#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Carter's National Funeral, CA Wildfires, Fani Willis Appeals, NC Supreme Court Halts Certification

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

1.9.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Carter's National Funeral, CA Wildfires, Fani Willis Appeals, NC Supreme Court Halts Certification President Jimmy Carter's national funeral included final farewells and fond memories. We'll hear the eulogies from his grandson Jason, President Joe Biden, and Ambassador Andrew Young. The death toll for the California wildfires is increasing as folks about pointing fingers at Mayor Karen Bass and Fire Chief Kristin Crowley and blaming DEI for the raging fires. We'll break all of this down.  North Carolina justices block the certification of the election outcome in a race for one of its own seats, keeping the democratic incumbent from resuming her duties.I'll talk to a state representative about what's going and and what's is expected to happen.  Georgia district attorney Fani Willis is appealing her removal from the Trump case.   #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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also some shade from Cameron Gifford and from President George W. Bush. The massive fires in Los Angeles continues will tell you about a fun creation for African-American young people to fight the fire. And also Mayor Karen Baxter took a lot of locked down because she was in the outskirts. And why are folks getting locked about funding being cut

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Martel Who's who of Washington, D.C. with the National Cathedral today to celebrate the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100. The state funeral was held today. President Joe Biden made today a federal holiday. More than 4,000 mourners were in the National Cathedral as it was broadcast across networks across the country. Former presidents were there, including former

President Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, as well as President Barack Obama. Also in attendance, of course, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, second gentleman Doug was there as well. So many things were talked about in terms of the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter. Among those folks speaking, including his grandson, the son of Walter Mondale. Vice President Walter Mondale was Carter's vice president. He died several years ago, but he wrote his eulogy and delivered it at Carter's funeral. Also speaking, President Joe Biden gave the eulogy and former Ambassador Andrew Young, who was fired by President Jimmy Carter

because of a secret meetings with the Palestinians, he also gave the homily. Here is a roundup of what was said at today's state funeral for President Jimmy Carter. We sing a song that says, from the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God. I don't know how many people in here can say that.

I know I can't. But my grandfather certainly can. From the moment that he woke up until he laid his head, his life was a testament to the goodness of God. And I thank all of you for being here to celebrate this life. To the presidents and first ladies, it is a great honor to have you here. You know the human side of the American presidency like no others, and we appreciate you. To the Vice Presidents, other distinguished guests, and friends of all kinds, thank you

for being here. To those of you who came from all across the world, thank you for being here. To those of you who came from all across the world, thank you for being here to celebrate and pay tribute to my grandfather. I say grandfather, but we called him Papa, as many of you know. We called my grandmother Mom Carter, so we spent our time talking about Mom and Papa, and mostly mostly speaking of the human side of the presidency just letting people know that they were regular folks. Yes they spent four years in the governor's mansion and four years at the White House but the other 92 years they spent at home in Plains, Georgia.

And one of the best ways to demonstrate that they were regular folks is to take them by that home. First of all, it looks like they might have built it themselves. Second of all, my grandfather was likely to show up at the door in some 70s short shorts and Crocs. And then you'd walk in the house and it was like thousands of other grandparents' house all across the South. Fishing trophies on the walls. The refrigerator, of course, was papered with pictures of grandchildren and then great-grandchildren.

Their main phone, of course, had a cord and was stuck to the wall in the kitchen, like a museum piece. And demonstrating their depression era roots, they had a little rack next to the sink where they would hang Ziploc bags to dry. And demonstrating that they changed with the times, eventually he did get a cell phone and he one time he called me, sort of early on in that process, and on my phone it said, Papa, mobile. So I answered it, of course. I said, hey, Papa. He said, who's this? I said, this is Jason. He said, what are you doing? I said, I'm not doing anything. You call me. He said, I didn't call you.

I'm taking a picture. Nuclear engineer, right? I mean, they were small town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from, no matter what happened in their lives. But I recognize that we are not here because he was just a regular guy. As you've heard from the other speakers, his political life and his presidency for me was not just ahead of its time, it was prophetic. He had the courage and strength to stick to his principles even when they were politically unpopular.

As governor of Georgia half a century ago, he preached an end to racial discrimination and an end to mass incarceration. As president in the 1970s, as you've heard, he protected more land than any other president in history. 50 years ago, he was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions, and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources. By the way, he cut the deficit. Wanted to decriminalize marijuana. Deregulated so many industries that he gave us cheap flights and, as you heard, craft beer.

Basically, all of those years ago, he was the first millennial. My father wrote this in 2015. And clearly, he edited it a couple times since then, but here we go. Today we join in sadness to honor our dear friend President Carter for his extraordinary years of principled and decent leadership and his courageous commitment to civil rights and human rights. I remember the emergence of Jimmy Carter on the national stage, in particular his 1971 inaugural address. For the first time, a Georgia governor called for a commitment to the traditions of Martin Luther King Jr. and for the decency that his leadership stood for over his lifetime. I was surprised when then-candidate Carter asked me to join him as his running mate in 1976.

He amazed me then as he has every year since. He, of course, was brilliant. He also had a great sense of humor. And while we had only four years in the White House, he achieved so much in that time. It stood as a marker for Americans dedicated to justice and decency. Carter was a man of his word. I remember when he talked about the concept of the vice presidency.

I told him I'd like to do it and had only two requests. I wanted to make a real contribution and I didn't want to be embarrassed as many of my predecessors have. He agreed, welcomed my full participation, and directed his staff to treat me as they would him. He was very careful to protect me from the frustration and, too often, humiliation that had cursed the lives of many vice presidents. I want to thank the President for the good choices he made with his key personnel. We don't have time to mention many of them, but Stu Eisenstadt comes as close as possible to rivaling President Carter's formidable work ethic.

Hamilton Jordan and Jody Powell were blessings every day to me, to the President, and to the nation. One of the things that dawned on me during the course of our time together is how well we worked together and how we understood each other. I think one of the realities was that Carter was a devout Christian who grew up in a small town and was active in his faith for almost every moment of his life. I was also a small-town kid who grew up in a Methodist church where my dad was a preacher, and our faith was core to me, as Carter's faith was core to him.

That common commitment to our faith created a bond between us that allowed us to understand each other and find ways to work together. Leaders of the clergy, distinguished guests, most importantly the Carter family. In April 2021, Jill and I visited Jimmy and Rosalinda on a warm spring day down in Plains, Georgia. We wanted to see them. Rosalynn met us at the front door with her signature smile. Together, we entered a home that they had shared for almost 77 years of marriage. An unassuming Red Brig ranch home reflects their modesty more than any trappings of power.

We walked into the living room where Jimmy greeted us like family. That day, just the four of us sat in the living room and shared memories that spanned almost six decades. A deep friendship that started in 1974. I was a 31-year-old senator, and I was the first senator outside of Georgia, maybe the first senator, to endorse his candidacy for president. It was an endorsement based on what I believe is Jimmy Carter's enduring attribute. Character. Character. Character. Because of that character, I believe is destiny. Destiny in our lives and quite frankly, destiny in the life of the nation. It's an accumulation of a

million things built on character that leads to a good life in a decent country. Life of purpose, life of meaning. Now, how do we find that good life? What does it look like? What does it take to build character? Do the ends justify the means? Jimmy Carter's friendship taught me, and through his life taught me, the strength of character is more than title or the power we hold. It's the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity, respect, that everyone, and I mean everyone, deserves an even shot.

Not a guarantee, but just a shot. You know, we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor, and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all, the abuse of power. That's not about being perfect, because none of us are perfect. We're all fallible. But it's about asking ourselves, are we striving to do things, the right things? What value, what are the values that animate our spirit?

Do we operate from fear or hope, ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it's most tested. For keeping the faith with the best of humankind and the best of America is a story, in my view, from my perspective, of Jimmy Carter's life. The story of a man, to state the obvious you've heard today from some of the great, great eulogies, who came from a house without running water or electricity and rose to the pinnacle of power. The story of a man who was at once driven and devoted to making real the words of his savior and the ideals of this nation. The story of a man who never let the tides of politics divert him from his mission to serve

and shape the world. The man had character. Jimmy held a deep Christian faith in God and that his candidacy spoke and wrote about. The Apostle Paul in writing to the Ephesians the fourth chapter of the 32nd verse. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you. Jimmy Carter, for me, was something of a miracle. I was born in the deep south shortly a few years after him. And it was always a place of miracles. I couldn't see how we could have had the differences in background, the coming from different places on the planet, the experiences of slave and slave owner, the diversity of color and creed and national origin and still become the great nation that we are in the United States of America. It was something of a miracle.

And I don't mean this with any disrespect, but it's still hard for me to understand how you could get to be president from Plains, Georgia. I knew Plains from my pastorate in Thomasville, Georgia, about 60, 70 miles south of there. And I was even nervous driving through Prains. And Plains and Sumter County gave us one of the meanest experiences that we had in the Civil Rights Movement. So much so that Martin Luther King said that the sheriff of Plains of Sumter County, he really thought was the meanest man in the world.

And when I first met Jimmy Carter running for governor and said the only thing I know about planes and Sumter County is Fridge Chapel and he said oh yes he's one of my good friends and that was the last thing I wanted to hear and yet time and time again I saw in him the ability to achieve greatness by the diversity of his personality and his upbringing. Dr. King used to say that greatness is characterized by antitheses strongly marked. You've got to have a tough mind and a tender heart. And that was Jimmy Carter.

And he grew up in the tremendous diversity of the South, and he embraced both sides. He was a minority in Sumter County. Just about 20, 25% of the population was white. But growing up as a minority, he became the friend of the majority. And when he went to the Naval Academy, he asked that his roommate

be the first black midshipman to come to Annapolis. And he said, I know minorities. I've been a minority most of my life, and maybe I can help him in his adjustments. He went out of his way to embrace those of us who had grown up in all kinds of conflict. But that was the sensitivity, the spirituality that made James Earl Carter a truly great president. James Earl Carter was truly a child of God. Not only a good farmer, but a nuclear physicist chosen by Admiral Rickover to assist him in developing a nuclear navy. But at the same time he was working on a nuclear navy,

he was thinking of peace on earth and goodwill toward all men, and especially women and children. I've known President Carter for more than half of my life, and I never cease to be surprised. I never cease to be surprised. I never cease to be enlightened. I never cease to be inspired by the little deeds of love and mercy that he shared with us every day of his life. It was President James Earl Carter that for me symbolized the greatness of the United States of America. And I am truly grateful for him because in spite of the harshness of the Depression and the explosions of inflation, he never wavered from his commitment to God Almighty and his love of all of God's children.

Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped to create a great United States of America. And for all of us and many who are not able to be here, I want to say thank you. You have been a blessing from God, and your spirit will remain with us. And as Jason said, he may be gone, but he ain't gone far. Thank you, President Carter, and thank you, almighty God.

Folks, of course, after the funeral was held there, then, of course, his body was transported back to Andrews Air Force Base, where they then, of course, flew home to be buried there in Georgia. I want to bring up Dr. Greg Carr Department of African American Studies at Howard University at Long Island Victoria Burke in Black Press of America with Arlington Racy Culbert's gonna be joining us a little bit later Greg I want to start with you when you first of all actually before I go to y'all there's always a little pettiness and shade at funerals you know I'm just saying and that was a little bit here as well. When the former presidents came in, roll the video, guys. There was a moment there when the convicted criminal was there as well. And when, first of all, you see right here, President George W. Bush, he gave a little, actually, guys, y'all didn't show the video there.

So sorry, we missed it. So when there was another angle of this, when former President George W. Bush walks in, he literally walks right past the convicted criminal. He gives Obama a tap on his stomach and then he takes a seat. Bush did not speak to him at all, nor did his. Matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead and pull it up, y'all, because again, when I saw this, I said, hey, you know what? Do what you got to do when you when when you come in. So here is the give me one second. I'm gonna try to go ahead and connect this here because I got a kick when I saw it. How it was like, yeah, you know what? I ain't even recognizing you at all.

