

And you'd be surprised at the Republicans, conservatives, who would come because they wanted to have the identification perhaps for that segment of their districts. It was a field trip for them, you know, on Martin Luther King's birthday. And, of course, the picture that they could take back to show that they were with John Lewis. And it always upset me. But again, I could not demonstrate it. I could not show it because John Lewis was the kind of human being that you certainly respected so much. And you did not want to do anything in his presence that would not be considered respectful. But he he did not mind. He led the faith in politics group. They went into Montgomery. They went to the museum there, the Civil Rights Museum.

And he brought them all over to Selma where they marched. But he was that kind of human being. He had love in his heart for everybody. He really believed in peace and certainly believed in nonviolence. And he lived it. We would talk about people who stay involved and active. You're one of those folks. Folks have been talking about you on social media when you pulled your car over to make sure that a brother was properly being taken care of by police officers. Guys, go ahead and roll that video, please. They stopped the brother, so I stopped to see what they were doing. Oh, okay.

They say I'm in the wrong place, so they're going to give me a ticket. That's okay, as long as I watch them. Got to do what they got to do, make sure. All right. Take it they never gave you that ticket, huh? Well, they wrote the ticket, and they asked me to sign it, and I refused to sign it. And they said, you must sign this because this is your promise to appear. I said, I'm not appearing anywhere, not signing any tickets. And they said, well, you could be arrested.

I said, if that's what you think you need to do, that you have to do, then please go ahead and arrest me. They called out a captain, the captain came, and the captain basically said, Ms. Waters, well, you know that you could be arrested. I said, yes, of course. And I've said to your officers, if that's what they have to do. And he just threw up his hands and told the officers, get ready to take it, bye.

They needed to understand you were gonna make sure nothing happened to that brother. 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. 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. 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. Well, you know, Ronan, I've been doing this for years. And I do it all the time. I mean, I don't ever talk about it. I just go. And I stand a respectable distance. I do not intervene.

But I'm there watching. And the police know that I'm there. The deputies know that I'm there. And most of the time, they let them go because eyes are upon them. But it's so important for us us understanding that our young people are frightened. They don't know what to do. And I'm so worried that some of them may run and then they'll get shot. They, you know, they are so grateful to see somebody is standing there watching and looking after them. And of course, with me coming there, other people came. You know, the bus drivers who were passing by waved and shouted, Maxine Waters. People stopped their cars.

And all of this, you know, put eyes on what was going on. And they released him. I'm not sure that some of these young people would be released, but for, you know, me and others who would stand and watch what's going on. And I'm so pleased now that everybody's got a cell phone and, you know, can, you know, take photographs of what's going on. I think that's very helpful. And this young man was just walking. They stopped him. And I asked him after they released him, why did they stop him? What did they say? And he said, they said, I fit the description. I said, oh, yes, I've heard that before. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we've all heard that one before. I've got to ask you a couple of issues. One, you chair, of course, House Financial Services Committee. We're dealing now with this COVID, this coronavirus epidemic. Republicans are now complaining about extending these unemployment benefits. Here's Senator Ted Cruz saying, oh, basically, these folks are just making too much money. Yes. They said that.

One second. One second. Watch this. So far is is the the plus up in unemployment compensation. We are paying a whole lot of people a lot more money to stay home and not work than they made on their jobs. And that is terrible for those workers. It's terrible for the economy. And every time everyone in this body who votes for paying people more money

to stay home and not work than to go to work, they ought to write on the top of that, paid for by the Joe Biden for president campaign. Because there are a lot. Congresswoman. This is the same guy who opposes $15 an hour. Maybe if people got a living wage, then they wouldn't be making more money from this check.

I mean, that's crazy. Absolutely. And it is it is absolutely outrageous to begrudge poor people making, you know, entry wages, making, you know, minimum wages to begrudge them getting 600 more dollars. It's just not to be understood. But I don't understand Cruz anyway. And he's not a credible human being as far as I'm concerned. Anytime you allow the president to treat, you know, your wife the way that he allowed the president to treat his wife and he's still, you know, basically licking the boots of the president, he is not to be understood or respected. So, you know, we can just disregard whatever he has to say. I agree with that. And I'm from Texas. I still

vote there. But trust me, he don't get my vote. Just a couple of more. First off, Donald Trump yesterday, all of a sudden people in the media saying, oh, his tone has changed. Now he's encouraging people to wear masks, things along those lines. They're still discrediting Dr. Anthony

Fauci as well. One hundred and forty thousand people have died. And you have this administration who still all of a sudden now wants to say, oh, no, no, no. We're now on top of the coronavirus. California, your state, highest number of cases yet just yesterday. I just checked and I understand that we may have reported 5,000 new cases as of today. We are right at the top. You know, we have a few states that's, you know, in that situation, New York and New Jersey. And I think Florida is there. Arizona was there. And Georgia was there. But we're right at the top. And we have spent so much money, you know, trying to deal with, you know, the situation. We had a surplus, and now that has been depleted.

But you know, our governor was doing a great job, but the pressure was so great, you know, that was by this president and by all of those governors who follow him to open things up. He opened up and this surge and this spike has taken place. And now it's basically out of control. And, you know, people are going to not only be ill from COVID-19, they're going to die. Some people are going to die. This president has misled the nation. First of all, he said it was just a hoax and he didn't get involved for several months. And then he paid no attention to the experts. And then he came up with his own remedies, telling us to drink bleach, et cetera. And then he told us it was just going to disappear. And he has not been credible. He has not provided the leadership. And so we find ourselves in a situation where we lost time.

And we have other countries that are way ahead of us in making sure that they have been doing the testing and that they don't have the kind of virus infections that we're getting on a daily basis that appear to be increasing every day. It is such a sad story about a lack of leadership, about an incompetent president who has no business being president in the first place and not a clue about how to organize, how to provide leadership, how to work with others. And that's where we find ourselves in the situation that we're in. We have the HEROES bill now,

following the other bills that we have passed, the CARES Act and the supplemental to that. And it's sitting on the desk of McConnell, who refused to get started with the negotiations. We have a $3 trillion bill, and he's saying it should only be perhaps maybe about $1 trillion, which is a mistake. Not only are the rents coming due,

some people have not paid their rents for two and three months now. And our federal eviction moratorium is over at the end of this month, and many cities and states who had moratoriums, that's all over with. These landlords, many of them, you know, they have a mortgage if they're going to keep their rental units. They've got to pay. And so I'm so worried that people are going to be evicted and put out on the street and increase the homelessness that we're experiencing in this country. I'm so worried about homeowners losing their homes who will be in forbearance,

but that's not going to last forever. They have to be willing to and able to negotiate at the end of the forbearance period, or they will not be able to make a lump sum payment and catch up with all the payments that they have not been able to make. And we call it heroes because all of our frontline people, you know, the doctors and the nurses and the

grocery clerks and the people who work for the cities and the states and all that, who come to work every day, every day and put their lives on the line. Cities and states need this money. And $1 trillion of the $3 trillion would be going into the states to maintain the line. Cities and states need this money. And $1 trillion of the $3 trillion would be going into the states to maintain the unemployment, to maintain and take care of the people who are taking care of us. So we're in a bad situation. And I don't know how fast we're going to be able to get these negotiations going. It has taken so long for McConnell to even get started, and people are gonna be hurting. I just hope that we don't end up with the kind of crisis

in the streets where people have no place to live, no place to go. And, you know, we need a supplemental. We need a supplemental. This cash supplemental is what puts food on the table. So between the $600 employment. This cash supplemental is what puts food on the table. Right. So between the six hundred dollar employment, the cash supplemental and the assistance to the cities and states, that's what America is going to have to have in order for us to just keep going. It's not going to solve everything because we still have the testing to deal with. We still have DPA to force them

and the president to use that authority to get the PPE manufactured that's running out. I'm worried and everybody in this country should be worried. Everybody should know that this president has more than defined himself as incapable and incompetent. Last question. These troops, these federal agents, unidentified federal agents in Portland, Trump says he is now going to dispatch them across the country. Congressman Bobby Rush did an interview with Joe Madison saying Trump wants a race war. He is unleashing these individuals, snatching folks off the street. Politicians in those states or Oregon, have no idea who these folks are. What can Congress do?

This guy flouts subpoenas. He doesn't care about congressional hearings or testimony. He is going to unleash these federal agents on American citizens with impunity. Well, you know, I think it was the attorney general, maybe I'm not sure, of Oregon, basically said that she thinks this is a dry run for what he is going to do. You're absolutely right. They are unidentified. They don't have their names. They have these strange uniforms. They're snatching people names. They have these strange uniforms. They're snatching people off the street, throwing them into unmarked cars.

This is his military. This is what you see in dictatorships in third world countries where, you know, the leader, the dictator keeps his, you know, his military so that he can turn them on the people whenever he gets ready. And don't forget, this president has alluded to the fact that if he's not reelected, there may be a civil war. This is a dangerous man. And he's, instead of understanding that we have real problems that need to be addressed, dealing with these young people in some of our cities. He keeps talking about Chicago because of the unfortunate killings that they're having, where we need to have everything from, you know, more jobs, more counselors, more people assisting the families, where we're trying to deal with understanding what is driving the

young people, with people going in, dealing with not only the individual, but seeing, you know, what's happening with the parents, what's happening with the mothers and fathers, what's happening with the ability for them to have health care, and whether or not we have some of these young people who are, you know, having mental problems. I mean, a lot of, you know, work that needs to be done, not going in with guns, talking about we're going in, we're going in tough. We're going to take care of it. What he's doing is he's threatening to kill some people.

And guess who those people are? They're us. It is a dangerous thing that he's talking about doing. The mayors didn't even know. And the state legislatures didn't even know he was coming into Portland. Didn't know he was coming there. He does not consult with them. This is an outrageous abuse of power. Congressman Maxine Waters, always a pleasure to have you on the show. We appreciate that you always take time for us to speak to our audience and us greatly appreciate it.

And thank you so much. And I appreciate you so very much. Thanks a bunch. You take care. Be safe. And also condolences on your sister. I know it was very difficult losing her coronavirus. So certainly condolences. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thanks a bunch. All right, folks, let's go to our panel. A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association, Pat Robert Petillo, executive director, Rainbow Push Coalition, Pete Street Street Project. Teresa Lundy, principal founder, TML Communications. Scott, I'll start with you. You heard what the congresswoman said there. We talked about a variety of things. But this this this announcement by Trump, he is sending these troops in, sending these federal agents in. These folks are unleashing terror across this country.

