#RolandMartinUnfiltered - DOJ Finds GA Jail Violates Inmate Rights, Tulsa's 1st Black Mayor, Trump Selects RFK to Lead DHHS

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

11.14.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: DOJ Finds GA Jail Violates Inmate Rights, Tulsa's 1st Black Mayor, Trump Selects RFK to Lead DHHS The Justice Department says the conditions in Georgia's Fulton County Jails violate inmate rights.  You'll hear what Kristen Clarke, the  Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ Civil Rights Division, had to say about their findings. We'll talk to Atlanta's NAACP President about the scathing report.  We'll talk to Tulsa, Oklahoma's first elected black mayor, Monroe Nichols. Trump's cabinet picks are getting ridiculous.  He just selected anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. We'll explain why the state of Florida is suing FEMA and fired supervisor Marn'i Washington. Rudy Giuliani's attorneys say he's too difficult, and they no longer want to represent him.  And we have lost some entertainment legends—Musiciains Lou Donaldson and Roy Haynes; and dancer Judith Jamison. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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 new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Thursday, November 14, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Of course, it's a great day. It's my birthday. The Justice Department says the conditions in Georgia's Fulton County jails violate inmate rights. You'll hear from Kristen Clark,

the Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ Civil Rights Division, what she had to say about the findings. Oh, let me be real clear. You ain't going to hear this stuff for the next four years under that idiot Donald Trump. We also talked with the NAACP president in Georgia, Gerald Griggs, as well. Plus, we'll talk to Tulsa, Oklahoma's first elected black mayor in history, Monroe Nichols. Speaking of Trump's cabinet picks, guess what? They get even more ridiculous.

This fool has actually chosen anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who his own family disavows, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Talk about sick and demented. Y'all better be real scared because your kids may die with this fool leading that division. Plus, we'll explain why the state of Florida is suing FEMA and, of course, fired supervisor Marnie Washington. What did Giuliani's attorney say? He's too difficult and they no longer want to represent him. Nah, it's probably

he's actually broke. And we have lost some entertainment legends, musicians Lou Donaldson, Roy Haynes, as well as the great dancer Judith Jamison. We'll salute all of them on the show. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, it's a go-go-royale It's rolling, Martin, yeah Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martin The Justice Department has completed a comprehensive investigation into conditions at the Fulton County Jail here in Fulton County, Georgia. Our investigation finds longstanding, unconstitutional, unlawful and dangerous conditions that jeopardize the lives and well-being of the people held there. We cannot turn a blind eye to the inhumane, violent and hazardous conditions that people are subjected to inside the Fulton County Jail. Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens

of people who have been murdered or who died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility. It's not just adults, but also young people who are subjected to conditions and treatment that violate the Constitution and defy federal law. Folks, that was Kristen Clark, who leads the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, speaking today about the shameful conditions of the Fulton County Jail. We're going to play a lot more of that for you a little bit later, though. Right now, I want to go to Gerald Griggs, who leads the NAACP there in Georgia. Gerald, I mean, it is shameful when you listen to that.

We have heard about these conditions, what the man who died as a result of bed bugs and so many other horrendous conditions. And how in the hell does the sheriff and the Fulton County commissioners, how do they even look at themselves in the mirror with the conditions of that jail? And we have heard so many horrific stories. LaShawn Thompson is the name you mentioned, who was eaten alive by bedbugs. Antonio May, who had a cardiac arrhythmia and died in the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff. And so we are not surprised by what the Justice Department found. We worked with many families to bring them to the Justice Department to have this conversation. But the conditions inside the Fulton County Jail are deplorable at best, horrific at worst. And I think that's what the report shows.

My concern is that we will not move forward on this if we don't see legal action. And I appreciate Assistant Deputy Attorney General Kristen Clark for the work she's done. I appreciate the Northern District of Georgia for the work they've done. I appreciate the Northern District of Georgia for the work they've done in this investigation. But my hope is that a civil action or criminal action will be filed to actually hold accountable what is happening with these deplorable conditions in the jail. I just don't understand.

So, first of all, for people who don't know, who's over the jail? That would be the sheriff of Fulton County, and then the Fulton County commissioners are over the purse strings to the jail. Do they have anything to say? Does the sheriff have anything to say? Well, we've talked to the sheriff numerous occasions.

He's complied with the investigation. He's asked for a new jail to be built. But other than that, there has not been enough action done to alleviate these deaths. There are deaths after deaths after deaths. So let's stop right there. I got to stop you right there.