So this is a this is a quick video here. You'll see it right here. Give me one second. All right. Let's go ahead and play. You see right there. Bush right there. Bush comes in. I come back to me. So he taps Obama. He taps him on the stomach, just walk right past the Trumps. Do y'all have the other great video of this is a Karen that I don't mind. If y'all have the Karen Pence video. So the convicted, we don't have the Karen Pence. Oh, yeah, I got it. So the convicted criminal, he. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

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Walks in and so what happens, you'll see the convicted criminal greet several different people, including Vice, go ahead and go. He walks in and he shakes the hand of Vice President Al Gore. Then he gets to his former vice president, Mike Pence. He greets them. And you see Melania and Trump both look at Karen Pence. Hell no. I ain't talking to y'all. I love that. I love that. And look, I'm all about being a real one, Greg. And that was Karen Pence. Like, first, you try to have my husband killed and how you trash him. Yeah, no, no. I ain't even speaking to your ass. And George W. Bush, like, oh, you talk trash about me and my daddy.

Yeah, I ain't even I ain't even giving you a nod. Now, that was all circulating on social media. Obama was a chatty patty with him. They sat next to each other. Michelle Obama, former first lady, was not there. She probably said, what's the seating arrangement? Yeah, no, I ain't going to be doing that. I ain't going to be doing that.

So just your thoughts on today's state funeral, Greg. Thank you, Roland. And yeah, I don't want to be doing that. So just your thoughts on today's state funeral, Greg. Thank you, Roland. And yeah, I I'm not I don't want to stereotype an entire gender, but I think for women generally, it's a little harder. I imagine that. Well, let me let me leave that aside, because I was watching the funeral at in Plains at Maranatha Baptist Church, where, of course, it was being presided over by Pastor London, Tony London, the brother who spoke today, who was, of course, the Carters' pastor for the last few years. Maranatha exists because back in the 70s, Plains Baptist Church, where Jimmy Carter was raised, voted to continue to exclude black families. It was a segregated church.

This was the 70s, and the Carters left with a few other families, a couple of dozen other families, and they started Maranatha. And I was listening to Pastor Loudon talk about Carter meeting a continental African man who said that because of your work in eradicating river blindness, I was able to grow to adulthood. I got a degree from University of Michigan. I have a family and apparently they embraced and cried. Watching Pastor Loudon really brought the service at the National Cathedral into focus. Donald Trump is not just an embarrassment. This racist shouldn't have been there. I know people will say it's for national unity

and there's protocol. Let me be very clear about this. This is how fascism works. This is how it creeps up and bites you in the ass. Watching that scene today, watching Kamala Harris, you know, and we all are fluent in Ebonics. It wasn't just a verbal language. It's a visual language. Watching her control herself, watching her glance back at Obama. And I think part of what Obama was doing, of course, this is all, you know, speculation, was playing defense. He's containing that cancer as it's sitting there with his adult diaper on potentially. So, you know, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris sitting there, two women who were defeated by open races, a convicted sexual assaulter who was propelled

to the presidency because millions of people in this country like that sort of thing. Andy Young, when he finished, Ambassador Young, you saw Trump lean over to Obama and say, good job. You know, you don't get to comment on this. You tried to have that man back there killed. I'm not warm to Karen Pence or Mike Pence or any of those people. I am, however, mindful of the fact that this place, and listening again to Pastor London this evening, he was like,

it's quite poignant that Carter makes the transition just before the new inauguration. And he said, you know, Pastor Lennon said, don't let us lose this country. You know, don't let us let us have guardrails of faith and hope. I'm sorry, Pastor. Faith and hope is dead. Donald Trump was sitting there after saying everything in the world about the man sitting next to him, whose wife was like, I'm not sitting next to this bastard. After saying everything in the world about that woman who was sitting in the front row, who he kept looking at as if he wanted her to recognize him. Not only are we not going to recognize you, sir, we're going to roll over your ass like the sea. You shouldn't

have been there today. All of these movements are always interesting to me, Lauren, at these funerals where they place folks and how they seat them, things along those lines. And a lot of people, Lauren, have been talking about have been talking about this moment here. When you go to my iPad, when Vice President Kamala Harris and then Trump began speaking to Obama or Obama spoke to him. And so she turns around, looks at both of them like, yeah, whatever the hell. And like and Doug was like, I ain't I ain't I ain't speaking to none of y'all. He's still hot over the election. So it was. But again, and you see that.

Please. Oh, my God. Melania, what a joke. And I'm sorry. I'm real petty. They asked. It wouldn't have got invited. No, I'm just I'm just being straight up. They wouldn't have got invited. Now, I know all the other stuff, but they would have been at the crib. Yeah, well, I mean, I there was some there was some interesting things about the entire thing. As it usually is at these presidential funerals, I did think it was interesting that President Biden repeated the word character three times. I don't think that was an accident. He talked about character there for a moment as it pertained to, of course, President Carter. The moment couldn't be more interestingly timed, as Greg brought up, in terms of President Carter living just long enough to vote for Vice President Harris and then dying right

before Donald Trump gets into office. I mean, it doesn't get any more—you know, if you wrote a fictional novel about this, you just wouldn't even believe it. Because, of course, President Carter is exactly the juxtaposition of Donald Trump. He's this person from a very humble background, actually a poor background, who actually served in the military. Actually served in the military in World War II. And, you know, there's nothing about Donald Trump that is Jimmy Carter. So you have a lot of contrast going on here just by who the people are. But I'm not a big believer in, you

know, just call me from the Bronx, but I'm not a big believer in shade and throwing clues and hints. You know, if you want to really throw a high, hard one and throw a high, hard one. And President Biden could have done that and could still do it in office. You know, I mean, so, you know, saying something cute at the funeral is all very well, but, you know, he has got power right now to do things. And so it's kind of frustrating to watch the levels of how power is wielded. And, you know, people get upset and people get mad at Donald Trump. But if there's one thing that Donald Trump knows how to do, it's to wield power without shame and without hesitation. And until the Democrats learn how to do that, they're going to continue to get rolled and

continue to lose. Yeah, but that was also this moment where Vice President Harris shared a smile and laugh with former President George W. Bush. So you see what happened. It was like, actually, I'll roll it back. So what you did, so clearly something was said by Obama to Bush or something was happening. Then Harris overhears it, turns around. She was like, yeah, let me go ahead and I'll shout at y'all. But I just, I do love how, in terms of how funerals, in terms of what happened and how

they're used. I mean, I'll go back to the Mondale funeral. I remember, I'm sorry, not the Mondale funeral, the Senator Paul Wellstone funeral. Remember the Republicans got all upset because the Democrats turned it into somewhat of a rally, if you will. But my whole deal is when you're celebrating the life of someone like that, it was a call to arms. And I think you do, I had no problem with Biden's eulogy talking about abuse of power, talking about character.

Then the cameras panned directly to where the convicted criminal was actually seated. And so the bottom line is this here, you know, and you heard and you heard that. Here's also gets me. I was watching some of these other networks and they were like, oh, Andrew, CNN. It goes, Andrew Young gave the homily, then turned into a speech. For those of you who've never been to a black church, a homily or a eulogy or sermon, it stays that way. It's not a speech. So you can always tell the folk who don't go to church. And but but but I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Young reminding people of Carter becoming president in the days after Jim Crow segregation and talking about what it was like speaking, speaking to that, because, you know, it's real easy in these moments, Greg, for folk to overlook that reality. But Jimmy Carter became governor of Georgia where he had to get the vote of some

racist white people. And he had to deal with that reality when he also ran for president and the people who he chose in his cabinet and the things that he actually did. And so people people need to remember Carter, you know, Carter becomes president election in 1976. We're talking about eight years after the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So America wasn't quite beyond that racist past. And so that was all. So I was it was great that he brought that up and he spoke to that reality by not allowing people watching the state funeral and sitting in that room to overlook the reality of that. No, absolutely, Roland. Once they covered the actual funeral, if anybody watched any of those networks, they should have turned it off after that because they're not up to the task that we face to now. This is very serious times. You know, it's really stunning to think about this.

You're absolutely right, Roland. James Earl Carter, born in 1924. He's born only 50 years after the end of Reconstruction. And he makes. I mean, it's stunning when you really stop to think about 100 years from when he ran for president and won was 1876, literally the end of electoral Reconstruction. And Carter is the last civil rights president. In many ways, Bill Clinton and, to a large degree, Barack Obama are the bizarro Jimmy Carter. And by that, I mean to say that Carter, for all of his limitations, because there were limitations. We could talk about Nicaragua. We could talk about the Contras. We could talk about, you know, a number of things. But we're not doing that right now. Carter was the only evangelical Christian, true evangelical Christian, not a white Christian nationalist like Sam Alito who's sitting back there slinking after making phone calls, Trump making phone calls to him, making sure he's not going to be in trouble with the Supreme Court going forward.

Carter was a true evangelical, and you're absolutely right. His father, segregationist, don't let black people in the house. Down the street from where the Carters lived was one of the eventual bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church who would invite them to the church twice a year when he was in town. And so there is this alloy in Jimmy Carter of the white racist South, the bridge, which is the Christian evangelicalism, and growing up in a

county, if you read his book before daybreak, he does five chapters on five different people in Plains, only two of them are white. The rest of them are black people, overwhelmingly black, three-quarters black county. Carter is probably the closest this country will get, certainly the closest in the 20th century, LBJ notwithstanding, to a multiracial democracy that was truly multiracial. It's really over now, because the retreat from Jimmy Carter, and that starts with the Democratic Leadership Conference, that Carter attends that founding meeting, even as he's kicking the doors in for non-whites

in other ways, including Andrew Young, which he regretted, making Andrew Young walk the plank at the U.N. Remick for meeting with the PLO. But Carter's contradictions, Carter's attempts to rise above those contradictions is really a narrative of the possibilities and the limits of not only the U.S. presidency, but probably the United States of America, because finally it is the whitelash against that type of embrace of everyone, limitations notwithstanding, that leads to Ronald Reagan, a spokesmodel, empty-headed dog who became president and set the template for, well, along with Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, who pardoned Nixon,

that basically says all the presidents can do criminally is forgiven, for a Donald Trump, and everything that happens after. It was quite striking, wasn't it, to see Al Gore sitting there. Al Gore, who unilaterally disarmed in Bush versus Gore, and basically conceded what has been now the continuing disintegration of the presidency. So I guess

what I'm trying to say is that Jimmy Carter is probably as close as this country will ever get to the possibilities of a multiracial democracy. But at this point, with Donald Trump talking shit about getting Mexico and Canada and Greenland and rolling old people and deporting everybody, I think this country missed its moment. It missed its moment to be something other than what it has always been.

And the funeral of Jimmy Carter not only marks the end of an era, it might mark the end of the possibilities of anything other than what we're headed for. Last point here, and I think this is also critically important. A lot of people talked about the moral rectitude of President Jimmy Carter, Lauren. And you even had some of the former presidents, they weren't fans when he would come back to the White House. But the reality is you cannot question Jimmy Carter's character. And frankly, if more of the occupants of the Oval Office had the moral rectitude of Jimmy Carter, we might be in a better situation. Yeah, well, the Habitat for Humanity piece alone is a huge one with Jimmy Carter. Obviously, his time after his presidency, a lot of people would argue, was better than

his actual presidency. I mean, he really did do a lot. And as was said on the stage at the cathedral, it's, you know, he packed a lot into 100 years. There's no doubt about it. To Greg's point about missed moments, this country's history is full of a lot of missed moments. I still feel, though, at some point it does turn around. We're still seeing the backswing of the presidency of Barack Obama. There's no doubt about that. It is, you know, Barack Obama sitting there and talking to President-elect Trump today, it's so oddly and irritatingly at the same time poetic. But it really does show you what a class act Barack Obama is more than anything else.

But it really what we're about to see for the next four years really is the reaction to the Obama presidency. But again, the Jimmy Carter happened to check out right before this, right before Trump gets back into office is just a crazy thing of timing, to say the least. And, you know, obviously, in 11 days, we're going to see what happens next. On that first day of the 11th days, we're going to see a lot. But to me, so much of this is the result of a party that has not figured out how to fight. But they're about to turn the generational page because they have no choice but to turn a generational page. And it's going to be interesting to see who comes up next to really fight in a way that is effective toward what what we're about to face in this country. Absolutely. And so it was, of course, it was a federal holiday today for the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter. Folks,

I'm going to go to break. We come back. Let's talk about how Republicans are doing all they came to steal a Supreme Court seat in North Carolina. Yeah, for real. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Sun Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history.

Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators,

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to raise capital directly through their community, through the jobs at. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. There's a lot of talk about the inevitability of another civil war in this country. But on our next show, we'll talk to a noted author and scholar who says we're actually in the middle of one right now. In fact, Steve Phillips says the first one that started back in 1861, well, it never ended. People carrying the Confederate flag, wearing sweatshirts saying MAGA Civil War, January 6, 2021, stormed U.S. Capitol, hunted down the country's elected officials, built the gallows for the Vice President of the United States, and to block the peaceful transfer of power within this country. On the next Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hey, yo, what's up?

It's Mr. Dalvin right here. What's up? This is KC. Sitting here representing the J-O-D-E-C-I That's Jodeci Right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered North Carolina Supreme Court Issued an order earlier this week Blocking the certification Of a winner in the race for a

State Supreme Court seat The court's Republican majority granted a temporary stay At the request of Republican appeals court judge Jefferson Griffin, who lost to incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes. Griffin, backed by the state Republican Party, is contesting the validity of more than 60,000 ballots, claiming ineligible voters participated in the election.

Let's come out to Representative Amber Baker joins us right now. And Representative Baker, glad to have you back on the show. So, boy, they still are trying all they can here. A federal court, a federal judge, Trump appointed, kicked it back to the Supreme Court. And you're like, what the hell? So this guy is what, claiming that these votes were invalid based upon a federal law? So it's based on voter registration. And what they've done is gone in and surgically looked for voters based on their registration information that possibly voted for Justice Riggs.

And so their claim is that these voters that they're targeting, that their registration was incomplete. Social security numbers were not completely indicated on the registration forms. And there's some question about their driver's license. Now, that's on their registration. But keep in mind, with our newly enacted laws around the necessary need for people to show a valid ID, every one of these voters had to show an ID to get their ballots. But he's not claiming that they illegally voted. He's claiming that their vote should be based on them not properly having their registrations form completed. And I have to say, two months after the election, we had over five million voters to vote. And so what we're saying is that the will of the people should be honored and that he has lost at multiple levels in this appeals process. And everyone has said that the votes were fairly cast and he has lost every single one of his appeals based on this crazy claim.

So we know that this was a valid election. We know there's no indication that there was any kind of voter fraud. But what we know is that when they lose, they can't go home and sit their tails down. They want to keep fighting, and they want to take things that don't belong to them. And the people of North Carolina are wanting their voices to be heard. And of course, this is not necessarily a Republican Supreme Court that you can trust. That is correct. So, you know, as I've told your voters many times on here, one of the justices is the son of our Speaker Pro Tem in the Senate. So remember the last name, Berger. They are father and son. We also have Justice Newby, who we know won his seat by defeating Sherry Beasley. And so even before we went to what we currently have as a 6-2 split on the

Supreme Court, both Newby and Berger had shown that they were willing to do the bidding of the Republican Party, and nothing has changed. And so we are advocately supporting Justice Riggs in this fight. And I want to say again, it was a valid election, and no one is questioning whether or not she won fairly. He is simply saying that the registrations, the votes should be thrown out based on their registration forms. Now, this is what we call what it means to be an absolute sore loser. He's had the state election board.

Others have just dismissed his complaints. But he wants to take it all the way to the top. And I wouldn't be surprised, based upon the North Carolina State Supreme Court ruling, if they rule against him, this fool won't go to the U.S. Supreme Court. So, you know, it wasn't just the Board of Elections. What your viewers need to also know is that there were two lower court decisions that also upheld the original decision of the voters of North Carolina. And so he has continued this process. And you know, he's well-funded.

It's not his money. The Republican Party is backing him. And so for those who may wonder why is this so important, well, if we are not able to seat Justice Alison Riggs, which she is currently serving, so this would be she's serving out of an appointment term and now she has been duly elected to this seat, it will shift our count on our Supreme Court from six to two to now 7 to 1. So it's leaving Justice Earls, who would be the longstanding Democrat on the Supreme Court. And she will be running for reelection in this upcoming election. So it's important for us to continue to support our voters again who came out and voted.

And the original win number was a little over 200. But because of canvassing, because of the appeals, because of the multiple hand recounts, that original win number of 200 is now well over 700. So he knows that they have canvassed everything, they have recounted everything, and he lost. And so what do we do when we lose? We should be gracious. We should concede. We should congratulate the duly winner. But we know that the Republicans have shown time and time again that's not what they do. They only do that when they win, no matter how they win. But whenever they lose, then they want to fight and cry like babies.

And they want to, you know, use whatever tools they can to get their way. And so, once again, I'm here telling your voters, your viewers, North Carolina is a mess. Indeed it is. Questions from our panelists. Lauren, you first. Yeah. So what is the status of the situation right now? The Supreme Court in North Carolina blocked the last ruling.

And what happens next? So they will hear his case. Alison Riggs has recused herself, which she didn't have to. They never do when there's a conflict of interest. But she has recused herself because she's being ethical in the sense that she does not want to rule on a case in which she is a part of the case. And so there is a date coming up very soon in which they will hear the case and make the decision on the case. If they don't rule in his favor, I am sure, as Roland has just said, then they'll take it to

the Supreme Court, who in the past has kicked it back to the states. So with the maps, they didn't rule on our maps. If you guys remember, they kicked it back to the states to make the decision, which is how we ended up with these really horrible gerrymandered maps after the Supreme Court had just voted to have those maps redrawn just two months earlier. So there is precedent that the Supreme Court have in the past kicked state issues regarding the state back to the state Supreme Court to make a decision. So it'll be interesting to see what happens when our state Supreme Court votes on next week or the week after next, and if, in fact, they will roll the dice and take a chance with a Supreme Court that has already ruled against them in terms of our gerrymandered maps.

Greg. Thank you, Roland, and good to see you, Dr. Baker. Baker, I was reading a Mother Jones article, Melissa Crone, who works down there in North Carolina, whose daughter is on the list, apparently a challenge voter, said that this is this amounts to a nonviolent version of January the 6th, 2021. And I would agree with that. You brought up gerrymandering. I have a couple of questions. One, holding on to this seat, how might that lay the foundation for the election cycle after 2028 and redistricting going forward? And the second question pertaining to what you and Lauren just talked about, should she lose? Should she appeal, do you think, to the Supreme Court, particularly given the fact that it is a federal law, at least in part, that is in play here, which probably be the reason they might try to take it in the first place? in our lives in small ways.

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Secretary should have went ahead. She should have. Secretary Marshall should have went ahead and certified her race. That's what I said. And I said, let them sue race. That's what I said. And I said, let them sue her. That's what I said. They got plenty of money.

Make them spend it. I would imagine that she would appeal it. You know, people here are angry. The voters are angry. There are many interest groups that are, you that are fighting and advocating on her behalf. And so in the same ways that they have this war chest that they're backing this fool over, she also has an opportunity to have that same kind of support. it all the way to the top. I would never concede. I would do what 45 has done and some of the other crazies that have not conceded when they clearly have lost. She has won. So there is no need

for her to concede and it is everything for her to continue to fight for a seat that she duly won. That's what I would say. We would be talking about two different things. On the same subject today. Had our state secretary, Marshall, went ahead and validated her race.

And the crazy thing is that we just got sworn in on yesterday and it was felt, you know, as they read the document indicating that all of our races had been certified. And many of us felt the absence and the pain in the room that, again, over 5 million voters, a win of 700 plus votes, and yet she could not be certified. She could not be sworn in. And she can't currently sit with who have been her previous colleagues in a race that she duly won. Recy. I'm curious to know if the kind of analysis that the Republicans did in terms of targeting the Democratic registration was also done on Republican registrations. It was not. And so that has been some of the sidebar conversations that we said

today again first of all let me tell you something i follow you on instagram and and because i'm all cleaned up now i don't use but sis i'm like oh god just give me permission. But OK, I digress for a minute. Again, I'm going to say this. I'm probably not a typical Democrat in a sense that. My background is out of social justice. My background is is out of fighting for what's right. As a person who has come through the desegregation of the Jefferson County public school systems and dealing with the clan up close and personal, having an aunt that was a Panther. I say we need to stop dealing with them as if they're going to play by the rules that have been set because they have repeatedly shown us that they are

not, do not, will not, and don't care. So at this point, as Democrats, we need to stop trying to take the high ground and begin to fight. And I do believe that the voters that support us would support that because it's very frustrating. I hear it all the time that we continue to take the high ground and they continue to just take ground. And so I would I would hope I'm not a part of her strategy team, but I would hope that there would be some talk about doing exactly what they've done. So, you know, being strategic and going in and looking at Republican voters while also building a strategy for taking this to the Supreme Court. All right, then. Well, look, we're going to be watching what happens in North Carolina. And, you know, Greg talked about redistricting beyond 28.

No, the focus for them really should be first winning this seat, keeping this seat with Alison Riggs, winning Anita Earle's seat next year in 2026. And there are three Republican seats that are up in 2028. And the goal, the goal in North Carolina for for the state Democratic Party, for the National Democratic Party, for progressives, for independents, and definitely for black folks, is to completely take down Republicans in that state, because now they've broken their supermajority in the legislature. The reality is, here's the other piece, which is critically important. If Democrats take back control of the Supreme Court, they can actually rule against partisan gerrymandering.

When they had the majority before, they did so. North Carolina had a 10 to 3 Republican majority because of political gerrymandering. When the Democrats took control of the Supreme Court, it was 7-7. The reason Republicans control the House right now is because of those four seats in North Carolina. And so that's how important this is. And to Greg's point, redistricting is going to be important in 2030 because, and I said this yesterday when I talked to Martin O'Malley, and Democrats have to be thinking long term and black people have been thinking long term because of population shifts. North California, New York State, Wisconsin, potentially Michigan, maybe New York State are going to lose congressional seats.

That's electoral colleges. It's estimated that blue states will lose 12 electoral college votes that will go to red states, which means that if Democrats want to win the presidency, they have to win Arizona and Nevada every four years, or they have to turn North Carolina into a blue state because of their 16 electoral college votes. And so there's a whole lot riding on this. And so you first, you defend and protect Riggs. You defend and protect Anita Earls next year, a black woman. And then, of course, you go all out and you lock and load to try to beat those three Republicans in 2028. If that happens, Democrats have a majority on the state Supreme Court and you can see more favorable voting rights rulings

that we've seen in the past. And so that's what we certainly want to see happen there in North Carolina. And we, you know, Roland, we were very aggressive this year, and I think we continue along the path of what we started with this election. And indeed, we have already started campaigning for 2026, and we're going to continue to build out our strategies in our black communities. And I have to say, I can't give you an exact count because again, we just got sworn in yesterday, but here's a little Tahiti, he, he, he, when I walked into

the caucus, I looked around and I said, where are the white people? We are now almost 51% of the house democratic party. And many of those seats were won down east where we were very aggressive about campaigning and making sure that the people down east have votes. And so the next time I'm on, I'll actually give you guys the count. We have over 12, between 12 and 15 black males that are now serving with us. And so with that, we as a caucus are going to have to be aggressive about making sure that we're pushing our agenda. And so my hope is that in my third term, I'll get an opportunity to actually help shape and move some of those conversations forward. Be sure to let your majority leader know we've been trying

to get him on the show. So we'd love to have him come on to talk about that agenda and that strategy in North Carolina. So Representative Baker, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Will do. Thank you, sir. Folks, lots of devastation in California regarding the just fires there. So many people have lost their homes. We have seen the death toll there climb to now 5,000. Thousands of homes have been gutted in multiple parts of Los Angeles, more than 130,000 residents in different neighborhoods.

The city has been ordered to evacuate as the fires continue to spread rapidly. High winds are fueling the fires, which started on Tuesday. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, investigators are still trying to find out how the worst firestorm in recent memories started. California generally experiences wildfires during June and July. They can run until October, but this fire began in January, the coldest of the winter months. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been under tremendous scrutiny because when the fire started, she was out of the country where she was in Ghana for the inauguration of their new president. And you've had Democrats, Republicans criticizing her, blaming her for a number of different issues.