We cannot ignore what is happening. And I dare say, if you think if you thought Nixon and all of his stuff in 68, I said this on MSNBC this weekend. This is Nixon in 68. I said this on MSNBC this weekend. This is Nixon in 68 on steroids. Yeah, this is really strange, interesting and scary. These federal troops and they're unidentified. They're unannounced. They have unmarked cars. And it's like a it's like the military squads in third world countries. I think the attorney generals and as well as the governors of Illinois or the governor of Illinois needs to go to court or needs to figure out who these folks are in order to figure out whether they should be there or not and under what

authority they are. But you can't do it unchecked. Now, having said that, Chicago's got to do something. The killing fields of Chicago have been there for 10 years or longer. It's always had a gang problem. But you have days where 20, 30, 40, 50 people are being shot. And the funeral where those 15 people were shot was gang-related. The person who died who was at the funeral was gang-related. And you still didn't have enough police to stop the drive-by. And got to do something i got to tell you i don't know why street gangs are legal i mean hate speech ain't never been free speech i don't know why if you connote or your purpose is connoted with crime why you can legally or rather legally operate

it makes no sense and by the way at some point you're gonna have to put federal or state troops there shut down those high crime areas where the shootings are taking place and put some money in no sense. And by the way, at some point, you're going to have to put federal or state troops there, shut down those high crime areas where the shootings are taking place, and put some money in there in regard to education, job training, jobs, and entrepreneurship, a combination. But you got to do something because right now they're not doing a very good job in Chicago. But here's the thing there, Teresa, when we talk about what's happening there in Chicago, we cannot ignore the reality of the fundamental problems with that Chicago Police Department. What you have in Chicago, look, I've worked there for six years. Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. If you let me

finish, you will understand. I lived in Chicago for six years. And if you understand what happens there, you have a police department that is actually the biggest gang in Chicago. When you when you had a consent decree where when the Obama administration went in, where officers drop, they would pick up gang members or suspected gang members or people who were not even in gangs, drive them to areas where there was known gang activity and drop them off and make them escape saying, are you going to talk now? Are you going to talk now? What you have is you have massive distrust between the community in Chicago, between

communities and the Chicago Police Department, and to reach the last point, you have police officers who are still pissed off that they were held accountable in the case of Laquan McDonald, and they have purposely slowed down. They've said, they've actually broken antennas on car dash cams, won't turn on body cameras.

You have a police department that is in open revolt to accountability, and they're like, hey, if it happens, it's on them. Theresa, go ahead. Chicago is one of several major metropolitan cities that is going through this chaos that President Trump has created. I know our district attorney, our progressive district attorney, Larry Krasner, who's always under the gun for conservative politics and news media,

he made a statement, you know, fighting back against this unjust with the statement that President Trump made about federal agents coming into the city, arresting and kidnapping and assaulting by actually pressing charges. And I think that needs to be a downpour of a remake for every other district attorney to be doing. Because again, we can't be going backwards. Going back, you know, it's reminding me of a crime drama that we used to see on USA Network or

something that was just so old that our parents used to watch, right? But this is real life right now. And this is not a movie. This is real life where lives are really hanging at the balance. And it just seems like, you know, it's getting worse because once we start getting into what this election season is actually coming this year, it's really worse that we just don't know what's going to happen next. So it's really up to our progressive district attorneys, our legislators to really, you know, formulate some sort of plan and really look into that that charter and those rules and regulations so they can figure out how to protect us from the federal government. Robert, on this point here, again, if you start talking about how Trump is unilaterally, I'm sending people in. First and foremost, let's just break this thing down. They're in Chicago. You have the Chicago Police Department. You have the Cook County Sheriff's Department. You have the Illinois State Police. You have

massive law enforcement that is at your disposal to be able to have a plan, and then you can have the assistance from the federal government. But this is a guy who's not actually trying to work with the governor and the mayor to deal with it. He wants to actually drive a different conversation. And that's what you're having here. I can tell you, I was at one of the two meetings where when he was president in his first year when he met with media and it was called, you know, Rahm came in here to Scott's point. Rahm came here talking about education and economics. He's like, no, that's not the issue. Well, first of all, that is the issue. And that's also part of the deal here, Robert. Chicago's violence is not a new thing. It is a

systemic thing that deals with a variety of factors, which include economics and education. Go ahead. 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. 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 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. All right, three points that I have to make. One, I was at the Capitol earlier for the C.T. Vivian visual. Of course, we send our thoughts and prayers to his family. We have to make sure that we follow in the model and the history and the legacy of Reverend Vivian and also John Lewis.

Secondarily, on the Chicago point, I went to law school in Chicago, lived right there in 47th and Drexel for three years. There is a systemic problem that cannot be solved by federal troops. Understand that we have a posse comitatus in 1876, which forbade the federal government from sending in troops to United States cities unless it is invited by the local jurisdiction. This is why when President Trump tried to enact the Insurrection Act of 1809, he was not able to do so. It's an empty threat because the local government has to invite them in.

So if you want, the reason that we have this current spike in shootings around the country is, after the killing of George Floyd and the mass mobilizations, police departments around the country did mass sick outs. They did the blue flu. They decided they were no longer going to patrol. They were no longer going to do their job. They made the finite decision that if we are not allowed to abuse people, then we will not do our job at all. This is why we're seeing this spike nationwide. It is the police unions allowing these things to happen. At that funeral where 14 people were shot, the police were informed beforehand that there was a potential for violence and they

were aware of it and did nothing because they know exactly what they're doing. So we have to hold them accountable for what they do. And on the preventive side of it, Father Flager has been working on this for decades. Reverend Jesse Jackson's been working on this for decades in Chicago. Jeremiah Wright has been working on this for decades. We know what the solutions are. We know for a fact that if you look at the Magnificent Mile, if you look at Gold Coast, the reason you don't have the number of shootings there that you have in the South Side or the Wild Hunters or on the West Side is because they have the economics, do not have those issues. You've changed the economic situation, changed the access to transportation, the access to proper jobs, the access to proper housing, not having boarded

up buildings and rat infested slums. None of those guns are just being bought and sold in Chicago. They're coming from across state lines and- Yeah, Indiana. Yeah. Into the city. Nobody has a poppy field where they're growing heroin in Chicago. Nobody's growing cocaine in their backyard. So you have to stop the drugs from coming into the cities. So this idea that, oh, these black folks are just crazy and shooting up and tearing up everything, no, it is a systemic issue for 100 years of policy in the city.

And if you change the system, then you change the outcome. Well, wait a minute. That's what it shows. It shows black people shooting black people. And Father Flager and Jesse Jackson and you and our host right here, you all want to blame everybody. Want to blame the police.

No. The police are not making gang members shoot each other. Oh, actually, Scott. Because everything you've tried in the last 20, 30 years has not worked. Scott, here's the point. You all blaming the police. Scott, here's the point. How's that working for you all, blaming the police? Scott, here's the point that you're missing.

I'm not missing it. Actually, you are missing the point. They're in Chicago. There we go. They're in Chicago. They have had numerous examples of cops shaking down drug dealers. What does that have to do with gang members? Excuse me, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott.

She was a gang member. Will you listen? They actually had a street, they had a facility on Holman Street that basically was Chicago's Guantanamo Bay. Where they would take, the black site, as a street, they had a facility on Holman Street that basically was Chicago's Guantanamo Bay. Well, they would take the black site as a lawyer. They would take people to that site. Then the family of someone would say, hey, my relative's been picked up. The lawyer would call Chicago Police Department.

There's no record in the system that they actually exist. And the lawyer is going, wait a minute, this guy's been picked up. Where is he? We don't have him in the system that they actually exist. And the lawyer's going, wait a minute, this guy's been picked up. Where is he? We don't have him in the system. That's one example. Then you also had in Chicago, then you also had there, of course, John Burge in the beatings. What I'm saying is this here. The problem that you have in Chicago is you have such a problem, a level of distrust between community and the police. The community says, I can't trust talking to you because I don't know if you're going to give my name to the gang members. And so the problem is, and, and hold up, I'm not just done. One second, one second. Everything you're saying is irrelevant. No, it's not irrelevant. And when McCarthy came in to be the police commissioner, they said, oh, the hell no.

We're not letting the outsider come in here. They fought every step of the way. Part of the problem is in order to get the violence under control, there has to be trust with the police department. And that police department is so corrupt. They do not want to do it. They openly have rebelled against Kim Fox. They openly have rebelled against Lori Lightfoot. And that's what they are. And so that's part of the issue here. Gangs and the police, who's the largest gang in Chicago. It may be, but I don't see the police officers putting guns in gangbangers' hands and them shooting each other over turf war.

Stop it! But if you, but Scott, if the Chicago cops won't police the areas, then you're not gonna shut it down! Let me tell you why you're wrong. The police are there, they ride around, they get a call of a shooting. They go and they try to solve the crime. No, they don't.

Hold on. Scott, you're actually wrong. I'm a former prosecutor. I've got ride-outs with the police all the time. Scott, hold on. Scott, have you lived in Chicago? Yes. How long have you lived in Chicago? I was born in Joliet, Illinois. I got you. No, no, no. Joliet ain't Chicago. Joliet is Joliet got you. No, no, no. Joliet ain't Chicago.

Joliet is Joliet. See, right there. Right there. That's like saying I'm from Evanston. No, no, no, no, no. Here's the deal here. Let me tell you. But, Scott, in Chicago, that's not what the cops are doing.

Listen, every police department gets a call there's been a shooting. Hold on. I know you can agree with everything you say. It doesn't matter. What I'm saying to you is the killing fields of Chicago are what they are. And everything you're talking about with the police is irrelevant and immaterial. If gangs are getting guns and shooting each other, 25 people a day, all the corruption you're talking about can be true. I don't want to challenge that. What I'm saying to you is until you shut those gangs down and or bring in money to train them, job training, education, and all the other funding that's needed to give gang members an alternative to violence or the gang, they're going to continue. If this is not new, how's everything you're talking about on Robert

Patel? I didn't say it was new. In fact, Robert and I both said it's not new. Robert, go ahead. Robert, go ahead. Shut him down. Understand everything that you are saying was done in the late 90s and early 2000s in Chicago. And guess what

it did? Those gangbangers from back then 20 years ago, went to prison. Their children grew up in fatherless household. By the time those kids were 13, 14, 15, they were right back. It wasn't sustainable. You got to sustain it with money and resources. This is what we're talking about. It's a systemic issue. You're creating the exact same cycle. If you don't change the underlying conditions, you get the exact same result. But blaming the police is not the answer. You know, you and the liberals. Scott, Scott, Scott. No one is blaming.

No, no, no, no, no. What we're doing is we're stating what is actually factual. And it's irrelevant. When you can't act like the cops had no part of this. Look, bottom line, Teresa, you're in Philadelphia. It's the same thing here. You can't divorce the lack of action, the lack of concern by police deliberately slowing down, not really wanting to investigate crimes. Chicago has one of the lowest criminal clearance rates, clearance rates in the country.