You don't need a new jail to keep people from dying. Absolutely correct. You're right. What you need to do is fix the conditions within the jail. That's why we stood against the building of a new jail. We want individuals held accountable for the deaths that have occurred in the jail and the jail to be fixed. And again, you know, they spent 16 months studying the Fulton County Jail, 97 page report, a scathing report. And I just don't understand, frankly, how any

county commissioner can look constituents in their eyes and say, oh yeah, we've been doing a good job? No, it's absolutely, they cannot do that. And there's a deplorable condition at the jail. It's been said over and over and over again. The Southern Center for Human Rights has been ringing the bell for 10 years. They were under a consent decree for about 20 years, and they still allow these conditions to persist. So it's my hope that no one else will be subjected to what you're seeing on the screen. That's LaShawn Thompson's tech chest. Hopefully we won't have to continue

to raise the alarm and file lawsuits, but it's deplorable, and something has to be done immediately. And the Department of Justice has now weighed in with this report to show the Fulton County commissioners, to show the sheriff that something has to be done and this report to show the Fulton County commissioners, to show the sheriff that something has to be done and has to be done now. I want people to go to my iPad, Anthony, and look at what, look at, this is the report.

The jail exposes incarcerated people to extreme violence and the risk of serious harm. Killing, stabbings, and assaults are common in the jail. The jails fail to protect vulnerable populations from violence. The jail leaves incarcerated people un protect vulnerable populations from violence. The jail leaves incarcerated people unprotected from sexual violence. Violence in the jail causes long-lasting trauma. The jail does not house people appropriately to reduce the risk of violence. The jail's deficient classification system and housing plan increases the risk of violence. The jail does not use housing assignments to effectively mitigate the risk of gang violence. The jail does

not provide adequate staffing and supervision to keep people safe. Poor maintenance and pervasive contraband contribute to the violence. Unmaintained parts of the jail jeopardize safety. Poor door security in the jail threatens the lives of incarcerated people. People move through the walls of the jail to attack others. Drug use is common and leads to violence. The jail does not take appropriate measures to prevent the movement of contraband into and around its facilities. The jail has inadequate systems for identifying, investigating, and preventing violence. The jail's grievance system does not offer incarcerated people an adequate way to report and avoid danger. Gerald, this goes on and on and on and on and on.

I mean, this is stunning to look at all of this. If this was a company or a nonprofit, the sheriff would be fired and the board of directors would completely be removed. That means the sheriff and the county commissioners. Yes, if this was a company, it would be shut down immediately. It would be subjected to lawsuits and criminal prosecutions. You would see the book thrown at it. This jail and those atrocities that you just listed, we've known about for years, years. Attorneys and civil rights activists and

advocates and people that have been in the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff have said this over and over and over again. And now we have a 90-page document that shows it. But the question that remains to be asked and answered is, what are they going to do about this? I think there needs to be a federal civil rights lawsuit instituted by the Justice Department, so we can get to a consent decree and hold individuals accountable for the atrocities that they have outlined in the report. All right, then. Gerald Griggs with NAACP. I still appreciate it, Fred. Thanks a lot. Thank you, brother. Folks, I want you to actually hear from Kristen Clark as she actually read this report today.

Go to my iPad. My name is Kristen Clark, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division as she actually read this report today. Go to my iPad. My name is Kristen Clark, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. Joining me is Ryan Buchanan, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. The Justice Department has completed a comprehensive investigation into conditions at the Fulton County Jail here

in Fulton County, Georgia. Our investigation finds longstanding unconstitutional, unlawful and dangerous conditions that jeopardize the lives and well-being of the people held there. We cannot turn a blind eye to the inhumane, violent, and hazardous conditions that people are subjected to inside the Fulton County Jail. Detention in the Fulton County Jail has amounted to a death sentence for dozens of people who have been murdered or who died as a result of the atrocious conditions inside the facility. It's not just adults, but also young people who are subjected to conditions and treatment that violate the Constitution and defy federal law. Many people held in jails in our country have not been convicted.

They are awaiting hearings, trial dates, or are serving short sentences for misdemeanors. We find that the Fulton County Jail does not adequately protect incarcerated people from violence, such as stabbing, sexual abuse, or even murder. Physical deficiencies in the environment, such as unlocked doors and large holes in the walls permit and even facilitate the brutality. Incarcerated people use makeshift weapons built out of jail fixtures to attack others, including vulnerable people with mental health needs and 17-year-old young people. In 2023 alone, we identified 314 stabbings and more than 1,000 assaults. This rate of violence exceeds what we've seen in other cities across the country. The Fulton County Jail had as many stabbings in a single month as the Miami-Dade County Jail had all year, and