There's a news conference earlier today where she was asked about the failure or the alleged failure of fire hydrants to have water during the Pacific Palisades wildfire. Listen. Mayor Bass, I've been on the fire lines the last two days. I've never seen firefighters this desperate. At fire hydrants, water not coming out, the pressure so low, the number one tool that they use to fight these fires not there. How frustrated are you about that? And also, I'm getting texts right now from the Palisades Highlands community. We're almost 48 hours after this fire started. There's not resources up there. The hydrants aren't working. Where's the National Guard? Where are miles and miles of water tenders? How are we

addressing this? Your reaction? Well, first of all, you asked me was I frustrated by this. Of course, because we all know that this has been an unprecedented event. We also know that fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation and that the number one problem, especially on Tuesday, I mean on Wednesday, was the fact that we weren't able to do the air support because of the winds. And so, of course, I am absolutely frustrated by that. I am not sure that is correct, that there are no resources up there, but rest assured, as soon as we are done here, I will follow up on that. But those homes, the first day and a half, there were homes up there that had been protected by the fire. And then I went up there yesterday and there were- That had been protected? That it basically had been saved. Obviously, the fire is moving

different directions. But when I went up there yesterday, there were not a lot of resources. We drove around and then I know that things got worse up there. I'm just wondering now that we move 48 hours past, how are we addressing these water problems that are continuing? And is it acceptable that they continue? Well, let me just say that the water problems are a little better now because the winds are such that we can go up and have the air support. And you know that that was the reason that the devastation was so bad. The unprecedented wind, the strength of the wind and the fact that the airation was so bad. The unprecedented win, the strength of the win, and the fact that the air support could not go up. First of all, it was quite interesting. You

look at social media now, you've got a whole bunch of people who think they're not experts on water and fires, things along those lines, and not really understanding, you know, how these things happen. But here's the other thing that people have to realize. This is a story in the, I'm going to pull up in a second, in the San Francisco Chronicle, talking about this, and there's so many things. First of all, here's the thing. When you're talking about Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Malibu, like a whole bunch of people have been

out here complaining about Mayor Bass. What are you doing? First of all, Santa Monica and Malibu. Last I checked, that's not L.A., if I'm correct. I think they have their own cities. The second thing that you've seen is you've seen lots of lies going around. There are all these reports that first came out saying that Mayor Karen Bass and the Los Angeles City Council cut the fire department budget by 17 million dollars. Well, we know that is an absolute lie. It's a lie. It's a flat out lie. Recy, you dropped the video earlier today breaking that down.

And again, this is what happens. You even had the MAGA publisher, the Los Angeles Times, push this crap out as well. That billionaire was too stupid to even ask his own reporters what the truth is. And so he goes on social media advancing the lie. Well, the lie is the point, because one thing we know is that Republicans are never going to let a crisis go to waste. And so when people are fleeing for their lives, they're trying to take whatever valuables they can find. Republicans are using it as a way to attack DEI and to attack the black woman mayor of Los Angeles. But to your point about the $17 million, what it did is it takes a kernel of truth, strips

it of context, and then it preys on people's misunderstanding of a complex budgeting process. As I said on my video online yesterday, here's the thing. A budget is not a blood oath. There is nothing that precludes the Los Angeles Fire Department or any of the department from going over their budget. It is simply a measuring stick. It is simply a method for the city to plan which money is going to go where. But budgeting is not the same as funding, and it is not the same as expenditures. And so what I pointed out in my video yesterday is that for the fiscal year 23-24, they actually exceeded their budget by over $90 million. So the fact that they have a budget doesn't necessarily mean all that much.

But what I didn't know at the time of my video, which I've since dug into because Politico reported that there was an extra $50 million that was allocated to the fire department, I did some digging. And I actually looked at the financial reports. There's a financial status report from the city attorney's office. I think that's the right name, city administrator office. I'm sorry. And I dug into the numbers to find out exactly what this $50 million was about and to ensure that I had my facts right. And here's the thing. Was there a budget increase as a result of changes that came about?

No. But what it does reflect is that there was additional expenditures that were given or that are allocated to the fire department. $36 million above the budget is allocated now on an expenditure basis to the fire department. And so the whole idea that we shouldn't even be talking about a $17 million cut when they're already $36 million over their budgeted amount. So that $17 million has been wiped out. And that is simply for things like salaries and overtime and contractual services. And so the other part of it is that there was an MOU with the labor union, I mean, the fire department labor union that was also negotiated that added $50 million of expenditures being set aside for the fire department. So we're talking about $90 million over the budget.

And I will just read to you a little bit of the report where it says projected overtime spending is due to higher than anticipated resources deployed to wildfires and tropical storm Helene. Now for Helene, there's going to be a reimbursement for some of that stuff. But the whole point is that when shit happens, you get more money. So nobody has been able to provide any kind of evidence about a specific deficiency that was preventing the fire department from doing anything in this particular case. And by the way, this report came out in December. So the overrun to the budget had already happened, had already been accounted for to the tune of $90 million.

And that's just after four months. So anybody who is spreading lies and spreading misinformation is really just helping the right wing media attack the first responders in trying to insinuate that there's a deficiency in their response. When the reality is no kind of manpower and no kind of machinery can beat hurricane force winds and historic drought conditions. This is a story that Bloomberg posted. And for instance, I mean, that reporter asking the question there. Oh, I was up there two days and how people are frustrated. This is their headline. L.A. fire hydrants running dry poses new danger in combating blazes.

As firefighters battle infernos that have caused billions in damages, a shortage of water is making the job harder. OK, so what happens when you have this sort of story? What do you do? It's important for you to talk to experts, people who deal with this. And this is the, this is the reality here that Lauren story says hydrants are part of municipal water systems. And many of those in California are gravity fed. According to John Fisher, a retired battalion chief of San Diego Fire Rescue, who spent 34 years battling blazes. That means water is pumped uphill to a tank or reservoir,

then fed down to homes and hydrants. The setup provides enough water pressure to meet daily needs like showers and watering gardens or fighting individual structure fires. But the fires that escort Southern California are different, burning through open space and urban areas. At least 2,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged, and the toll will likely rise as new blazes ignite. Based on AccuWeather's estimates and statistics compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,

these are the costliest fires to strike California in the last 45 years. Firefighters are used to working within the constraints of a water system. Fisher said, quote, but the magnitude of fires like these makes it so there's just more than fire than there are firefighters. Or there's more fire than water. Each one of those fire engines can pump fifteen hundred gallons a minute. They're not all pumping that much. But think a million gallon tank and one hundred fire engines. You're going to run out of that tank pretty quickly. Now, the point that that Mayor Karen Bass made at the news conference. And this is not defending Mayor Karen Bass.

This is not defending California Governor Gavin Newsom, not defending the fire chief, but it's basic fact. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on everybody's business from Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,

even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Apple Podcasts. 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. 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. You cannot put a helicopter in the air with 100 mile an hour winds.

You can't. You simply can't. In fact, the National Weather Service, they have special planes that fly into the eye of hurricanes. You can't just see in a regular plane or even a fighter jet or whatever. And so the way to combat these fires is you need to be able to be dropping massive amounts of water from the air. Well, if the winds are blowing 100, 125, 130 miles an hour, that ain't going to happen. And so then you have, Lauren, you and I were texting yesterday, you got a couple of these billionaires who are complaining and the same billionaires fight social service programs that cities fund. Oh, so now that you're 10, 20, 30 million dollar homes are going up in flames, now you're trying to find private firefighters and everything else.

And this is the thing for all of you dumbass conservatives who don't understand government. When your ass is on fire, or your ass is flooding, or a ass is flooding or a tornado hits or a hurricane hits, a natural disaster, it's amazing. Everybody, oh, my God, where's the mayor? Where's the city? Where's the fire department? Where's the state?

Where's Biden? Oh, so now all of a sudden y'all love government. But the same people who don't want to pay taxes, who got tax shelters, the same people always complain. Guess what? You now see the result of when you need government entities being

able to solve catastrophic situations. The construct of this conversation is ridiculous and stupid. Okay, this is a natural disaster. This is not something that any government or elected official can control. So now we've gotten this thing in our politics where everything that happens that goes wrong has got to have some assigned fault. And in the case of Fox News and Charlie Kirk and these other racist idiots, it's always got to be something having to do with DEI.

That's got to be the reason why there was a terrible fire incident that, of course, destroys the homes of a lot of people, which is a tragic thing. I mean, we have tornadoes in this country all the time. Certainly we have hurricanes that are hitting Florida all the time during hurricane season. This is a really crazy, unfortunate situation, kind of like the COVID situation. And, you know, what the Republican Party has now done is they have figured out a way to politicize everything that happens. Everything that happens has got to be politicized. They did it with COVID. They're doing it with this. It has absolutely no logic attached to it. And of course, when there are white male elected

officials in charge, you don't hear any of this talk whatsoever. It was unfortunate that Karen Bass was out of the country. I think she should have returned sooner than she did, even knowing that from here, you know, from L.A. to Ghana is probably a good 15 to 16 hours. Yeah. I mean, it's probably. I do think, though, that she should have probably shown up on the scene a little sooner. But it was unfortunate. Just Sometimes you just have bad timing. Yeah, like for instance, I asked somebody yesterday, Lauren, who's in LA, I said, what time did these fires start? They said they started

10 a.m. on Tuesday. 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Now, the inauguration was on Tuesday. The fire started at 10 a.m. And all of a sudden, it just took off. And so,

then I saw Sam, let me see if I can find it. Sam Stein, you know, he posted a tweet, and he was like, oh, and again, for the people, I just hate when people rush to want to blame and don't ask some more basic

questions. And he goes, genuinely curious from L.A. political folks what the story is here. Bass's mismanagement is clear. Being in Ghana when the fire risk was evident. OK, first of all, how was the fire risk evident? I'm just, see, again, I haven't seen that. I haven't, now, if somebody comes back and says, hey, there were indications Saturday and Sunday that we are about to face a massive fire, okay? I get that, but I haven't seen that. I haven't seen it, okay? And I want to know how that even happened.

Now, a hurricane is different when a hurricane is forming in the Gulf of Mexico. And we know a week in advance. So it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. That's different. It's as if all of a sudden this thing just hit. So she's gone. You're right. If I fly from here and I've gone to Ghana twice, that's a 14 hour flight. It's probably a 15, 18 L.A. So all of a sudden I got to get out of there. And here's the other deal.

You won't. This ain't Southwest. You ain't got flights going out every hour. And Lord knows, don't let the mayor of L.A. book a charter jet to fly her from Ghana to Los Angeles. Oh, now all of a sudden. Oh, how dare you spend two hundred thousand dollars on a charter jet? And so she's gone. She came back. But go ahead. Part of what's going on, though, too. I mean, it's funny that you put the Sam Stein thing up there. I had seen that as well. You know, with all due respect to some of my colleagues in journalism, you know,

as somebody who's worked in politics on the state level in New York and in Virginia and on the federal level, they have no idea what they're talking about. These journalists have no idea what they're talking about. They have no expertise in what they're talking about. And it's very easy to be at a press conference and be in something and throw questions out there, you know, because when you're on the other end of it in terms of the person who is in the position of responsibility who has to actually make decisions that are putting people's lives at risk and are allocating a lot of the city or state's money, that is a different position than just being the critic and the bat in the belfry. And so a lot of these people on social media I find extremely,

extremely amusing. You know, they have degrees in English Lit and all that, and that's all very nice, but that has nothing to do with actually working in the government, working in some of these positions. So I still say, you know, two things can be true at the same time. Mayor Bass should have gotten back, I think, a little sooner than she did, even given what you just said, Roland, which is that that day that she left coincided with the fire that she could have not known anything about. But the other thing, the bigger piece here is that this is a natural disaster. This is not something that any elected official can handle.

I mean, I don't care who it is, Democrat or Republican. So, you know, this whole James Woods, you know, oh, I'm going to throw out criticism for the Democrats because they're in control of California and that's how all this happened, that's all a bunch of bullshit. There's no way that you can tell me that any elected official, Democrat or Republican, could have foreseen this type of a disaster. Well, in fact, Greg, somebody on our YouTube channel just said, well, Roland, it's been dry in L.A. OK, they haven't gotten rain for eight months. So so what? You're the mayor was like, OK, I can't leave the city because it's dry. It's dry. But it's not just James Wood, Lauren.