Why? why? Agreed. So in Philadelphia we had to bring in another outside police commissioner because of the corruption, because of the lack of policing and community relations. And so we needed an outside source and we have Commissioner Danielle Outlaw first African American

woman is actually in that position appointed and she's coming in with fresh, and she's coming in with fresh ideas. She's coming in with a fresh perspective. But the most important thing is she has come in with a vision in order to change the current system. And in order to do that, she had to put her boots to the ground and started talking to external relations, the community. She was out there doing the protests. But she's been doing a lot of in-house training.

And also, I believe today, it was the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus actually had a conversation about the police reforms. And so what's outlined, which I think if we had another commissioner, probably still would have stand, about some of those roles of what they can do and some of those policies that they can change internally. So part of it is if you have a corrupt system, it does take an outside look and an outside influence in order to create internal change.

Again, if there was no police department in Chicago whatsoever, the killing fields of Chicago would continue. So your corruption arguments, while they may appear to be appealing, they aren't because police solve crimes. They don't prevent them. At least most police. Actually, actually, aliens would continue. No, no, no, no, no. Actually, you're wrong there. The reality is this, Scott. Police can prevent crimes. Police can prevent. No, no, no, no. Police can prevent crimes based upon their interaction with communities. What I'm telling you, the situation in Chicago is so bad.

The level of distrust that exists between the community and the cops is real. This is the Chicago Sun-Times right here. This is what it says. A visibly shaken Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday joined police officials in pleading for witnesses to tell police what they know about a shooting outside a gang funeral that left 15 people shot. This is what she said. We cannot give the killers, the shooters, any shelter. Someone listening at this moment knows who is responsible for these and other crimes. I implore you not to be silent in this moment. I recognize there is fear, but if we

are silent, the violence will continue. This is our time to step up. We are the majority. We're the people who will change this narrative, but only if the silence is broken. Part of the silence, which we can't deny, is that community they've said we don't trust sharing the information with police

because we know cops who share it with gangs. That may be accurate. Doc, so if you're in the neighborhood, you're like, I don't trust them. How's all that working for you all? The killing fields continue. Why not go in and shut them down with federal or state troops?

Shut down the high shooting areas, the high murder rate areas. Shut down the high shooting areas, the high murder rate areas. Shut down the gangs until you can get a handle on it. Robert, Robert, final comment before I go to my coronavirus guest. Go. Look, Scott, the reason is because we know that doesn't work. You have to solve the... You have to cure the problem at its roots.

And look, understand, you have a police department in Chicago that just got done covering for the killers of Laquan McDonald. Then they spent a year going after Juicy Smollett, and then you found the police commissioner, Sloppy Eddie, passed out in his car. So why would you think that police department is about to prosecute these criminals

instead of doing something to fix the problem? The Chicago Police Department has a fundamental problem, and that is folks don't trust them. No, I'm sorry, let me correct that. White folks trust the police department. So, Roland, what's the answer? One second. What's the answer?

No, the answer is, one of the things you have to do is you have to bring in a, first of all, they have a new police chief there. And what you have to do is you have to simply say, we have got to get rid of a bunch of folks in this department who are not concerned about the community. They are concerned about the community. They are concerned about protecting themselves. And that is going to require courage and looking the union in the eye and saying, if they do wrong, if they break those dash cam, those antennas, don't turn cameras on. And if they lie in reports, they're gone. You got to have some trust. Folks, as of today, there are 3.97 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States. 1.6 million people have recovered and 144,000

have died. As the nation's grappled with how to slow the spread, scientists worked friendly to find a vaccine. Today, the United States announced they are giving $1.95 billion to two companies for the purchase of 100 million vaccines. Joining us right now is Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr., professor of biological sciences at North Carolina A&T University. Doc, glad to have you back on the show. What do you make of these companies saying they are seeing promising results of these vaccines and could have something by the end of the year. Do you believe it? Yeah, I believe it. And I think it's good news. There have been some new techniques applied

to the development of these vaccines. So I believe that that we're going to have them. The problem, however, is the 100 million doses. Because as you know, we have a population of 330 million people. So 100 million doses are going to have to be administered as quickly as possible, and people are gonna need to take the vaccine for us to begin to get a handle on reducing the transmission of COVID-19. And at this point, there's no guarantee

how that's gonna happen. And part of the issue when you talk about even that vaccine is then getting people to actually take it. And you got people out there, you got black people saying, man, I ain't trusting this whole thing. You got Tuskegee,

you got all these white anti-vaxxers out there as well. And so that presents a huge problem. Hell, you got people right now who won't even put a damn mask on. 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 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 one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six

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. Sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people 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 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. before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I mean, I don't know what to say because I remember having this conversation with you back in early March and making these dire predictions of what would happen

if people didn't change their behavior. And so now we're beginning to see this. And of course, the situation is made worse when the chief executive officer of the United States, had no plan and certainly no intention of taking the actions necessary to try to stop the spread of this pandemic. The fact that he was more concerned with making himself look good for reelection, which of course he has failed to do because he hasn't effectively handled this pandemic, rather than listening to scientific experts and following and allowing them to develop a plan has left us in the situation we're in today. So in terms of where we go next, again, you know, when it comes to these vaccines, when you hear Dr. Fauci, the head of CDC, says if we can get people in this country to shelter in place, put on mask,

that we can truly get this under control in the next one to two months. Is that real? Is that legitimate? Yeah, I believe that. And then the key thing, again, is people changing their behavior. And it's not just wearing a mask, but wearing a mask properly and maintaining social distance. One of the things that people need to understand is that even if you wear a mask, well, it cuts down the probability of spreading the infection by 80%, that effect only lasts about five minutes. And that is if you're with someone else who's wearing a mask, it lasts for five minutes.

So the key thing then again is if you're wearing a mask, you still have to understand that you can still transmit this virus, even if you're asymptomatic. So you have to avoid large groups of people. You have to maintain your physical distance. And you really should only be going out if you have to. And of course, the difficulty is that for many lower income,

poor people, and particularly African-Americans and Latinos, those people have to go out and they have to work because the federal government hasn't acted to provide the supports in terms of, you know, food and shelter that people need when, in fact, they're being asked to shelter in place. You have the D.C. mayor who moments ago ordered requiring masks outside the home. Then, of course, you got Governor Brian Kemp, who's pissed off, and he wants to overrule all the mayors in Georgia who are trying to do the exact same thing. And so here you have mayors who are trying to be responsible.

That's what happened in Texas. Mayor Sylvester Turner, Harris County Judge Hidalgo, they ordered, they had mask mandates. Well, idiot Governor Greg Abbott overrules them, and all of a sudden cases explode in Texas. Then he goes, hmm, we might need to have had mask mandates. Well, idiot Governor Greg Abbott overrules them. Then all of a sudden cases explode in Texas. Then he goes, oh, we might need to have a mask mandate. We were trying to tell you that dumb ass. Again, you know, I hate it when I'm right, Roland. This is something. And, you know, I'm of the mind that these people need to be held accountable because the science around mask wearing and simple means to prevent the spread of the coronavirus were well known. So none of this was a mystery to them. But yet they insisted on taking actions prematurely to try to, quote,

reopen the economy. And again, I understand the need for people to work and to have a paycheck. So I'm not saying that there's not a concern there, but if you're talking about the difference between people dying and not being able to work, then I think we want to try to keep people alive. And that's what these people fail to understand. All right. Dr. Joseph Graves, junior professor, biological studies sciences at North Carolina A&T was really appreciated. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Ron. I don't know what it's going to take Robert to get these idiots to actually do what's right. I just really don't. I think I'm telling you right

now, listen up black people and my white fans who are watching as well. Okay. Right now in the Bahamas, they ain't accepting nobody from the United States, Mexico. Nope. Y'all can't come here. Europe. Y'all can't come here. Okay. Uh, Donald Trump talks about a wall. The whole world is putting Vegas, a blockade on, on the United States because we got too many stuck on stupid people in this country who don't know how to keep their asses at home, who do not have put on masks, don't know how to wash their hands and protect themselves. Here we are, Teresa, five months, five months after this thing really began to pick up steam. And we're still dealing with folks who just want to run their ass out there and go to restaurants and bars and be on the beach and swim as if the as if

the spanish flu wasn't real 500 million people were infected with the spanish flu from 1918 to 1920 an estimated 17 to 50 million died these fools act like that can't happen again. But we got 144,000 Americans who've already died. Yeah, I mean, look, and we got the archives to prove it because, you know, Spanish flu allegedly, you know, started here in Philadelphia. So, look, it's bad. You know, we can buy, you know, I keep going into supermarkets and CVS pharmacies and other small little bodegas.

And I'm seeing the shelves empty of Clorox hand sanitizer soap in itself. And yet it's like, OK, well, you know, that's enough. And so, you know, when we start reopening, you know, and legislators are saying, hey, you know, we're into these phases where it is time to reopen. We have to really start thinking about a conscious understanding of what the environment actually looks like. One, it's summer, right? So people are looking for, you know, that freedom during their summertime break. But part of it is we have to be very aware that this is a pandemic under new leadership

that doesn't seem like leadership really has this under control. So really the escalation on the trend of this pandemic has, you know, after five months, has been trending in the direction that we don't want it to trend it. So, you know, it's interesting, you know, after five months has been trending in the direction that we don't want it to trend it. So, you know, it's interesting, you know, I saw some of the conversations that governors were having on TV. It was more so about we're going to reopen and we're not going to put any mandates

on masks. We're just going to allow people to do what they know is best to do. And that's just not right. I mean, we have people who really just have a disregard for this pandemic and a disregard for their fellow neighbor. And so I live in an apartment complex. And so, you know, even when we're going in the elevator, they're still doing four or five or more. You know, and so it's issues like this when it's like, you know, we can put in as many PSAs, we can educate the public about the seriousness of this, especially when we don't have the vaccine for it yet. But I think it really is an encompass of, you know, the governors in order to really put a strict mandate that no person should be going to any establishment without a mask. Point,

place, and period. And what has to happen, Scott, this has to be rigid. It has to be, and right, put some new signs. No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. And if you stay in your dumb ass out there yelling and screaming, trying to cuss personnel out, lock the damn door and stand there and yell. But but the problem is you cannot change this when you've got these Republican governors who are, oh, this is impacting our freedom. No, it's it's it's no, this should have. And this is also comes down to money. And this whole deal is if you want to understand And this also comes down to money. And this whole deal is, if you want to understand America, everything comes down to money. Oh, we can't do this.

This is going to kill the businesses. No, what's going to kill the businesses are a bunch of dead people who can no longer come to your business. You know, Roland, I'm starting to think that this is not fixable the way we're doing it. That it's too inconsistent with groups of people in different states.