Go to my iPad, Henry. Anna Kasperin, who has been, you know, with the Young Turks, and they have been trashing Democrats since the election, going on talking to Glenn Beck, trashing, you know, all Democrats. This is what she tweets. California and especially L.A. is controlled by Democrats. They are responsible. No more passing the buck. Our mayor, who was in Ghana as far as exploded in our city, cut the fire budget by 17 million. She advanced a lie. OK.

Endless amounts of money funneled to bullshit scammer homeless nonprofits. We're the highest tax yet. We have encampments and squalor everywhere. Even worse, we don't have enough firefighters to respond to the absolute disaster we're experiencing right now. Rather than conserve the record rain we got last year, we just drained it into the ocean. We are a failing city run by a sick excuse for local government.

You want to radicalize people against the modern Democratic Party, send them to L.A. Okay, I'm trying to understand. What I've read and been told, Greg, the tanks have been full. The tanks were full. And what I've been told is that when you have a OK, so when you let's just say, OK, and this is, you know, let's OK, fine. We're right here in D.C. OK, so let's say there's a fire outside in a trash can. You know what? You can grab a fire extinguisher and put that out. But let's say all of a sudden the fire is now six blocks up and down K Street.

Saying let me grab 10 fire extinguishers, that ain't gonna do it. Okay? So, again, seeing this is like, oh, so they drain the water into the ocean. Oh, okay. Got it. And then, as I said

earlier, the fire is in the Los Angeles area. there are different cities. So it's not just L.A. So you got to ask yourself all those homes along in Malibu were torched. All those expensive homes along. Guess what? That's Malibu. That in Los Angeles. They in Los Angeles. And so people want to always rush to blame Greg, but it's a long point. How do you, there's a thing called preparation, but a natural disaster and not a man-made disaster.

Those are two different things. They are and at the same time, the convergence of that part of nature that is human with the rest of nature has become so the convergence is so rapid at this point that any climate change deniers out here, you need to shut up. Just a little over a year ago, about 14 months ago, the fifth national climate assessment was released. And that's something that they do, the National Oceanic and Aeronautic Administration, NOAA, Atmospheric Administration, rather, NASA, the EPA, National Science Foundation put this out. And they said that this rapid urbanization and human amplified climate change has, of

course, we know it's produced warmer and drier conditions. Here we are on the East Coast. It's cold as hell. The snow and ice getting ready to sweep through the South again. At the same time, on the West Coast, these fires are raging. And when you start talking about drier conditions with prolonged droughts that stress the forest vegetation and you've got pest outbreaks, tree death. In other words, what you're creating is surface fuel. And of course, now with the guy coming into the presidency who told the governor of California you should get some rakes and rake all that stuff up, it's a good thing

that today, Joe Biden this afternoon said that the full 100% of the cost of fighting these fires is going to be assumed by the federal government for the next 180 days. So he's trying to idiot-proof the federal resources. All of that hasn't been said. Yeah, I agree, Lauren. Mayor Bass should have tried to get back if she were able

to. And as you say, Roland, it ain't like they got shuttles coming forth between Accra and L.A. At the same time, and you know, Anna, you don't know a damn thing about any of this. And you are not alone. And you're smarmy, marmy. We got all these homeless people. That's how the heir to the damn Levi Strauss fortune can be the mayor of San Francisco saying he's going to go back.

The next billionaire that runs against Karen Bass is going to hang this around her neck like a lei. This is the thing about the Republicans. They love big government when they're in charge. They hate it when they're not in charge. And here's the question I would ask Anna and everybody else that's a smarmy reporter. What about the hydrants? What about the hydrants? Putting his brain on display as he opened his little mouth. What should we do, since you're a damn expert? This is the problem at the root of it. And I saw Bernie Sanders said something about global warming today and they're dragging him for filth. Well, guess what? This is going to get worse.

Everybody in here right now, all four of us, no people in LA, we've been checking on our people. They're terrified. Okay. Yeah. Let's embrace all of your criticisms. Now what? People's houses are burning down. You don't give a damn. You're scoring political points. You're doing whatever you can to be seen. You're trying to build your followers on social media, blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, if you want to address this short term, the feds have said they're going to pay for everything, get as much resources as you can in the

West Coast, and whether the mayor's there or not is really kind of irrelevant. And number two, which is really number one in the long term, we've got to address global warming in the world, because this is going to get worse. Yeah. Can I add something? Yeah, real quick.

Go. Well, let me just say, first of all, if Anna moved the needle, then Bernie Sanders would be president right now and not having her to be a damn grifter for the Republican right wing. But I will say I wish that Democrats understood politics a little bit better. I think that Democrats understand management. I think that they understand governance, but they don't really understand politics. And so I need for Democrats to learn how to reject the premise of a question, reject the premise of these loaded questions that are not fact-based, that are not based in any kind of real solutions or expertise, and correct the record instead of pivoting or instead of falling on their sword and taking responsibility and say, well, you know, our focus is da-da-da-da-da. They would be so much better served if they actually tackled things that are bullshit being thrown their way first

and then got around to the platitudes and the, oh, you know, we're going to rah-rah, kumbaya mess. So I do think that, you know, Mayor Bass is indisputably not at fault in terms of the fact that we had hurricane force winds and we had drought conditions that created this catastrophe. But this will probably be a big problem for her going forward because she just dropped the ball on very predictable questions. And she's trying to get her footing now, but it might be a little bit too late. And so I think that going forward, Democrats trying to get her footing now, but it might be a little bit too late. And so I think that going forward, Democrats need to learn how to nip the shit in the butt, how to tackle these things head face on instead of trying to be above the fray and trying to to divert to what is so-called more important. Meanwhile, you're getting your ass handed to you by people spreading lies about you.

Absolutely. We're going to come back to this topic of this whole now this BS with the DEI. We've got some breaking news. By five to four vote, the U.S. Supreme Court will not stop the sentencing of convicted criminal Donald Trump to take place tomorrow in New York State. This is the headline for Politico. Supreme Court won't block Donald Trump's hush money sentencing. He wanted them to stop. It's taking place on tomorrow. It was a five to four vote. Of course, as you can expect, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, they all dissented from the ruling. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court's three Democratic appointees to turn down Trump's last ditch attempt to avert the sentencing.

It goes to show you what kind of these hardcore conservatives that you have here. These people want to somehow extend the issue of presidential immunity to somebody who ain't even president. That's just how just dumb this is, this Supreme Court. But again, it is a five to four decision that you have here. And look, the reality, Recy, you have, first of all, I'm going to go to the lawyer on our panel, Greg, first, sorry. Look, you've got these right-wingers, Coney Barrett and Roberts, but at least every now and then, Greg, they have some common sense as opposed to these hardcore

right-wingers, especially Thomas and Alito. No, absolutely. You know, and I'll keep this very brief because obviously none of us have read the opinion yet, and I'm sure we all will after this. Comey Barrett is the wild card in this. Isn't it ironic? And isn't it? Isn't it crazy that we live in a world where Amy Comey Barrett is becoming, I won't put John Roberts there, because Roberts is an institutionalist. And Roberts realizes that he has destroyed his legacy. And that happened, of course, with Citizens United in 2010. Comey Barrett, can you imagine a right winger like Amy Comey Barrett may end up over the arc of the next few years being the center of the damn Supreme Court.

And clearly what happened here is, yeah, those other four are wholly-owned subsidiaries. If anybody thinks that that damn call that Trump made to Sam Alito the other day was about a damn intern, a clerk for him and a job, then you're not paying attention. Those guys are in the tank, okay? Beer Kavanaugh, Harlan Crowe's boy toy Clarence Thomas, and the Christian soldier Sam Alito, who was on a straight crusade. And Gorsuch, you would think, had a little bit more sense on some issues, but he's in the tank, too, because he's got that stolen seat, remember?

Although I don't know if Mary Garland had got there, he'd be any better, because we've seen his great performance in the federal government. But Comey Barrett may not be finished surprising some folk. Anybody paying attention probably shouldn't be surprised by this, but this may be the new 5-4 in terms of any swing votes. Your thoughts on this, Lauren? Well, I mean, this is the same Supreme Court that declared this person immune.

It does strike me that Judge Marchand, there's something about him that kind of gives me the feeling that he's going to execute a real sentence. But I don't know. I mean, if the president has already been ruled to be, you know, shielded and can sort of do whatever he wants, including, you know, hush money to the tune of $ this was actually, I thought, one of the weaker ones, this hush money question. You know, I do think that when conservatives whine about lawfare, as they call it, this is the case they're talking about. So it's sort of ironic that the case that he will be judged on, in my view, is the least important one. Again, I think the Fannie Willis one with, obviously, you know, Donald Trump on tape saying things, all sorts of evidence and all sorts of testimony confirming his guilt, I thought was a good case, the Georgia case. But at any rate,

we'll see what happens at 10 o'clock tomorrow. I do think Donald Trump has a knack for never being punished and always getting out of trouble. So I don't think anything's going to happen tomorrow. I do think Judge, you know, Judge Marchand will probably just be consistent with other with other defendants, you know, and he just seems to give me a vibe of, you know, I'm going to do my duty here. And if it's consistent with other defendants, that shouldn't be much time at all. But we'll see. Listen, even if even if recently, even if he suspended sentence, no jail time or whatever. The fact is this here. It is etched in stone above the Supreme Court.

Equal justice under law. That's what it's supposed to be. And all of this bullshit, let me be clear, it is not in the United States Constitution. All of this is based upon a memo in the Department of Justice that says a president cannot

be prosecuted. Now what this Supreme Court did is gave this man extra immunity that does not exist anywhere. OK, they created case law as a result of this decision. But in this case, he was tried when he wasn't in the Oval Office. The actions he was tried for took place before he was in the Oval Office. So there's no there's no such thing. And there's no way that says, oh, because you got elected

to an office, that now means, oh, we got to stop. So even if you're convicted, we got to throw the verdict out, throw the charges out. Hell no. You are going to be a convicted criminal. And that's what it's supposed to be. Now whether Americans were too stupid to not vote for you, that's on them. But he did it. He was convicted. He

earned it. And now luckily with this he has to carry it and he will be known. That's why I've made it clear on this show after January 20th anytime we mention his crazy ass, it will be convicted criminal in chief Donald Trump. Period.

I mean, the reality is, like you said, Roland, in what motherfucking world do you get presidential immunity for some shit you did before you was even president? That's crazy. That's crazy. So essentially what the Supreme Court said is, okay, if you're president, you can do whatever the hell that you want to do.

But I think maybe they underestimated or overestimated the stomach that the American public has to actually elect a criminal degenerate who's facing an additional 80-something counts across multiple cases. And so maybe, perhaps, if there's a small slither of sanity in the Supreme Court, they're saying, we don't really want people to run for president because they're on trial. Maybe that's the one thing that maybe that's the one line that they're crossing, because we know that the sole reason that Donald Trump ran for president is to get out of his criminal liability for all these cases that he was facing. He doesn't give a damn about being president. He doesn't give a damn about the executive actions and the actual governance of this country. He just wanted to stay out of jail. Mission accomplished. But maybe the Supreme Court is trying to say, let's not do this whole thing again when people are running for president just to get out of jail. And Greg, I've said this

consistently. Lauren, you said that the Georgia case you thought was the strongest. I'm sorry I don't understand why Georgia is not moving forward. I don't give a damn if there's inauguration Guess what? That's a state crime that federal memo has nothing and I would rather Georgia Say fine. You don't want to move forward take us to court I would rather there be a judicial ruling that says that as opposed to oh, no Yeah, we can't move forward. We can't move forward because of the election. Oh, hell no. His ass did it, Greg. He did it.

He did it. He did it. And I think you can probably pull up, it's just an order, so it's just a paragraph. And you're right. I mean, the way you framed it is the way it should be framed. All of this happened when you weren't in elected office.

And so but it's interesting to read the order. And I'm sure you'll read it off in a second. They say that the alleged evidentiary violations at President-elect Trump's state court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal. And best believe, as you said, Lauren, lawfare is their strategy. It's interesting how these people accuse other people of doing everything they do. They are using the courts. They're going to do that. It's going to be appeal. But the second sentence is what's fascinating.

Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the president-elect's responsibilities, which, of course, was the argument they were making, is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court's stated intent to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge after a brief virtual hearing. So to the point you're raising, Lauren, it's almost as if they're daring Marshawn to do anything other than basically give him a little tap and go. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug 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. 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. The guy's convicted. Okay, so he's, as you say, that's going to be hung on him. But it's like they are sending a political, almost like, listen, the guy already said he's really not going to happen to you. So it's an insubstantial burden. So go for it. Finally, I'm glad that we're talking about United States versus Trump, of course, which is the theatt at this point, because they didn't define the scope of things that a president can do and get away with.

They're not walking it back, but it's almost like a Steve Urkel moment, like, did we do that? Yeah, you did. You've torn your place up. These guys are now unbridled, and this might be a hint at them trying to repair something that they've probably broken beyond repair. But that paragraph says a lot, particularly that second sentence.

Um, I'll go to my iPad. This is hold on one second, Lauren. Uh, this is it right here. It says order impending case, uh, Donald J J Trump versus New York. The application for state presented to justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the court is denied for inter alia the following reasons. First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-elect Trump's state court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal. Now, first, what they mean by that is, why y'all coming to us? There's an appeals process in New York State. It's going through you mad because they've been ruling against your punk ass.

So sorry, as there's an actual appeal process, don't try to have us jump the line because you think we're going to fall for it. Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the president elects responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court's stated intent to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge after a brief virtual hearing. Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh would grant the application. So what they're saying is, Merchant has already said, yeah, you're going to tap on the wrist. So why your bitch ass come and whine at us? That's real what they're saying.

Why your bitch ass come and whine at us? Look, we're going to let your punk ass off. We're not sending your traveling ass to Rikers, okay? We're not going to have you take your tie off and your watch and your rings and everything and escorts you to jail. So shut your punk ass up. Take the damn hit and just move your bitch ass on. That's really what, that's really what, what, what, what, what this opinion is saying. Lauren, go ahead. Yeah. I mean, I just wanted to respond a little bit to what Greg said. You know, I don't think we should lose sight of the fact about what this case is about. Okay. I mean,

I get all the other issues therein, but this case is about falsifying business records involving Michael Cohen to pay the hussy Stormy Daniels. Okay. I don't really care, quite frankly. And I'm shocked. The reason I don't care is because this guy effectively, I thought, committed treason on Jan 6, 2021. And Merrick Garland sat there and did absolutely nothing. Okay. So in the grand scheme of Donald Trump, there's a lot to unpack here about Donald Trump that you can prosecute him on. And to me, the Hussey case was not the case they should have went for. Okay. So they went for the Hussey case. That happens to be the one that will be, you know, sentenced tomorrow by Judge Juan Morchan. It'll be very interesting to see that. But there are some serious matters around the behavior of Donald

Trump. And to me, this is number five and six in line. So it's ironic that this is the point. So when the Republicans talk about a lawfare this is typically the case they reference and quite frankly I don't blame them well actually there are more serious cases out there no no no here's the whole deal

first of all more serious is irrelevant because no no no follow me more serious is irrelevant if you are no, no, no. Follow me. More serious is irrelevant. If you are alleged to have broken the law, you've broken the law. Let's look at the four cases. One, election interference in Georgia.

Two, the election interference on the federal. Three, the documents moving in the classified documents and then you have this particular case here. The fifth one, I will say, is the civil trial that Letitia James. Now, here's the whole deal. You can't, let's step back. So let's just deal with the four.

Nobody anticipated Fonny having her side piece on the case to completely throw that whole thing off track. Okay, so that's one. Two, a Trump-appointed incompetent, grossly unqualified judge gets

the document case, okay, and she kisses his ass and rules in his favor, and then he fights the Jack Smith one in DC. Now those are four different cases moving at different speeds at different times. So the bottom line is it's irrelevant if one is deemed weaker than the other. The reality is it happened.

And so and this is the one and so and so first of all Republicans let's be clear Republicans have complained about all four. All four. They've dismissed all four. It's not like Republicans are like, well, you know what, the other three are serious. This is really a joke. But the fact of the matter is this here. Did what he has been convicted of, it is a crime.

Just like what he did with over-inflating his assets. That's against the law. We lost in civil. So guess what? Take his name off. If Roland did that shit, if a black mayor, if a black mayor,

if a black city council member, if a black school board member did it, guess what? They're going to prosecute your ass for it. Can I point out, though, that Michael Cohen went to jail for this exact same case.

So this isn't like this is so frivolous that nobody should have paid for it. A lot of people had criminal or civil liability related to this exact same set of transactions. And so I don't think that Trump should be rewarded because he is such a serial criminal degenerate that we just pull out the cases in the hat and then whichever one we pull out is the one that we actually prosecute. You don't get to have prosecutions deferred because you commit so much crime in so many different jurisdictions. And so I am glad that at least

somebody had the competency and the balls to see a case through from point A to point Z because Jack Smith didn't, Merrick Garland didn't, and the whole thing with Fannie and down there in Atlanta, the shit is on ice right

now. And that was the point I was going to now. And that was the point. The point was just made that long. Well, I was going to say the difference here is this is the only one that went the distance. Trump and his lawyers were able to stop. They were able to stop the other cases in different stages. The case in Georgia would have went forward if Fonny hadn't screwed up.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, here's the thing. I still get back to this point. The guy could have been prosecuted for treason. He wasn't because nobody had the guts to do it. Hold up. Hold up. Nobody having the guts to do it does not have anything to do with Bragg's case in New York City. That's Merrick Garland. Merrick Garland is a U.S. attorney general. Bragg is a D.A. of Manhattan. Fannie Willis is the D.A. in Fulton County. All you can do is your job. I can't sit here and go, well, if he had done his job, hey, Brad did his job. We argue all the time that things are crimes that shouldn't be prosecuted. Marilyn Mosby being a perfect example of that. OK, we argue all the time that people get prosecuted for things that

seem slightly political or like somebody is reaching, a prosecutor is reaching for some reason. All I'm saying is in the lexicon of everything that happened, he could have very easily been prosecuted for something like high treason. But, but, but, but Lauren, you keep saying what he could, Lauren, you keep saying what he could have been prosecuted, but in order, Lauren, in order to prosecute him for high treason, that requires the attorney general to take the action. He didn't. So the woulda, shoulda, coulda don't matter. Let me ask you this. Is it working?

Did it work? What do you mean? All your prosecutions, did it work? Hold up. Did he get convicted? Yes. Did it work? No, no, no, no.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up. Hold up. What was the... Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up. Hold up, Lauren. What was the purpose... Lauren, I'm going to ask you a question. What was the... Brag. What is

the purpose of D.A. Brag in indicting Trump? What's the purpose? I don't know what the purpose is. No, no, no. You're wrong, Lauren. You do know the purpose. Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, you know the purpose. In 11 days, we'll be in the White is. No, no, no, you're wrong, Lauren. You do know the purpose. Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, you know the purpose. In 11 days, we'll be in the White House. Lauren, here's the question.

No, no, no, no, Lauren. Lauren, if you're the DA, no, wait a minute. If you're the DA, if you're the DA and you indict, you get an indictment and a conviction, what's the purpose of filing charges to get a conviction? The purpose of filing charges is to get the conviction. What is the, what's the purpose of filing charges to get a conviction? The purpose of filing charges is to get the conviction. But Roland, the fact is this man is going to be president. But see, that's the whole point. See, Lauren, so hold on. When you say it didn't work, that means that you are speaking about a political purpose for the prosecution.

What I am saying is the process. I'm stating the fact. No, the prosecution, the prosecution by itself is if you broke the law, you get indicted. You are going to get convicted. So from Brad's perspective, he did his job. Brad, as the DA, has no jurisdiction. He has no control what Mary Garland can and cannot do. He has no, matter of fact, Brad can't, he has nothing to say about what Fannie Willis can and cannot do.

All he can do is his job. He did his job. Great. He got a conviction now if from listen to you if the purpose Was oh, let's keep him out of office. That ain't why you indict so bottom line is he did his job Pretend are we really gonna pretend that some of these adjudications weren't about keeping him out of office? Oh, look what? Oh look we see already. Did Michael Cohen, did Michael Cohen get convicted? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up. Hold up. I'm answering your question.

I'm answering your question. I'm answering your question. Was Michael Lauren, Lauren, it's real simple. It's real simple. Was Michael I'm not skipping your question. I'm actually answering your question. Was'm not skipping your question. I'm actually answering your question. Was Michael Cohen convicted for the exact same crime? Yes or no? Yeah. Yeah. Rolling. Okay. So if Michael Cohen, wait a minute. So if Michael Cohen was convicted by the Trump Department of Justice for the exact same crime, was that to keep Trump out of office?

All I know is in 11 days... No, no, no, no, no, no, Lauren. Answer the question. Answer the question. I'm holding up two things. I'm holding up a... Hold up, Lauren. Wait a minute, Lauren. Hold up. I'm holding up... Lauren, I'm holding up... Lauren, one second. Lauren, Lauren, Lauren. Lauren, one second. Lauren, hold up. Lauren, this is very simple. I'm holding up a Cohen conviction and I'm holding up a Trump conviction. The Cohen conviction... And Trump was unindicted co-conspirator.

Remember that? Right. So the Cohen conviction took place on a federal level. It was not... Okay, the Trump conviction. The Cohen conviction and the Trump conviction. So if your argument is that the Trump conviction, the Cohen conviction, and the Trump conviction. So if your argument is that the Trump indictment was to keep him out of office, well, what was the purpose of the Cohen indictment? Because if the Trump indictment was to keep him out of office and Cohen was convicted for the same thing as Trump, well, couldn't we say that the Cohen conviction was to keep him out?

No, the Cohen conviction was to keep him out? No, the Cohen conviction was because he did it. OK, yeah, you know, you know, what's interesting, though, Roland, about that. And forgive me, Lauren, for just bringing this up. As you say, it was Trump's Department of Justice that that Cohen, in retrospect, particularly if he goes after his political enemies, in other words, if he goes after Cheney, if he goes after Bennie Thompson and whoever the hell he wants, perhaps we saw a little bit of a preview with the Cohen prosecution, because at that point Cohen was a political enemy of Donald Trump. I'm just saying, you know, thinking about it in retrospect, that might, because I'm telling you right now, two things. Number one, they are going to appeal this, and that evidentiary violation that the Supreme

Court referred to in the New York State Court may end up back in federal court, because he's arguing, as he did before the Supreme Court, his lawyers before the Supreme Court did with this case, he's arguing basically the defense that he thinks is available to him because of U.S. versus Trump. When you're president, they let you do it. And regardless of the fact of what you said, which is he did this before he was president. Now, that's, again, going to flesh out what it means to have a sitting president in the crosshairs.

But since you raised that, I hadn't thought about that. But since that was 2018, right, it might be that the political logic behind pursuing that prosecution of Cohen was because he was a political enemy of Trump. I don't know. And that may preview what we're going to see in the next four years. But when they appeal, Greg, when they appeal, he is going to be sitting on Pennsylvania Avenue by the time we get to the, so then we go back to... sitting on Pennsylvania Avenue by the time we get to the... So then we go back to...

Hold on, hold on. When you say they appeal, will they appeal what? Well, obviously, whatever happens tomorrow, he's probably going to appeal whatever happens tomorrow. Right. So he's right. No, no, no. No, no. I was going to say, he's currently, for the purpose of the audience, he's currently appealing

the conviction. You're saying after tomorrow, he then will appeal the sentencing. Yeah. So I'm saying, yeah, whatever Marshawn decides, assuming that Marshawn gives him some time, which who knows what he'll do. But let's say he gives him some time. There'll probably be an appeal. Then he will be sitting. He'll be a sitting president by the time that's decided. And then we're back to the Roberts court handing him again. You know what I mean?

It's like it's it's it's it's back circularly to, you know, going back to what you said, you know, equal justice on the law, which we know does not exist. And by the way, with 11 days left, where is the pardon of Marilyn Mosby, by the way? What is going on with the Biden White House? Well, first of all, that's a whole separate story. That's a whole separate. No, no, no. What I'm saying is I want to stay on topic. I want to stay on topic. No, no, I'm staying on topic. Let me go back to my iPad. The point we made earlier, and this is why I think it's important what the Supreme Court did, what they're doing. And let's also be clear, this is not uncommon.

What the Supreme Court is saying right here is that when they say the alleged evidentiary violations at President-elect Trump's state court trial can be addressed in the ordinary courts on appeal. The Supreme Court is saying right here is, why is your punk ass coming to us when you have not exhausted all of your appeals in New York State? The law is the law. That there's an appeals process. What Trump wanted to, so for everybody who's listening, who's watching the show,

there are different levels in New York State. The New York Appeals Court has already ruled. Correct me if I'm wrong, Greg, the New York State. The New York Appeals Court has already ruled. Correct me if I'm wrong, Greg, the New York State Supreme Court has not ruled on this.

So what the U.S. Supreme Court is saying is, bruh, stop trying stop trying to, what do they say when they're into video gaming? You want a cheat code? Donald Trump, the cheat code Trump wanted was,

I want to skip the whole appeals process and go right to the Supreme Court before Inauguration Day. And their saying is, no, your ass got to sit your ass down, file the process. So, equal justice under law. This is no different when the Supreme Court says to a, well, I forgot the case, Greg.

It was one of the death penalty cases where they said you have not exhausted all of your appeals. So, the Supreme Court is the last stop. Is the last legal stop. So all they're saying is, hey Donald, ain't no cheat code player.

You gotta go through the process. Now, it doesn't mean, to Laura's point, it doesn't mean that after he exhausts his New York State appeals and then he goes to the Supreme Court that Roberts and or Barrett will then rule the same. That's right. All they're saying here is no cheat code player.

You got to go through the process over there. Trump, though, what he doesn't want, the last thing he wants, no matter what the judge says tomorrow, he doesn't even want there to be a sentencing. He's trying to short-circuit everything, and so that's really what this is all about. But I'm going to go back to the other point, and that's very simple. Republicans, let me real kill it, it does not matter if there was a strong case or a weak case. The Republicans believe no cases. Right. I've never heard a single Republican say, well, you know what?

That case in Georgia is a really, really strong case. They have been saying, how dare you? He didn't cheat. How dare you? Jeff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor, the lieutenant governor of Georgia at the time he did it, they just expelled him from the Republican Party because he said it was wrong. So the Republican Party don't believe in none of these four cases. They didn't want to see the Tish James hit him in civil court. Matter of fact, let's roll it back. They didn't want them to sue when it came to his foundation. So for them, there's no such thing as strong case versus weak case. They said all the cases are political.

All of them should never have been filed. They don't want any legal action taken against Trump. And that's just simply how they're responding. And so we can sit here and say, well, what was stronger? What was weaker? All of that. Of course, I also felt that this out of the four was the weakest. But guess what? But Roland, do you actually think that let's say Donald Trump was still a real estate development developer in New York? Do you think that all these cases, obviously the documents case wouldn't have been brought because he wouldn't have been president, but something like the business records case, the case that's going to be adjudicated tomorrow,

sentenced tomorrow, do you think that would have been brought if he was not president? There's a name. First of all, of the four cases, remember, two of them dealt with the overthrowing of the election. Right. So those wouldn't have existed if he was not have existed. The classified documents case would not exist. Right. But you mentioned what you mentioned, the the the one the over inflating, the over inflating of of assets. Or E. Gene Carroll. Do we think that E. Gene Carroll would have happened? It was Roberta Carroll. Let me tell you something. First of all, there have been other men. Let's just go to

Weinstein. There have been other men convicted in criminal court. Wait a minute. Just right in Ireland. What's the crazy ass boxer? What's the white dude? He fought Floyd Mayweather. No, no, no, not J. Paul. Conor McGregor. Conor McGregor was just found guilty in a civil courtroom

for sexual assault. That happened in Ireland. So, those things happened. But I'm going to bring up on the whole point about Trump deal, there's a person I'm going to bring up and I know this personally because

he's from Texas. He was a Democrat. He was the attorney general of Texas. His name is Dan Morales. Dan Morales was actually convicted. He was convicted. I'm going to pull up the DOJ. He pled guilty to mail fraud in filing a false tax return. This is the press release. He pledged it.

This is the press release. This is in 2003. He admitted that he backdated official government contracts and forged government records for his personal enrichment and that of his friends. But that's not only what he did. They also, right here, the second paragraph, it says right here, he committed tax fraud by lying about his income. So what they got him on, they got him on filling out documents. I think it was loan or housing documents where he overstated his income.

This is perfect. I kept bringing this up. These things actually happen. So what Donald Trump got, what he got nailed on. And let me also add one thing for the people who don't understand this here. Donald Trump got nailed in Scotland for the same thing. Donald Trump. What Donald Trump did was he overinflated. This is how he tried to get away with it. And the Scott, the folks in Scotland nailed his ass Donald Trump for tax purposes claimed the value he claimed the value of his golf course was one thing when it was time to pay taxes he said the course was valued at a lower and a Scott said time oh hold up what would we be confused here over here you said the golf course was valued at this for you to get the loans to buy it and build it.

But when it comes to pay taxes, now of him being in the Oval Office. Now, that's just a reality. So I'm using a perfect example. A former attorney general of the state of Texas who they nailed him because he hooked up his friends when it came to the tobacco settlements. But the federal government sent his ass to prison because he filled out loan papers. People don't understand when you go fill out a loan application, that is a federal document. They get your ass on it. And let's not forget, they got Al Capone on tax evasion. Tax evasion, yeah.

So the federal government has gotten... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone,

sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibbillion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 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.

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It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else,

but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Developers, business folk, I mean, hell, I just finished watching the documentary

on how they got Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky on insider trading. I mean, so the bottom line is, they can get your ass, when you break the law, they can find a law your ass broke. So there are a lot of people who are not who have not been in the Oval Office who've gotten convicted on the same stuff. Did it get the same attention? No, it didn't. But yeah, Lauren, it actually has happened. Yeah, I I just when I see Reid Hoffman and Roberta Kaplan converge, and I know that's a civil case, knowing that Trump has been

around for so long and we've known that he's, you know, filed, what is it, five bankruptcies? I just feel like, wow, isn't that interesting that, particularly with the Hush Money case, it's sort of like that's an interesting case that they brought. But okay. But you also got to

remember, you also got to remember, you can't leave out the DA before Brad was Cyrus Vance. Yeah. Cyrus Vance chose not to prosecute Trump on several occasions. What is the difference here? Different D.A. He was buddydy with Cyrus Vance. So, I mean, look, the reality is this here. Different prosecutor, different attitude when it comes to going after. And you know what? To your point, there were previous attorney generals in New York State who likely were buddy-buddy with Trump. Oh.

Until Tish James showed up. So that's just sort of how I look at that. Let me do this here. Let me quickly. I'm not going to go to a break. I'm gonna go back to the Los Angeles fire thing with a pen. Y'all, if y'all want to see how these white folks, these white conservatives really are, they've been showing who they are. White nationalists, white supremacists, racists, okay? DEI is the new N-word for them. Okay? That's the new N-word.

And I don't understand why even some of these white women ain't ticked off because they slapped them with a DEI label. They have been blasting the fire chief in Los Angeles, a white woman, saying, oh, there D.I. hire. Look at this tweet right here. This right here is a tweet. Who is this? Matt Walsh. Because I don't know. Go back to live to tick tock.

So they put don't you hate it when climate change appoints a D.I. hire to run the fire department. Oh, so she's now a DEI hire. Wow. Wow. Wow. Not, not, not. And see, and see again, y'all, just so y'all know, the fire chief of LA, she not black. That's a white woman.

She not a white man. DEI means non-white man. There you go. There you go. So here is, so show the Matt Walsh. Show the Matt Walsh tweet. Because now they've been putting this in. Los Angeles deliberately set out to exclude white men from becoming firefighters.

And now they don't have enough firefighters to prevent their city from burning to the ground. DEI is a cancer that destroys everything it touches. What are they complaining about? They're complaining because last year, a story was done about how they were trying to diversify the fire department for all for people who don't know history. across America, pick your city, more than likely, the whitest public sector job

are fire departments. Not even police departments. Those white boys have been locking black folks out. Now, somebody posted something on social media. I haven't found it yet. Actually, I'm looking for it. I think I reposted it. Oh, here it is right here. Somebody posted this here.

They said 60 percent of the firefighters in Los Angeles are white. Twenty one percent are Hispanic. Seven point one five percent are black. Women are five point five percent. Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander are four point eight percent. So when they talk about DEI, yes, and everybody understand what they're saying is, ain't nobody qualified for nothing unless they are a white

woman. Start that slideshow over because then I want y'all to freeze it. Start that slideshow over. I see a video playback. Start it over. Start it over. I want y'all to freeze. No, start it over, y'all. Don't come to me. Don't come. Come back to me, please. Thank you. Start the slideshow over. Now, I want y'all to freeze it on the three women. Stop. Go back. Freeze it. Don't show me yet, y'all, until you got it.

Go back to the go. Find the three. Go back to the beginning, y'all. It's three women. Stop. Now you can show it. Now show it. Thank you. This is what they can't stand. Oh, no question. No question. So they're pissed of the leadership of the fire

department. And the woman's a lesbian, too, allegedly. I don't know. See, there you go. Okay, so when they say DEI, if you a woman, if you gay, if you black, oh, we can't stand DEI.

And this is just how they roll. This is who these people are. And it's so funny because they were sitting here, and so understand, when they are attacking, when they're attacking Karen Bass, same thing. Now, now here's the deal. This is why you can't entertain these fools. I'm about to play.

Jessica Tarloff was on Fox News and she was like, oh, so y'all call the L.A. Fire Chief D.I. She's like, here's her resume. Listen. But to Greg and Jesse's points about, you know, this is because of DEI or what we need is practical solutions. There is so much bad information swirling around about the main players involved in this, like the fire chief who's been called a DEI hire, I take her resume any day. 24-year vet, paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain, battalion chief, fire marshal, deputy chief. I don't know. But you're proving my point. No, I'm not proving your point. Yes, you are. You're proving it because DEI makes everybody suspect. That is the problem. And you guys paraded it

around. So now you put it in people's heads. No, you put it in people's heads. I didn't back DEI. I didn't back it. I don't know how Jessica does it. First of all, your entire network did it, Greg. So you're full of shit. The reality is, oh, DEI makes everyone suspect. I know a whole bunch of grossly unqualified, no talent, white people, especially white men.

But guess what? Nobody goes, hmm, he's DEI. No. When they say DEI, this is no different than before when it was affirmative action. It's no different before when it was diversity. It's no different before when it was quotas. It was, listen, they attacked McDonald's. McDonald's retreated because they were like, oh, we set goals. And what do people like Robby Starbuck

say? No, no, no, no. That's quotas. That's quotas. It's gold. But no, no. So even when you don't call the quota and you call the gold, see? See, that's it. So the bottom line is you don't call the quota and you call the goal, see, that's it. So the bottom line is they don't want any effort to diversify anything because they believe white people, mainly white men first. Sorry, white men first, white women second, white heterosexualosexual men White heterosexual women They believe that nobody else

Could get a job Is qualified for a job Unless they fit in that category That's all this bullshit is And while folks houses Are being burned down And that's what this is all about Recently with Pete Hegseth

Wanting to be secretary of Defense and believe that women Shouldn't be in combat because guess what Today's Republican Party Believes that Pete Hegseth That Josh Hawley That all the rest of them believe that women Should shut their ass up Lay down, have this sex

Go cook in that kitchen Birth that baby and shut your ass up These people When they say make America great again go cook in that kitchen, birth that baby, and shut your ass up. These people, when they say make America great again, they want to go back to the 1950s when black folks had no rights, when women had no rights, and everybody was subjugated to the control of white men. Period. Can I ask a quick question?

I just want to ask everybody a quick question because I don't know this, and I don't know that it can be found out in the short term. But if that man who we just saw with that tight three pack Walmart white T-shirt on underneath and his voice not yet reaching puberty, which if that doesn't show you that the original DEI is white maleness, you can't see. Oh, yeah. Grant Gutfield has absolutely no qualifications to be on a news show. And they call him a comedian, his ass ain't funny. No question.