You have a lot of people who are honoring all of the rules, if you will. They're doing their masks, they're washing their hands, they're staying home, but you have a whole other group of people who are undermining that by doing just the opposite. That's why the numbers keep going up and down. And so I'm starting to think maybe until we get a vaccine,

we're just going to be in this altered state, if you will, that sometimes you think you can go out, you can't. You're going to have these fluctuating numbers or we need to be thinking about a different approach. I've never been a big fan of what they call hoarding, if you will, or whatever they call that. Hurt. Hurt. Hurting. I've never been a big fan of that because I think there are too many people, as I understand the concept, too many people in America to be able to do that effectively. But I got to tell you, I don't need President Trump to agree with me to know I'm right, that this isn't working because it's just too inconsistent. And if

there's another way to do this until we can get a vaccine or we just hunker down until we get a vaccine, that's just kind of what the facts are telling us right now. Because I hear you every week. Every week you say the same thing over and over again, Roland. And because it's true. Because here's the deal. Because if these fools don't want to listen, I'm going to tell y'all, Robert, if the rest of these folk want to kill themselves, that's cool. But also, stop having these get-togethers. I know somebody had a get-together,

10 people over the house, and they said... Outside? No, they were inside. Oh, you know, we know one of the folks had it before. He was still fine. We were all wearing masks. But you know what happens. Folks pull and take the mask off. They ain't wearing the whole time.

And drink with that mask. And guess what? His ass got coronavirus. He got it. Hey, Robert, can't nobody come to my house. Well, Roland, I think part of the issue that we had is that from the beginning, we kept getting inconsistent information from leadership. There's this concept of medical martial law, which is the same way that in national security emergencies, the military takes over and runs the jurisdiction of the country, that we have to have the same for medical situations such as this, that because of the incorrect information that we got from leadership from the beginning, it'll be over by Easter. It'll magically disappear in April. The warm weather will just wash it away. 99.9% of people will get better just

automatically. We'll have a cure in a couple months. Take magical pills, drink bleach, UV light, all those things are why people do not understand exactly what the virus is. And when people don't get clear messaging and do not understand things, then they just go back to the status quo and do exactly what they feel like. You have a lot of people who don't understand that when you're dealing with SARS-CoV-2, that it is a single strain of RNA inside of a lipid shell with a protein corona around it. When it gets into the lungs, it goes and attacks the alveoli first. And what makes it so insidious is that it slowly breaks its way into the alveoli. It basically hacks the system of your blood cells, infecting it and replacing the, sending

its RNA, which then replicates, creating an inflammatory reaction called a cytokine storm. And that's the only what finally makes you sick and gets you into the hospital. The problem is that because that takes two weeks to sometimes, or sometimes more, you are walking around now expelling these RNA cells, these COVS2 cells into the air as you are moving. You're infecting other people. And if you just immediately fell into dust the minute you got it, then this would have been over in two weeks. But because it is so slowly interacting with individuals, because it's so slowly infecting me, because the mortality rate is considered to be low, people think they can just walk around as normal and that nothing will happen to them. If we had consistent messaging from leadership and one consistent

national policy, as we saw the EU do when they shut down the entire European continent, basically, as one nation, because remember, the EU is about the same size the United States of America has taken as a whole. The countries that did the full shutdown have now recovered and are doing well. Countries like Sweden, who tried to do herd immunity, are doing horribly. We have to follow the scientific information and not have this culture war around questions of, we're having a culture war about whether you should wear a mask or not. We're having a culture where there are COVID truthers out there who swear up and down that all these numbers are made up and inflated. You have people who are still pushing hydroxychloroquine as a cure, when it's been debunked by literally every medical organization in the world.

In order for this coronavirus truth or conspiracy to actually be true, you'd have to think that the EU, China, India, every major nation in the world, the NBA, NFL, every major corporation in the United States, every major medical organization the United States, every major medical organization known to mankind is all working together to conspire to stop Donald Trump from winning the reelection. That is what it takes for these conspiracy theories to be true, but you still have people pushing those, and this information is what's hurting us. And these Republican governors are so stupid, are so dumb, Brian Kemp, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, that they are so hell bent on not

disagreeing with Donald Trump that they will literally kill people in their state because of their awful leadership. That is a fundamental problem. Got to go to break. When we come back, we're going to talk to a system who's running for Congress from the state of Washington to become the first African-American to ever represent that state in Congress. We'll also, you'll also hear the audio of Congressman Bobby Rush

saying Donald Trump flat out wants to have a race war. Did Joe Biden actually say Donald Trump is America's first racist president? Yeah, Joe, that's not a good one. And Anthony Brown is here for Wild Not Wednesday. All right, folks, we got all of that coming up on Roland Martin 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 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. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. 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 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-upaway, 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. The COVID-19 deaths toll now more than 141,000. 1,000 new deaths reported overnight.

It is what it is. 40 million people have lost their jobs in 10 weeks. It is what it is. Masked and camouflaged federal agents detaining peaceful protesters. It is what it is. The British socialite is accused of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. I wish her well, whatever it is. I just wish her well, frankly. Can you imagine standing up when you're a president saying, it's not my responsibility?

I take no responsibility. you What kind of president threatens to veto the authorization bill for the United States military, threatens to veto pay raises for our troops, threatens defense operations that protect our country from foreign attack, not because of a legitimate policy disagreement, but just to stop the military from taking Confederate names off of some bases and renaming them for American heroes. Why is Trump so hell-bent on defending racist traitors who attacked our country? Yet he won't say a word about the bounties his Russian master

put on the heads of our troops in Afghanistan. No president has ever sold out our troops the way this one does. Traitor Trump. All right, let's talk about these new viral ads. The Scott First at Vote Vets ad there. Donald Trump wants to hug the flag.

These vets have been going after him. And then the fact that he said nothing about, again, Russia targeting, paying bounties on the military. Look, Republicans have always counted on military votes. They see an opening. Yeah, the Lincoln ad or the Lincoln Project was one of those ads. And then the military piece, you know, just shows the complexity or the numerous spaces, political spaces upon which Donald Trump is failing America and even failing his Republican constituents, at least not that 40 percent, but the moderate Republicans or the Bush or even the Reagan Republicans and stuff. And I think those ads are more effective than the Democratic ads that I've seen. Democrats need to hire the Lincoln, the people who do the Lincoln ads, if you ask me.

I mean, it's just powerful. Teresa, I have absolutely no idea what the hell the Democratic Party is doing. I mean, I literally, look, we've had, no, no, this is real. We've had a number of these segments. So we've turned this into a whole segment, these anti-Trump viral videos that have been placed online. I think we've only run one or two that's come from a Democratic group. What are they doing?

And all they have is that wolf thing, that wolves thing that they've got. Teresa, what are they doing? I had a whole pause because I am so irritated right now with the Democratic Party as it relates to how they are getting their message out. It's more I feel like they're in defense mode and it's like

miscellaneous items that are kind of going up for talking points and more so Biden's face, but we're not seeing any, like you said Roland, some of that real content where it really combats Donald Trump

on everything that he's saying. I mean, there is content for days since he got into office. And that's why I'm just really struggling with the fact that there's not a media agency that is strictly behind. I mean, it's not like they don't have the funds to do it, but, and since we're likely not having a convention, you know, all that money that was going to be going to a venue could go into these ads or could go into, you know, other media agencies, digital platforms like yourself in order to get the word out and let them know, hey, you know, this election matters. And this is the reason why, but give people talking points. So when they come across a Donald Trump supporter, a Kanye West supporter in some states, if he gets on the ballot,

then it brings an opportunity for those talk points about, you know, Joe Biden versus the one that Trump is bringing to the table. I mean, Robert, I mean, I run Don Winslow's ads. I run the Lincoln Project. I'll run vote vets. I'm like Democrats. Do y'all not know how to put together hard hitting ads? There's a lot of material. You have to remember, the Democratic Party has been dysfunctional for 20 years. We think that because Barack Obama won twice, that somehow that absolved this party. It was a singular figure who was able to rise above the dysfunction of the Democratic Party establishment as it lies.

Remember, Republicans have only won the popular vote one time since 1988. In 2004, the only time since 1988, the Republicans have won the popular vote. But yet and still, for the majority of this century, they have been in charge of politics in this country. Right now, there's this existential conversation with the Democratic Party about direction. Are we going to be Bernie direction? Are we trying to still appeal to moderates? Are we trying to work towards more diversity and racial reconciliation? And because of that, they're running scared. There's no fundamental principles to the party. There's no clear thing that they are willing to

run on because they're simply trying to win by default and not offend anybody. So while these ads may appeal to certain swing Republicans, right now there are no swing Republicans left. We have been a 51-49 nation since Bush v. Gore. So what Democrats need to be doing is beating the Bushes to motivate their base, get young people turned out to vote, get more African-Americans and minorities turned out to vote, get more women motivated to turn out and vote. And unless you're presenting a positive message, negative ads against Trump can hold steady. They can steady the ship. But until you're putting forth that actual policy agenda that's going to get people excited to get out there and

vote the same way the MAGA crowd is excited for Trump, then there's no way to overcome that. Trump is an unpollable number. No matter what the polls say, you can throw all of them out the window. You have to run as if you're 10 points down the entire time. I don't see Democrats doing that right now. That's the case. All right, folks, Tacoma's former two-term mayor and city council member before that is running to become Washington state's first black representative in Congress. Marilyn Strickland joins me now to talk about her campaign.

Marilyn, welcome to the show. Well, thank you for having me here, Roland. How are you? Doing great. So first and foremost, when it comes to this Congress, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to bring? So, you know, before COVID, we didn't imagine that in July we would be in the middle of a public health crisis, an economic crisis, and dealing with social unrest based on racism and inequity. And here we are.

Now, when I think about my agenda before COVID, it was really about having people's basic needs met. And I tell the story of growing up in a military family. We lived in a modest home in South Tacoma, and we had a roof over our head. We had food on our table. We had access to health care at Madigan Army Medical Center. And we knew that after serving in the Army for 20 years, my father would retire comfortably. That is not true for so many people today. And so I think about what I want to do.

It's the things that are right in front of us. We have a public health crisis. And I was listening to the conversation while I was in the green room here online waiting for you. And we just talked about the complete lack of leadership at the top of this country regarding how we handled COVID. And I look at how other countries did it. They said everyone's going to mask up. We're going to do testing. Everyone's going to stay home. We're going to contact trace. And they got it under control. And here we are with the 50 state strategy going every which way. And this is why we're still in

the middle of this pandemic. And so I think about the public health crisis, Roland. I think about the fact that people are losing their jobs because of COVID and now they don't have any health insurance. So what are we doing to the healthcare system to get people back on it? We're at least giving them some kind of cash relief so that they can purchase insurance on the market that's affordable. And then finally, Roland, I just talk about economic opportunity. Small businesses are the backbone of this economy.

And we know that a lot of minority and women-owned businesses have been left out of these PPP relief funds. And so it's about shoring up our economy, putting health first, looking at science, testing people, manufacturing equipment here at home, and then doing what we can to stabilize this nation. One of the issues, though, let's say you get elected, Democrats control the House, and then let's say Joe Biden wins. Republicans have run up such a massive debt in this country.

This is what's going to happen. All of a sudden, the Freedom Caucus is going to rediscover their inner fiscal conservative voice. What do you then say to folks who say, well, wait a minute, Republicans didn't give a damn about the deficit. Why should Democrats come in and begin to slash programs to pay for their tax cuts? So first, should the Trump tax cuts be repealed? Yes, they should. And at a minimum, we should at least go back to the level that we had when Obama was president. I would also say, too, though, our house is on fire. And we're going to have to make expenditures to stabilize the economy and to keep people whole. And so as we think about this debt, I would say, yes, the debt's important.

But at the same time, we have to invest in people and we have to stabilize them. And also, too, Roland, we need to invest in infrastructure if we're going to put people back to work. And we know that when we do those things, the economy can become more stable because we grow the tax base. But you're right. We're not talking about the debt right now. We tend not to talk about it when the GOP is in control. But then when Democrats are in control, it suddenly becomes a big issue. But right now, I'm focused on just trying to help people. I mean, people are suffering, they are scared,

and they don't know what's going to happen. I mean, the unemployment benefit is supposed to expire soon. And so we just got to get people stabilized and try to get cash in their hands so they can make it through this pandemic, Roman. Well, that's why what I want is if you get elected and they start talking, I just want you to say, shut the hell up.

Y'all ain't said nothing about the debt for the last four years, so shut up right now. All right, questions from our panelists. I'm going to start with Teresa. Teresa? I don't... So, I mean, is this related to our candidacy? Roland? Teresa, ask whatever the hell you want to ask. Really?

This ain't the first time you've asked a guest a question? Okay, so you are running. So what are the three platforms that you want to do in the district? Can you hear me? Teresa, she already answered that. Teresa, I'm going to come back to you. I'm going to come back to you. Yeah, come back to me.

I'm coming back to you. Damn. Robert. It's okay. No. I try to give my parents an opportunity to sit here, engage in the conversation without me sitting here asking all of the questions and your ass just blank out. Robert, go ahead. Put your phone down. You damn millennials and your Gen Zers, you're on your phone all the damn time. You ain't paying attention, Teresa. Robert, I know you got a question. Thank you. Thank you so much for your candidacy and your sacrificing yourself for public office. You suggested a very aggressive Keynesian economic strategy for pulling us out of the current economic depression that we're

going into. However, with the coronavirus, the way that is not knowing that we'll have a vaccine for a year, 18 months, 24 months, many RNA viruses don't get a vaccine for up to six years sometimes. How would this Keynesian economic policy work if we are in an extended lockdown before going back to work? How long could we continue these levels of governmental spending? Would they be open-ended? Would they simply be kind of like at the end of the New Deal where it needed World War II levels of spending in order to pull us out of that hole? What would be your cutoff point or what would be your thresholds? No, and this is a really good question because, you know, realistically, before we have a sustainable economic recovery, we have to get the public health crisis under control.

And this is how I come back to the whole idea of we know we need more testing. We need to invest and manufacture all the equipment that we need right here at home. I mean, listen to the stories you hear about. We couldn't find tests. We didn't have PPEs. We couldn't find this. We're having to import things. Or you hear stories about places that are hoarding them. The president needs to invoke the Defense of Manufacturing Act and have the federal government make investments here in local companies to manufacture all the equipment we need. And that is consistent with how we're going to have to recover from this pandemic. But I will tell you, I mean, you know, I look at the leadership or lack thereof, and I

wish that our president would get up there. Okay. I wish president Trump, let me correct that. I wish president Trump would get up and say, okay, America, we have a problem. Here's what we're going to do. Everyone is going to have to mask up period, wherever you go out, doesn't make any difference. And we're going to stay home for about two or three weeks until this thing gets a bit under control. And then we'll try to talk about a recovery. And so I think what I'm trying to say is the public health crisis has to be dealt with. At the same time, we're trying to get some manufacturing happening and then we'll be able to have a full economic recovery, but it's going to take a while. And I worry that this pandemic is going to drag on. And in your previous conversation, when you all were talking, you talked about,

is herd immunity going to be something that we do? How do we know what's going to happen after flu season when a bunch of people are going to think they have coronavirus and they show up in the emergency room and the hospitals are overwhelmed? And so, so much of this really is about following science, using information that we know we have, using contact tracing so that if people have been around someone who had had COVID, let's get them into a facility and get tested. I mean, look at what South Korea did. And they had to go through the SARS event. So because they had a system set up with SARS, when COVID came along, they just handled it. And so are we going to have the ability as a country to have leadership and the will to stay our behinds at home like we're supposed to to get this under control?

I don't know if I answered your question or not. Scott. Yeah, Ms. Strickland, this is A. Scott Bolden. I want to follow up on one of your statements. You didn't have to give your whole government name to ask your question. I didn't know there were strictures on how I could answer your question. I said, Scott, you ain't got to get a name gone, man. We ain't got all day.

Come on. She may not have heard you. Come on, man. We ain't got all day. Come on. She may not have heard you. Come on, man. In any event, how do you unfollow up on one of your answers earlier with Roland Martin? You know, you want the tax cuts rolled back for sure to the rates when Barack Obama was in. But then you've got to get the economy going. And whether it's infrastructure or whether it's other economic and tax incentives locally and at the national level, how do you do both when the economy, based on the pandemic and other

issues, are going to be so jacked up if Biden wins that at least the first two to four years, it's just going to be trying to undo the damage that's been done under the GOP administration. Yeah, I mean, I still come back to the important fundamental aspect of an economic recovery, and that is having consumers who have spending power. And think about some of the parts of the economy right now that have been decimated. You know, hospitality, right? Tourism isn't working anymore. Hotels are closing.

We have no restaurant business, even large gatherings. Those are big parts of our economy. And until people feel safe going back to those things, they're not going to recover in those sectors. The other thing I would say too, though, is that, you know, we, I believe that as we look at how we're going to pay for some of these things, we need to look at our tax system because it is not equitable. And there are opportunities for people who make the very most to pay more there are opportunities to look at some of these incentives and breaks that we can give to people to help stimulate growth but also looking at some of the organizations that are just getting breaks for no good reason. Would you consider a tax

increase as well as rolling the tax cuts back to get the economy going and to put more money into the federal coffers? I would look at different sectors and really consider, can you hear me? Yeah. She said she would look at different sectors. Okay. Yeah. I would look at different sectors and say, for example, with our small businesses, we know that they tend to have some of the biggest challenges. So are there incentives or rollbacks we can give to them? And then there's some of the largest companies who actually are doing quite well during this pandemic. And is there an opportunity to try to perhaps increase taxes or find ways to get more revenue from them?

But those things alone are not going to cure us. We're going to have to deal again with the public health crisis, get money in people's hands, extend unemployment like we need to, and really make sure that, again, consumers have spending power to be a big part of this. And I will always come back to, as a former mayor, investing in infrastructure creates jobs. I was mayor of Tacoma after the last recession, and we did three things. We raised the minimum wage. We passed paid sick leave. We passed the largest infrastructure package in the history of the city of Tacoma to put people back to work. And then we also invested in small business. And that was really what got us back to being more stable. But it's going to be a long, hard road. I know that. Thank you. Teresa, you ready with a question? I got another one.

Nope. I'm ready. I'm ready. Mr. President, sorry about earlier. I had got a message from my team, but that is totally not like me. As a small business owner and somebody who actually runs campaigns local and statewide for candidates, what is your campaign actually doing? And believe me, I love effective African-American women who has a track record of experience. So, you know, post this. Please let us know how we can support your campaign.

Thank you. But as it relates to your campaign, you know, kind of we're in the midst of this COVID-19 crisis. What is something that you're outside of funding? Because we all know that's what you need. What is something that people can do in the district or external hands? I would say, you know, many hands make light work. Yes, they do. But as it relates to on the ground, grassroots, digital campaigns, what is something that people can do, you know, after hearing you on Roland's platform and other platforms that you've done, so we can get involved, stay engaged, and make sure someone like you gets in and stays into office? No, well, thank you for that. So I think the first thing you can do well, thank you for that. So I think the first thing you can do is follow me on social media. So I'm on Instagram, I'm on Twitter,

I'm on Facebook, Maryland for Congress, Strickland for Washington. So we're there. And then the thing that's really important right now at this stage of the campaign, and let me tell you where we are. So in Washington state, it's all mail-in voting and ballots dropped a few days ago. People are voting now and they have to cast their ballot by the 4th of August. So it's all by mail here in Washington state. With that said, we're at that stage now where people are making phone calls and reaching out to voters, either through text messaging or through old school telephone calls. And so you can do that from anywhere in the country. So if you're interested in volunteering to help us get our message out

and to reach voters, that will be much appreciated. And yes, we know the money matters because that's how we get our TV ads up. It's how we do digital. It's how we do all the other things we know that are traditional ways to reach people. But this is also a conversation about reaching out to voters, talking to them and telling them about my candidacy and why they should vote for me. So if you want to participate as a volunteer via text messaging and telephones, we have plenty of room for that. And you can contact our campaign through stricklandforwashington.com and we will hook you up. All right then, Marilyn Strickland, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for being with us. Thank you for having me. It was nice to see all of you. All right. Good luck on August 4th. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk with

a sister who owns a company. She actually wants to create the Black Shopping Network. We'll discuss it. And while not Wednesday, have a little fun with J. Anthony Brown. Next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real.

As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, glad to have y'all

watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. We want y'all to support the show. Look, perfect example, interviews like that. It's not like Marilyn Strickland is getting an opportunity to share what she's doing on a national platform. That's one of the reasons why we created this show, the ability to be able to offer a platform to African-Americans, just like we were about to have this conversation next with his sister, with the company. Every Tuesday, we feature black owned businesses right here on the show. Then, of course, every Wednesday, we also have our segment that deals with African Americans who have technology companies. And so that's one of the things that we do. And the reason we have Wild Night Wednesday,

because you got black comedians out there who are out there right now doing comedy clubs. And so we want to be able just to provide them a platform as well let me give a shout out to uh some folks uh let's see here uh kashonda norman uh larry dyer uh they have uh joined our bring the funk fan club with their contributions and i certainly appreciate it we also al searles uh as well folks if you want to support us go to uh if you right now there are almost 4,000 4,869 of you on youtube right now y'all can give right there on youtube to support us you can also of course go to cash out that's which is dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal.me forward slash r martin unfiltered venmo.com forward slash rm unfiltered you can just like the rest of these folks here You can send your money order your check to 60 is to new vision media in you vision

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completely independent to be able to bring you the kind of news and information that you want and that you need. We have tremendous growth over the last several months. We're closing in on right now. So here's the deal. A lot of y'all watching on YouTube right now, y'all actually not subscribers. We want y'all to click the subscriber button. We have right now 586,125 subscribers. We passed 500,000 on June 4th. We're closing in on 600,000. And so all you got to do is subscribe to our YouTube channel. And what you do is you click the, you click notification button. So every time we go live and we have a live special, we have, we're covering a protest, we have a conference, we have a speech, a summit, then you instantly will pop up on your phone when we are live. And so that's why we created this platform. Somebody also tweeted, why am I wearing this

shirt? I want to show some love to Hank Aaron. Of course, one of our greats, when I was honored with the Hank Aaron Award, he actually, this was a jersey they gave me. And then, of course, they had on the back, they told me we could pick our number. I know this is going to hurt Scott's feelings, but I had to go ahead and put 06 on the back of my jersey. Just so you understand, Scott, I know everybody couldn't be an alpha, but you had to go to some little youth group. That's what Kappas are. And Hank Aaron also signed this. And so, yes, he actually has Hank Aaron's autograph.