I guess what I was going to ask you and everybody is, if his house God forbid was on fire in those hills, and not the 2,000 plus firefighters who were fighting which you broke down demographically in terms of race, came, but one of the nearly 800 volunteer prison inmates from the Department of Corrections who are out there fighting the fire.

These are volunteers. I wonder if he could say, I don't want you fighting the fire because you're not a white man. I'm just curious, because there's almost 800 prisoners. These people volunteer. They get training and they're out there embedded in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection fighting that fire. I wonder, don't

y'all wonder, what's the ethnic racial background of those nearly 800 prisoners of California prisons who are out there fighting fire? I'm just curious. Listen, it also reminds me of the white folks, the racist white folks laying on the emergency table, racist, and that black

doctor, I don't want no, I don't want no, I don't want him, I don't want her treating me. But the doctor, because of the Hippocratic oath, has to treat him. That's why you say, all right, lay your ass there and die. Okay, good. That's right. See. Lay your ass there and die. Okay, good.

See? Lay your ass there and die. I'd be like, yeah, go ahead. Okay, go ahead. Gunshot, heart attack, stroke? Okay, lay your racist ass there and die then. I got to tell you how this story... The brother, he's a history maker.

He was interviewed by the History Makers, which is the Julianna Richardson, Larry Crowe and them out of Chicago. And I forget the brother. He was on the board at Emory. He's a history maker. He was interviewed by the History Makers, which is in the Julianna Richardson, Larry Crowe and them out of Chicago. And I forget the brother. He was on the board at Emory. He's a medical doctor. Brilliant brother, philanthropist. I met him back in this past February, February 24th. We were at a dinner for history makers. So we're sitting there. He's telling a story about when he was a resident in medical school. He's finished his middle degree. He's in his residency. This racist white woman was admitted to, I think it was an emergency room one night. He and his buddy, who was also black,

the old white woman is like, I don't want no black doctor to touch me. So the brother said his friend bent down and whispered in the white woman's ear, well, you're going to die. And then, well, okay, no problem. I'm not going to touch you. Well, you're going to die. At that point, she got religion real quick and they treated her. But he did exactly what you said. Oh, you don't, oh, well, you're going to die. He told her, because you're about to die now. You don't want, no problem. You're going to die. She got her religion. I bet

you none of these racists will get in the way of a Latina, a black, a gay white woman, whoever who's strapped up with that firefighter equipment trying to put out the fire at their house. And as far as they're talking about those three women right there, I bet you won't say to their face, they're firefighters. Let's see if you're nice with your hands. We find about diversity in a scrap. I don't think he's going to say it in their face. Well they are exactly who they are and I'm seeing, I'm trying to actually find this story that might be, give me one second. You know it's amazing how breaking news happens. This is regarding the 11th Circuit and Judge Eileen Cannon give me one second

So Okay, here we go give me one give me give me one give me one Second Give me one second. Y'all can go ahead and keep the breaking news banner up. So the 11th Circuit has ordered that. Where is it? Okay, here it is. Okay. All right, go to my iPad.

So the 11th Circuit has ruled that Jack Smith's final report can be released. They have over all these damn pop-ups. The federal appeals court covering Florida rejected a defense request to block the release of special counsel Jack Smith's final report, but in order temporarily blocking its release from U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon is still in place for now, which would keep the report blocked for three more days after further appeal. So what this is saying is that basically this report can be released Sunday or afterwards. And so the 11th Circuit rules against Judge Eileen Cannon. Greg?

Yeah, and that's consistent. They've been overturning her in appeal consistently. But here's the problem. She's a dumbass. She's a dumbass. She's a dumbass. And hopefully she doesn't end up on the Supreme Court. Because if anybody is not paying attention within the first two years of this damn term before they maybe lose the Senate or whatever, they're going to force Clarence Thomas to walk the plank. But that having been said, you see, though, that there's still a three-day gap there because they are going to appeal this.

Of course, we know, and you've been saying this, we've all been saying it in one form or another, the whole Trump strategy was delay, delay, delay, delay to get to and past the election. So, yeah, that just means that they're going to give them time to appeal and they're going to push it past. Now, the question, you know, do you think, Roland, that we're going to see any of these reports? I'm thinking less about the legal pathway and appeals and more about Merrick Garland, who has already cleared to release part of it. Listen, I am hoping that there is a Daniel Ellsberg somewhere in the DOJ that has put that both of those volumes on a flash drive and before they walk out in 11 days

sitting here got it on the flash drive and then all of a sudden in about two or three months that sucker mysteriously is dropped like the Pentagon Papers. And here's the whole deal.

You ain't see the beauty now. You ain't even got to go to the Washington Post or the New York Times. But they deal with the Pentagon Papers. Remember when the remember the Panama Papers? Oh, yeah. It was a consortium of media entities from around the world. And they dropped that report to me. That's how you do it. So I know that might be against the law, but I would greatly appreciate if an American patriot. And let's be real clear. There's a way for them. You not to be found out. But I really hope there's an American patriot where we're able

to see the full unredacted report that shows the absolute crimes that Donald Trump committed. So, I'm just saying, I hope it happens. And also, I forgot to mention this earlier, the Smartmatic $2.7 billion lawsuit

against Fox News is now set for trial. The judge ruled against Fox News is now set for trial. The judge ruled against Fox News. They are moving forward with that. And I really hope Smartmatic don't settle. Oh, I really hope they go. Yeah. I remember Dominion. They settle. And that's what happened there as well. So a whole lot of stuff happening to the panel. Thanks for staying a little bit extra. A lot of breaking news jumping off here. And I got just

real quick, Lauren, Recy, Greg, I just want to get each of y'all thoughts. I'll start with you, Lauren. What the hell do you make of Amazon handing over $40 million for a damn Melania Trump documentary? Everybody's

trying to curry favor all these corporations. You saw Mark Zuckerberg bow down once again to Donald Trump. And Amazon and ABC News hand Donald Trump $15 million on a case that they were not going to lose, a defamation case. And so Amazon is doing the same thing. That's what it is. Recy? This is who they want to be. They don't have to be this

in terms of Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and all these billionaires. This is who they want to be. It's not about, oh, well, let me try to get in Trump's good graces for my survival. These people are filthy freaking rich. A whole nother planet.

Literally Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos goes to the moon, whatever the hell he feels like it rich. So every move that we're seeing from them is because they are planting their flag and they are showing us who they truly are and what side of humanity and what side of the direction of this country they plan to stand on. Greg. Agreed. I agree 100%. humanity and what side of the direction of this country they plan to stand on. Greg? Agreed.

I agree 100 percent. Anytime you live in a country where a fool like Eileen Cannon may end up on the Supreme Court, anytime you live in a country where while Jimmy Carter was being funeralized, as black folks say, at the National Cathedral, the hillbilly horde was in the House of Representatives passing a bill to take out or to call out the International Criminal Court, then you know that we are way past the event horizon. And so I'm going to say what I've been saying and what we've all been saying, but I'll never stop saying this consistently. This platform, this show, this work,

the way that you've made, Roland, it is more important than ever because it's very dark at this moment. But this is an age of heroes. It's an age, if you want to use the phrase that you used earlier, of patriots. It's an age to say that we stand with our common humanity. Mark Zuckerberg is with increasingly, he would call newspapers and all that stuff legacy media. But his platforms are, you know, they're not as fresh as they used to be. And it could all collapse very quickly. He's playing politics now. Ultimately, what's being built here, what you've been saying all along,

but increasingly over the last couple of days in response to some of this stuff about fan base, all of that should we should pay very close attention to supporting these platforms because it's clear we can't trust any of those other platforms. And as you said the other night, if they decide on YouTube, if they decide on Facebook, if they decide on Instagram to pull the master switch and it disappears, there is a Black Star app. It's important now to control our media so that we can get that clean glass of water out there. And it's more important now than it ever has been. Well, that's also why I want people to invest in fan base and get their account as well. TikTok is on its way and their owners have said, hey, if they shut us down, we ain't selling. So, y'all, this is what we got to be owning platforms. Owning platforms.

I keep saying it. Black Star Network, we have our own app. Okay? We're on YouTube's platform. YouTube can shut us down. Facebook can shut us down. When you have your own platform, they can't try to shut down your own platform. So just letting y'all know how these things happen.

Lauren, Reesey, Greg, I appreciate y'all being on the show. First, first show with all three of y'all since the new year and me being back. So thank you so very much for all of y'all folks. That is it for us.

Don't forget folks, support the work that we do. What we're trying to build here is something that other folks are not doing I keep telling y'all other black on media I don't know what they doing they ain't this they focus on entertainment and gossip and housewives and all that sort of nonsense and y'all know I don't talk about none of that bullshit and so if y'all want to see real black news if you want to hear from black people and let me be real clear I get I get non black folks on here and they're people who not black who watch

us and I appreciate that because they want to hear the truth and that's what this is all about and I'm telling y'all right now the next four years gonna be all about truth-telling every single day when these folks lie we gonna call it a lie when they sit here and put out false narratives and make shit up we gonna call them out. And so your support is absolutely critical. I keep saying this and it's simple. If 20, y'all, I got 4 million, I got 4 and a half million followers.

Literally, if 20,000 of our followers give 50 bucks each, that raises a million dollars. That is huge to offset the expenses that that we have we do not have the and i told you these ad agencies are not their clients are not spending money on us it ain't happening so your support is crucial and so when you give via cash app cash app change their rules and so they close all our accounts because they change their rules and just us other people as well so if you want to give to us via cash app use the stripe app the QR code is on the screen if you're listening to the podcast simply go to blackstarnetwork.com use the stripe app you if y'all old school y'all don't trust nothing check and money order send your check and money order to PO Box 57196 Washington DC 2003 7-0 196 PayPal

still works our Martin unfiltered Venmo is RM unfiltered Zale rolling at rolling S Martin calm rolling at rolling Martin filter calm get your copy of white fear how the browning of America is making white folks lose their mind available bookstores nationwide Barnes & Noble Amazon

Target you can also get the audio version which I read on Audible if you want to get our app download the Blackstar Network app right to your phone Apple phone Android phone but also if you have Android TV Apple TV Roku Fire Amazon Fire TV Xbox One Samsung Smart TV our app is on all those platforms as well. I got, just so y'all know, I got rid of our app on, we were on Amazon Freeway, Amazon Prime Video. It was costing me more money to send our signal to these folks we were getting back in advertising. I was going to be losing about $75,000 a year. I said, no, damn that.

I don't believe in losing money. So that's why I canceled. We were on four different streaming apps, but sorry, I canceled those. That's why I did that. And you can also, of course, get our merchandise. Merchandise is important, y'all.

And so we got our shirt hashtag. We tried to tell you FAFO 2025. A lot of y'all are loving the shirt. Don't blame me. I voted for the black woman. got our shirt hashtag we tried to tell you fafo 2025 a lot of y'all are loving the shirt don't blame me i voted for the black woman get that at rolandmartin.creator-spring.com we also got t-shirts hoodies wall art mugs all kind of different stuff uh we got roland martin unfiltered gear we got black star network gear and then of course you can also go to blackstarnetwork.com to access our merchandise and so y'all we're trying to build

something uh bring greg back greg will have new episodes of the black table in 2025 there are gonna be new episodes greg is being on a sabbatical hiatus for like six nine eight months so uh that's gonna happen i'm also culling through some resumes I'm looking to bring on two more show hosts and but do me a favor all y'all folks with who want to do entertainment shows I'm not doing entertainment shows sorry I'm not doing sports shows we got enough entertainment in sports out there right now it's enough I ain't doing that. I do entertainment interviews. If you go to our Blackstar Network app or your YouTube channel,

you can see my Earth, Wind & Fire interview, my TI interview. But y'all, I don't do this other different stuff, okay? We're dealing with real news and information here, and those are the kind of hosts that I'm looking for. So I appreciate that as well. Folks, that's it. And yes, I'm rocking my Texas gear

because we got a playoff game on Saturday. I'm sorry, Cowboy fans. Are y'all watching your team play this weekend? No. Oh, well. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holla! Black Star Network is here.

Oh, no punches! It's a real um revolutionary right now thank you for being the voice of black america all momentum we have now we have to keep this going the video looks phenomenal see this difference between black star network and black owned media and something like cnn you can't be black owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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

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We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to 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.

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.

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