Scott was a hater when I walked in. He was like, man, you ain't got no Hank Aaron signed jersey. I said, yeah, I don't have it hanging up. I'm wearing it. I'm trying to get over that youth company. At La Youth Crew. All right, y'all. So support us in what we do.

And so shout out to the great Hank Aaron. I just want to show him some love today. That's why I'm wearing the jersey. The only time y'all ever see me wearing a non-Astros jersey, if I'm Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, and then I think I got a Roberto Clemente. That's it. I don't wear other people's stuff, but I had to show my man Hank Aaron some love, and I still appreciate being an honoree with the Hank Aaron Award.

All right, y'all, let's talk some business here. And that is black folks like everybody else love spending money. It's all good. We know what we do. But Janice McLean DeLoach, she says, you know what? We can do more. She's a long time entrepreneur, opened her first business, a beauty school in her late teens. She had her own pantyhose vending machine business placed in the women's room in most NFL stadiums. Now she's created the first TV show that focused on small business entrepreneurs. On July 7th, Blackout Tuesday, Janice launched a small minority business development platform called the Black Shopping Network. She joins us now to talk about it. So Janice, glad to have you here. What is the Black Shopping Network? What is that? Hi, Roland. Thank you for allowing me to be on your show today.

The Black Shopping Networks is a platform where black and brown people can shop and share their businesses and shop and buy businesses for minority owned companies that are black and brown and women. All right. And so so what is the platform? I mean, is it like the Home Shopping Network, which is that which is an actual television channel? Is this going to be digital? So exactly what's the platform? 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 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 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glod. 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 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey.

We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids,

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. So right now it is a digital platform. It is online only, but the plan in the future is to roll out and make this a television and televised production that will be on somebody's network. And so the purpose is to support entrepreneurs and women in business. And let me just say, the Black Shopping Networks, with an S,.com, was created as a result of me. I wrote a book called Autobiography of an Entrepreneur. And part of it was my frustration trying to get other networks to take my book on their shopping networks. And so I did not want to – our website is www.theblackshoppingnetworks.com. Oh, love it.

The – that's somebody's Facebook page. See, see, see. No, no, no, no. That's actually a website. So you got – but it's the, so we didn't have the the. All right, so now we got the – now we have the the. So it's theblackshoppingnetworks.com with an S on the end. That's it.

All right. There you go. All right. Well, see, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. But you got to put that the in because it's kind of important. That's right. It is.

And this is, you're right. So let's make sure we got it right. www.theblackshoppingnetworks.com. And so this was actually created out of me deciding that I did not want to wait for people to validate the our products and books and that kind of thing on a shopping network. So if you will, this is the shopping network for black and brown people and women. It's definitely women supported. So, OK, so how does somebody get on? Are they are they paying to have their products on? Do you get on for free? Are you getting a cut of sales?

How does that work? Okay. So there are four tiers. There's tier one, which is for the person who says, you know, I think I'm going to start my own business. And right now, during COVID-19, there's a lot of interest in people taking up hobbies and turning them into businesses. And so, you know, at the same time, the economy has taken a downturn and people may not financially have the money to really be able to, you know, finance something like they need time. They need some help. So tier one is for people who want to just see if entrepreneurship is for them,

want to try to get entrepreneurship is for them, want to try to get their business out there and see what happens. And then there's tier two, tier three, and tier four is for companies who have actually been around for a while and are ready to move their products or platforms and businesses to the next level. And they can do it with me and the other vendors and people who are part of the Black Shopping Network. Now, through August the 1st, you can sign up for two months. You'll get one month free if you are a vendor or a business. And if you are a shopper and you sign up from now through August the 1st, we will actually give you a digital coin. And when I say we, there's a team of people that are working with me to pull this together. So thank you to you guys. You all know who you are, and I'm so grateful to have your

help. And thank you. So through August the 1st, if you sign up as a shopper, you will receive a digital coin and your digital wallet online to be able to shop the merchants that have signed up. And so far, we've had quite a few interesting companies sign up. And interestingly enough, they're all women. So women definitely don't wait around for things to happen. We definitely make it happen. So kudos to you ladies who have signed up so far. All right then. Well, we certainly appreciate it. Good luck in what you're doing. And again, folks, it is the black shopping networks dot com. And again, go check it out, folks. Go to the website and look at the products on there and certainly support those businesses. Janice Deloach, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, then. All right, folks,

I got to talk about this crazy, crazy story. OK, California's Redwood City joined many cities across the country in painting a Black Lives Matter mural on their streets. Until recently, when they quietly removed it. Redwood City gave a local resident, Daniel Peace, permission to paint the Black Lives Matter mural during a Fourth of July public arts celebration. They even supplied him with the paint. But a local real estate attorney, Maria Rutenberg, asked to have a MAGA 2020 sign on the same street. The city suddenly decided that the BLM mural was a traffic hazard and washed it away in the middle of the night. OK, Robert, this is stupid to me. First of all, MAGA 2020 is a political slogan that is specifically tied to a candidate.

Is this the city not having any guts in telling this person? Hell no. I think that's exactly what it is. Clearly, if this was a legal matter, they went to court because Black Lives Matter is not a political slogan because it is a consciousness movement. They would have good standing to win, but they're trying to avoid the lawsuit, trying to avoid the fees that will be associated with trying to fight this in court, and trying to split the baby down the middle to not make anyone upset. That's the point about having actual political courage. It means you have to be able to withstand the blows that come against it. Everybody can do what's popular. Everybody can do what's easy. It takes people with real courage and conviction to not just do what's symbolic,

but stand behind it. So I think what the city can do, if they really want to have an effect on this instead of just writing it on the streets, institute some real policies that support the agenda of Black Lives Matter. So institute some real procurement that helps black people get into city contracting. Hire more African-Americans to work in city halls and hire more African-Americans for city employment. Then you don't have to worry about what's written on the street

because you would have to actually have lived out that purpose instead of simply buying into a slogan. Teresa, I'm sorry. Hess, that's where you got to tell some people, man, go to hell. We ain't painting Joe Biden 2020, so we ain't going to print no MAGA 2020. I agree with Brother Robert. You know, there were so many instances where this city could have really stepped up, but in the middle of the night, in the middle of many conversations,

not knowing the full story about this developer and who this developer is and have they donated to campaigns and are they going to stop a construction project? But again, it comes to the ignorance of some of these developers and corporations who feel like, you know, their voices need to be heard. And I get it. But again, this is not a campaign type of situation. This is, honestly, it was a time for the mayor to actually step up and say, listen, this is why Black Lives Matter was actually painted on the street. Because this dialogue about inequality, police brutality, protecting the rights of African Americans, all makes sense. And especially as a developer for them,

especially if they were doing affordable housing, you need to know and be educated about what it matters the most. So it definitely was a missed opportunity for that mayor. So I hope the members in that community are paying attention because in the middle of the night, late in the midnight hour, if the mayor is ready and willing to say, yes, I'm there for the moment, but in the middle of the night, wash it away, that's exactly what they're going to do with their policies on this next term inside that office.

Well, but you've got to take a closer look at this, though. The painting itself was going to wear out eventually. And so the government, because of the MAGA person, accelerated that process. Now, MAGA individual, the lawyer, got what he or she wanted, right? Right. So let's not misread Redwood City now. They sided with MAGA as opposed to Black Lives Matter. And so it'll be interesting to see whether the MAGA individual

still pushes to have a painted MAGA 2020. If they don't, you'll see. That confirms that Redwood City got what they wanted. Black Lives Matter. Well, no, MAGA got what they wanted. MAGA got what they wanted. And Redwood City buckled like some pumps. And what they should have said, no, MAGA got what they wanted. MAGA got what they wanted. And Redwood City buckled like some pumps. Exactly.

And what they should have said, man, go to hell. Robert, go ahead. Well, just exactly to Scott's point that when you cave into these things, it shows what the real morals and values of that city are. So I think this would be a perfect time for activists in that area to push for real systemic change.

If you don't want this written on the street, well, guess what? None of us were asking for y'all to write Black Lives Matter on the street. Right. Marching and protesting and rioting for you to decorate the city. You can fly all the flags and all the banners that you want, but if you're not putting in actual systemic changes in the way that you police black communities and gentrification and redevelopment and redlining and in every other aspect of the community that actually needs to be fixed.

You can keep it. Look, guess what? If you can fix your police department and fix your minority contract and fixing your procurement right wherever the hell you want on the street, that's what people are actually protesting for, not to have decoration.

Yeah, but you could also watch this, Robert, too, that Black Lives Matter, that individual or the group itself, this is a moment that they could expand on or push the city on or even go to court on, if you will, to expose Redwood City and find out exactly what the regs say, what the law says, what the zoning says, because you've got a huge free speech piece here, a huge one that the government's trying to regulate, and they're trying to avoid that fight. If I was Black Lives Matter, I'd make an issue of it and take it to local court. Scared asses. That's what they are. Just flat out scared. Okay, just weak.

All right, folks, we do have an in memoriam to share with you, folks. Another civil rights icon has passed. This is Charles Evers, the brother of Medgar Evers. He died at the age of 97. Evers became the first black mayor of a Mississippi town or city since Reconstruction when he was elected mayor of Fayette in 1969. In his 1971 autobiography, Evers said he was a gun-toting bootlegger, a numbers runner, and a pimp in Chicago before coming back to Mississippi after his brother was assassinated in June of 1963. He came back and assumed the role of state NAACP field secretary, the position his late brother held. He died surrounded by family at his Rankin County home. And so Charles Evers died at the age of 97. All right, folks, let me just thank everybody for

being here. Scott, Teresa, and Robert. Teresa, you're going to... Leave her alone. No, hell no. Leave her alone. Yeah, Teresa, what? What? Uh-huh. Don't back down.

Don't apologize. I promise. Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah, I'm sure it's not going to happen again. Uh-huh. Scott, I'm done with you two. So, Robert, appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Hey, man, my phone went off while you were... Thank you, Robert. Robert, tell the folks, I wish I could be there in Georgia, but for the funeral of C.T. Vivian, and I still am, I have not made a decision if I'm going to go to John Lewis' funeral. I'm just not, I mean, I'm not playing around with this coronavirus.

I mean, this is, and people, and I saw that video, them folks were not practicing safe distancing, moving C.T. Vivian's coffin past the King Center. And so I just need black people listening. I need y'all to practice safe distancing. We look, we're dying to high rate than everybody else. Scott, didn't you have, didn't your daughter have some friends to come by? And you're like, I don't know them.

Well, they travel, quite frankly, to Florida or Jamaica. And they came back. And I told my daughter she had to self-quarantine for 14 days. She told me I didn't love her. And I said, yes, I do. That's why you got to self-quarantine. You made a self-quarantine? Yeah, absolutely.

That's all I'm saying. That's what you do. All right, y'all. Going to break. When we come back, we're going to talk to comedian Jay Anthony Brown. You remember him from Time's Run a Morning Show, now on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Y'all, y'all way too early. I ain't done.

So again, again, Tom Jordan Morning Show, now on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Got his own comedy club in L.A. Y'all, you know he ignorant. Straight ignorant. He's next to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland Martin Unfiltered. YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be right back. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, y'all.

It's Wild Out Wednesday. Joining us this week is J. Anthony Brown. Let me tell you about something about his late ass. Y'all, J. Anthony Brown. Let me tell y'all something. J. Anthony Brown sent me a – go ahead and pull him up. Y'all, J. Anthony Brown sent me a text months ago. Hey, man, want to come on your show? Y'all, we had Jay booked.

We had Jay booked and everything. Didn't answer the damn phone. That was about three months ago. Man, my book of Jackie was so hot. She's like, what in the world? I was like, mm-mm, put him in a penalty box. And then finally he's like, okay, I'm ready to come on last week.

I'm like, was a Negro in quarantine for three months? I don't see Roland. Where is he? No, no, no. Here's the problem. We on FaceTime, and so what happens is we're running the FaceTime through our control room so you can't see me, but you can hear me. I can definitely hear you. So pretend you're on the damn radio. Okay, all right.

So how you been handling this COVID-19 stuff, man? Man, I don't know. I mean, I'm staying away from regular people that I used to hang out with. They can't come around no more, man. I'm quarantined, and I'm at that. I got everything already, so I don't need to catch none. You know, I got high blood pressure, diabetes. I just got over cancer, so you got to stay away from me.

You can't come around me at all, at all, at all. So, folks, I'm mailing my vote in. When I vote, I'm going to mail it in. You know? That's the way I'm doing it. I'm doing it that way. And when I do go out, I'm all matched up. I got on a hazmat suit right now just to talk to you.

How you doing, man? Man, I'm good. We just sitting here, man, having fun. The show is going great. I'm proud of you, man, by stepping out there on your own and putting your own show together. And, you know, I be telling people all the time, the Internet has changed the game.

You don't have to wait for these big markets and these radio markets and these TV markets for you to put your products out there. If that's what you want to do, get you a camera, get you a mic, or just get you an iPhone and go to work. That's all you got to do. It's so simple now. Let me tell y'all something.

If y'all think I'm a gadget freak, y'all ain't. Y'all, there's no gadget. No, no. J. Anthony Brown got more gadgets than me. I know y'all think I'm lying. No, I got, in fact, Roland, check this out. I just produced a show that's on YouTube. It's called I Got a Gadget.

So you sent us one of your gadgets. You were on the show. And anybody out there who has a gadget, go to I Got a Gadget. I love gadgets. Gadgets make you sane, man. They're a peace of mind. You can't wait. I will order anything that's on television.

Put it on television, especially after 12 o'clock at night. I'm going to order it. I got to have it. I got to see how it works. I want it. Do it the same way. Y'all, I'm telling y'all, y'all, I'm not lying. Y'all, we were on

Tom Joyner Cruise. And I opened up my... We would swap gadgets. You got this and I got this. I opened up my gear bag. I swear J. Anthony Brown thought the tree of life was in it.

He was like, whoo! He got excited. I don't know what it is now. I've always been that way. What about yourself? Have you always been that way or what? Yeah, well, yeah. But now, see, and the difference is we now got money.

So, see, before, we would just stare at gadgets. See, now we can actually buy gadgets. Now I can buy gadgets. And I don't mind buying gadgets that when you get it, sometimes it don't work. You take a chance with a gadget. Sometimes it ain't going to work the way it works on television. You know, like, this is a piece of crap. Okay, you bought it.

That's what it is. So you have to take that chance with a gadget. Or it looks big on television, and when you get it, it ain't that big. You know what I mean? That's part of buying a gadget. That's part of it. That's the way it works. Well, and see, the advantage that I have is that I can buy gadgets

and it's all a tax write-off. That's what I've been doing, too. Thank you very much. If it don't work, I'm writing it off. Let me tell you the latest gadget I bought. The latest gadget I bought. They have a box. This is a box.

This is a box that you buy. Say you want to give somebody a gift. You want to give them a computer. Well, you take this box, and the box says it's a fart plug. And so it looks like they got a gift for fart plugs. The real gift is inside the box. So when they open it up, you get to watch

their expression of you giving them a ratty ass gift. You know what I mean? That's the gift. That's the new gadget I got. But it's all on my show, on YouTube. I got a gadget. Thank you, man, for sending in the tape. Do you literally look for...

Do you just... Remember the old Skyball magazine used to be on the airplane? I know they knew you personally. Along with that, and like I said, anything that comes on television after 12 o'clock at night,

I gotta have it. I got all the pots. I've got 15 ways you can slice a potato if you come to my house, man. I got all of that. I got all of that. I got the water hole that winds up by itself. I got the

scarves. I got the ice. I got all of it. I got it all. I got it. I got it. Yes. I got all of it. I got it all. I got it. I got it. Yes. I mean, y'all, you, J. Anthony Brown, y'all really think I'm lying. J. Anthony Brown could probably open the Gadget Museum. You know what? They used to have a store in some of the malls called, as seen on television.

I got all of that stuff. I got all of it. They put it out there. I got to of it. They put it out there. I got to have it. I bet you had stock in the Shopper Image. Remember Shopper Image? Oh, my God. That was the store.

And here's the weird part. Before I had money, I could just go in there and touch stuff. I couldn't buy it. I just go in there and touch it and play around with it. And now that I finally got some money, the place went out of business. Yeah, right. Sharpened image no longer exists. No longer exists.

No longer exists, yes. All right, so the other day, man, I'm going through my archives. I'm looking for some video and photos of John Lewis and C.T. Vivian, and I come across some audio files. And why did I come across? I don't know why I even have an audio file or revving that noise. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, everybody.

These are today's church announcements. It's not nice to start a morning without saying good morning, everybody. The women who look like Al Green will meet in meeting room five. Let me tell you where Reverend Adnoit came from. Right. Where'd that come

from? When we would do the Tom Joyner show, Sybil would just say, she would say it in that voice, she would say, good morning, she would just say that, and she would just say, you know, like we said something funny,

and she would say, like she said, Jay loves white women. Okay, yes, I do. And then she would go, good morning, everybody. But she said it in that Reverend Ed Noy voice, and so I said, Sybil, can I take that voice and make a character

with it? And she's like, yeah, go ahead and do what you want to do with it. So I took that voice where she was going, and she did it kind of like that, where it clicked out in my head, and that's how Reverend Adnoid was born, you know, and that character, man, you know, that was the character we

would do on Monday. And he did church announcements, not church complaints, what Tommy does on the Steve Hart show. He does church announcements. So, yeah, that's where that character came from. Did you save all of those? I got a lot of them, and I have a book. I have a book.

I've published, I know not as many books as you have, but I have four books that I've published. One, the first book is the announcement by Reverend Abnoid. I also have Shades of Brown by J. Anthony Brown. Shades of Brown by J. Anthony Brown. Shades of Brown by J. Anthony Brown. And check this out. It's the 50 Shades of Brown. It's just 50 Shades of Brown in the book. That's all that's in it.

It's 50. Roland, don't laugh. I'm serious. It's 50 Shades of Brown by J. Andy Brown. A lot of people don't know. Brown has different levels. Yeah, it does. It has 50 Shades of Brown by J. Andy Brown. And I also have another book that I'm producing right now because I consider myself an artist.

I have an art book coming out of all the hats that I drew. When I was doing the Tom Jordan show, I would doodle all the time. I just would draw, it looked like I would draw the same character. So the first book that comes out probably in the next six months is all these characters that I drew of just these characters in hats. It's about a hundred of those. And then I produced, and I went to Comic-Con twice. For those of you who don't know what Comic-Con is, Comic-Con is a big convention that they have every year for people who are involved in the comic book area or superhero area.

So I produced a character called Bitter Man. Bitter Man is a real superhero character who's totally against marriage. So I have a book. I'm going to send you my stuff so next time I come on the show you can hold it up and show everybody what it's in. So I have those four books and the art book will be the next book that I publish.

Now let me explain something to y'all. Now Jay, I told y'all Jay got gadgets. The only thing that comes second to Jay's gadgets is the amount of shit he sells. Do y'all understand? Jay is sold suits, hats, socks, hot sauce.

Jay has art. I have some damn cufflinks of some Jay Anthony Brown art. Y'all done heard his books. He got a comedy club. I mean... The rule of law is, Roland, you know this, is you should try to produce

seven streams of income. Oh, yes. You should not just... My minimum is five. My minimum is five. Yes. That's all you can probably keep up with. Sometimes you get...

But you need to focus on at least five to seven streams of income so that when you grow older, you're not just, you know, depending on the money that you work with. You can sit back and you've got maybe 400 coming here, 200 coming here, 300 coming here. That's what to me it's all about. So that's why I'm always constantly dabbling in different things. But the hot sauce is doing really, really well. It's on hotterthanamofo.com. Why you laughing, Roland?

Why you laughing? Because the name is funny, Hotter Than a Mofo. The mofo stands for mother's food. What do you think it stands for? Yeah, okay, all right. Okay. Yeah, okay. Mofo stands for mother's food.

It stands for hotter than a mopo. I have habanero, peach and pepper, cayenne, garlic, and hotter than a mopo, which is very hot. And then, Roland, I have nuts. So what I need you to do is try my nuts. Hello? Are you there? Roland? i ain't trying your damn nuts i ain't trying your damn nuts oh you gonna be like that you don't you don't eat planters nuts

i don't eat i don't eat planters i can't stand i can't stand walnuts i can't stand cashews i can't stand almonds i just trained my brain to like pecans, damn it. I got pecans, yeah. Pecans come up under nets. I mean, come on, don't be like that, Roland. Don't be like that. No, I will be like that. I will be like that.

First of all, I'm going to go back to Reverend Adnois. You talking about a book? That got to be an audio book. Yes, I'm going to make an audio book. That would be cool. Thank you for giving me that. Yeah, now you got a new damn thing. Yeah, I'm telling you. Because I'm telling you, it was hilarious because the beauty of it,

the evergreen, so they like, you know. It's right. It's right. It's definitely right. I'm telling you. Look, I would buy it. No, actually, you had to send it to me for free. But no, I'm telling you, I was sitting there, and I was like, damn, I need to go find someone because it was just too funny. It was just absolutely too funny.

All right, when did the whole singing thing with what you call destroying a hit? Murder the hits. Murder the hits. Where did that come from? Okay. Let's see. Yolanda Starks, who was Tom Joyner's producer, I was performing at this club called Matt Rick's Flat in Los Angeles.

I was performing at this club, Matt Rick's Flat. And so at that particular time, Tom had all the people on his show who had a quote, unquote, real good set on Def Jam. Anybody who like just kind of stood out, that would be Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey, Adele Givens, some more, Ricky Harris. You know, all the people who set just kind of stood out. And mine was one of them

because that's where I did the Watch Out Dinner. So they contacted me to be on Tom Joyner's show. I did the show just talking about comedy, yada, yada, kind of like we're doing right now. And then when I went off the air, I told Tom, I said, hey, man, I'd like to come on your show. And my dumb ass said, I'll be on there for free. That's what I said.

But listen, here's my analogy behind that. Free gets you in the door. It really does. And a lot of people don't understand that. You kind of approach somebody sometimes and say, how can I help you to get your foot in the door? You want to be a barber? Offer to clean up the barbershop for free.

You want to be a hairstylist? Offer to clean up the hairstyle for free or run errands for free. You want to be a hairstylist? Offer to clean up the hairstyles for free or run errands for free. That gets you in the door. So free got me in the door. So I said, well, I want to be on every week. He said, well, I need another segment for Friday. What can you come up with?

Come up with something that we can do every Friday. And at that time I was working on KJLH, which is Stevie Wonder Station with Rico Reed, just on Fridays, you know, a couple days a week. And we had this segment called Janity Bomb Murders the Hits. And I said, well, I can do these song parodies for you. And I said it again, Roland,

I can give you a different one for free every week. I said, I can come up with a different song every week for free. That's how I got on the show, and that's what Murdered the Hits. And since we've done them, I'm talking about 20 years, Roland. I must have 700 hits. Wow. Yeah, I've done, I think I've recorded more songs

than some of these average singers. Hey, I'm telling you, look, it's all a part of, look, it's about being able to do different things. I got a couple more questions for you. I did the Ebony Magazine comedy issue, and I asked you

and a bunch of other people who was the funniest non-comedian you knew? And I forgot. Oh, that's very easy. That's very easy. Was it a tailor or somebody you like? You said the f-

Tell everybody who this cat was. The funniest, there's several. The funniest non-comedic person in my life was my Aunt Emily, who was very quiet until she started to drink. When she started to drink, you got a completely different show. And you could tell she was

drunk because Roland, her tongue got heavy. And she would deny being drunk. She was my favorite aunt. She turned me on to cigarettes and beer. And she was probably like that. And you know she's drunk. And Aunt Emily, you're drunk. And you're like, you know she drunk. Aunt Emily, you drunk?

Yeah, I'm like, what? Her tongue was like it was lead. Like she couldn't talk. But what was so funny about it, she would curse my grandmother because my grandmother was a matriarch of the

family and so everybody was afraid of her because she was the matriarch of the family and so everybody was afraid of her because she was the matriarch but when my aunt emily got drunk she lit up my grandmama's ass i mean she went in hard she was like you couldn't laugh you couldn't laugh. You couldn't laugh. But she was one of the funniest people I know. My second funniest was probably another one. It's three. Another one was Kay Patterson, who was a history teacher.

Really got me hip to Langston Hughes and poetry and stuff like that. But the absolute funniest was a guy that I worked for as a tailor. His name was Henry Taylor. His last name was Taylor. He owned a tailor shop, and he had the most successful business in Atlanta. But check this out, Roland. He hated customers. Roland, when I tell you to make customers, because his thinking was customers are in the way of what I'm doing right now. And it was like a customer would come in and he'd go, damn.

I mean, he would just go off that, damn, I ain't going to finish this. He didn't make the connection. That was his way of life was the customers. And he would say anything to them and hoping that they wouldn't come back he had so much business i mean i worked for him for about maybe three or four years but i remember some of the things he said to a customer there was a large lady that came in that was getting a pair of pants fit and he literally said you need to keep your big ass still so I can mark these pants. Didn't care.

He would mess up a product that he would clean clothes. He shrunk a guy's suede jacket. And his argument was, you shouldn't have brought it to me. He said that to the customer. He was like, you shouldn't have brought it to me. But the classic was what he said to me. I had been working for him for about almost two years, Roland. And we never had a day off, meaning we worked six days a week.

And I said, you know, hey, man, I've been here quite a while. I wonder if I could have a day off. And he said, without missing a beat, he said, a day off? He said, nigga, when you came in here, you had them all off. I mean... I went back to my sewing machine and set it off, bro.

So Henry, Kay Patterson, and my aunt, probably the funniest people who were not comedians by now. You had them all off. You had them all off. So now, the last thing, we gotta clarify something for people. All these people, there are a lot of people,

they will come up to me, man, man, I wish Tom and Jay would leave you alone about your ascots uh and i was in nova scotia canada speaking in the business conference and i put on the blue suit red tie i walked down they first question yo what ass got and so I would explain to people, I said, y'all don't understand. Tom and Jay be talking that trash on the air, but Jay has sent me several photos

of his ass wearing an ascot. I said, y'all ain't never seen him posted. I said, so y'all need to understand that's a bit, I said, but both, I said, they asked I said, Jay wore, I said, they asked I said, they will ask God several times. Here's the thing that people don't know

about an ask God. Once you put on an ask God, it elevates your education right away. People, people, people assume you know more than you really know. So I've always taken to heart that if your ass is real dumb,

put on a ascot. Now, you've got to keep your mouth shut, but when people see you, they will think you're very smart. But put on a ascot. People will think you're very smart. Now, the thing with you, Roland, you are very smart. So, the thing is, when you wrote it, you are very smart. So we have given you so much trash about not to ask that. I'm going to let it go because it's you.

Here's the one thing I didn't really pick up. And you tried it. Bless your heart. You tried to make it catch on. And it just didn't. The feather pocket squares. It just didn't catch on. No, no.

No, here's the deal, though. Actually, no, no. No, actually, here's the deal. It didn't catch on other people because I wasn't worried about other people, but actually it did catch on because my sister actually

makes those and gets orders every month. Oh, okay. So here's... I stand corrected. So here's... So I'm going to tell you what happened.

First of all, the feather pocket square was a battle between me and Steve Harvey. We would have these pocket square battles at Essence every year. And then one year I said, I got something for your ass. And I remember taking a photo and I had all the ascots and the linen suits laid out and the feather pocket squares. Man, when I got to New Orleans, he was like, Steve thought I'd actually stuffed some feathers in my pocket. I was like, no, Steve, they were actually made. The pocket squares were made.

But the thing of the trip, all these folks were like, man, feather pocket squares. But, Jay, the women loved it. They loved it. Bro, I'm at the White House. Okay. Christmas party. They loved it. Bro, I'm at the White House. Christmas party. We in line. I got an

ascot on. A fuchsia ascot. I got the pocket square. Obama. They call your name Mr. and Mrs. Roland Martin. Obama goes, Roland, really? First ascot,

now the feather pocket square. He goes, really? Feathers? Now, mind Scott, not a feather pocket square? He goes, really? Feathers? Now, mind you, Jay, while he talking, Michelle Obama is over here playing with the feather pocket square. There you go. And I turn to him. I turn to him and I go, see, this ain't for you. He was like, man, come on, take this photo. So that's the deal. Women love the feather pocket square. It's a winner. It's a winner. Now, my last question to you, are you using chicken feathers,

or do you not ever use chicken feathers? No, chicken feathers are not being used. No. Well, you have, in as much chicken as we eat, Roland, you're really being disrespectful. I mean, this is just my opinion. You're really being disrespectful of not using chicken feathers. Well, I will let my sister know, and I'll keep that in mind.

Okay, all right. I'll keep that in mind. J. Anthony Brown, always a pleasure. Young man, you got a cash app or anything? I got my hot sauce. Go to hotterthanthemofo.com to check out my hot sauce. Please order some. And please check out our online show,

hosted by my good friend, Mr. Ross Allen. It's called I Got a Gadget. Send us a gadget that you have. If we use it, we'll send you a t-shirt. Now, the sizes are only medium, medium, large, X large, and 3X. If your ass is bigger than that,

give it to a friend, okay? Give it to a friend or lose some damn weight. There you go. Thank you, man. Jay, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Yeah. Come back sometime soon. Yeah. Jay. I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Hey, hey, hey. Come back sometime soon. Yeah, Jay.

I really want to talk politics. Well, just don't wait three damn months. All right. The election is less than 100 days. All right. Okay. All right. We'll do it. All right, Jay. Appreciate it. All right, y'all. See, this is why y'all got to support

Roland Martin Unfiltered. You never know what in the heck we're going to have on this show, the kind of conversations we're going to have. I hope y'all enjoyed that. That's why we do Wild Now Wednesday, an opportunity for us to be able to have a little fun with our guest, J. Anthony Brown. That boy a fool, y'all. I'm telling you.

I'm telling y'all. We used to get together. Straight fool. Straight fool. All right. Real quick here. don't be way over time. And so let me go ahead and read this here. These are the folks who have given us 50 bucks or more. I told you, if you give $50 or more, you get a personal shout out from me on the show.

And so here we go. Angela Scipio, Ashley, Assorted Chocolate Travel Club, Brianna Appling, Carol Williams, Cynthia Smith, Daryl Lauder, Eric Johnson, Faria Law Group, Ferdoyce Brown, Freddie Sidbury, Georgette Greenlee, Gladys Smith, Godoy Colbert, Hyman, Karen, Kevin Kinney, Kevin George, Latiria May, LaVon Wiedemeyer, Linda Edwards, Lisa Phillips, Liras Temporary Office Services, Malcolm X. Matthews, Michael Collin, Michelle Mayberry, Rondell Gowdy, Shana Reeder, Thank you all for supporting Rolling Mark Unfiltered and joining our

Bring the Funk fan club. Folks, real simple. You can join right here on YouTube right there. You can also go to our cash app dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal paypal.me forward slash r martin unfiltered venmo.com forward slash rm unfiltered you can also send a cashier's check money order to new vision media nu vision media inc 1625 k street northwest suite 400 washington dc 2006. Don't forget, tomorrow, 11 a.m. Eastern, we'll be live streaming the funeral of Reverend Dr. C.T. Vivian right here

on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I will see you then. Nothing but love for Hank Aaron, one of our pioneers and one of our great elders. Got to go. Halt! 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. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.