that's a facility with one and a half times more people. Since 2022, six people in the jail have lost their lives to violence. I'll walk through additional court findings set forth in the report that we're issuing today. Living conditions at the jail are hazardous and unsanitary. Housing units are flooded from broken toilets. Roaches, rodents and pests abound. Standing water, exposed wiring and vermin make living areas unsafe. The jail does not provide enough food, leaving people severely malnourished. The jail fails to provide constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care to

people at the jail, exposing people to preventable bad outcomes, including injury, seriousness, illness, pain and suffering, mental health decline, and even death. The lack of security staff and failure to prioritize health services impede access to care. Medical emergencies do not receive appropriate medical responses. People at risk of suicide do not receive sufficient protection and people with serious mental of suicide do not receive sufficient protection, and people with serious mental health needs do not receive adequate treatment. The jail uses solitary confinement, also known as restrictive housing, in

discriminatory and unconstitutional ways that expose people, particularly 17-year-olds and people with mental health disabilities, to risk of harm, including acute mental illness and self-injury. The jail uses lengthy confinement in restrictive housing as punishment without written explanation, which violates due process. As Georgia is one of only four states where the juvenile justice system's jurisdiction ends at 16, there are 17-year-old boys and girls also held at the jail. And these 17-year-old boys and girls are exposed to particular harm.

The jail does not provide special educational services to 17-year-olds who are entitled to them under a federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It fails to protect these children from violence, including sexual abuse. And it uses isolation to punish them, which both violates their rights and contradicts clear research that such isolation uniquely harms our young people. The jail staff also uses excessive force. This includes deploying tasers without reasonable cause. For example, detention officers tased a man after he said he felt like hurting himself and needed to see a mental health specialist.

Such violations stem from understaffing, poor policies, and lack of training and supervisory failures. The summary that I have just shared is harrowing enough, but individual experiences are gut-wrenching. For example, LaShawn Thompson, a black man with serious mental illness, entered the jail on low-level charges and was confined to the mental housing—mental health housing unit. Three months later, staff found him dead in his cell, infested with lice, and, as a medical examiner concluded, neglected to death. Several months before that, another black man with serious mental illness died after he stopped taking his medication.

Two more black men with mental health disabilities were murdered by their cellmates. Weeks after we opened our investigation, six more black men died at the jail. All of this is a racial justice issue. Ninety-one percent of the people living in these abhorrent, unconstitutional conditions are black, as compared to 45 percent of Fulton County's overall population. It's also important to note that the vast majority of the approximately 2,000 people held at the jail have not been convicted of a crime. They are awaiting hearings and have yet to be tried, many of them. There are also a significant number of people with mental health disabilities.

During our investigation, we worked closely with correctional, medical, mental health, and educational experts. We physically inspected the jail and observed housing units. We visited medical and mental health service areas. We reviewed thousands of pages of documents and interviewed dozens of jail staff and leadership. And we listened to the people held inside the jail and their advocates and their family members. We thank officials for their cooperation, and we thank all of those who provided valuable

information and whose advocacy predates this investigation. I'll note that officials have taken preliminary steps to improve conditions, but they simply are not enough. We hope our findings report sounds an alarm that will prompt the Fulton County Board of Commissioners and the Sheriff's Office to swiftly implement the comprehensive reforms necessary to ensure constitutional conditions going forward. At the end of the day, people do not abandon their civil and constitutional rights at the jailhouse door. Jails and prisons across the country must protect people from the kind of

gross violations and unconstitutional conditions that we have. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six 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 two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to

Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and HumanERAL, N.C.: Good afternoon.

I'm Ryan Buchanan, and I'm the United States attorney here in the Northern District of Georgia. 1974, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote, when the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality, his mind does not become closed to ideas, his yearning for self-respect does not end, nor is his quest for self-realization concluded. Fifty years later, our comprehensive investigation into the conditions of confinement at the Fulton County Jail has, at its basic level, revealed that the men and women and young people who find themselves housed at the jail are often left to wonder whether their humanity remained intact once

they crossed the threshold of the jail facilities. Whether at the main jail, which is known to many in our community as Rice Street, or at its annex facilities, people in custody in Fulton County who are accused of crimes or awaiting formal charges or trials must protect themselves from brutal physical attacks by other detainees, subject to frequent excessive force, manage their well-being with inadequate food and unsanitary living conditions, and hope that they can find access to a strained medical and mental health care program. The most obvious casualties of the civil rights violations occurring in the jail are those

who leave the jail in body bags. But our investigation has revealed hundreds more injured, traumatized and dehumanized people, all of whom are just as deserving of the protections of the Constitution as all of us in this room. Since we announced our investigation in July of 2023, the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice have worked diligently to meet our shared mission to advance the public's safety,

to uphold the rule of law, and to protect civil rights. There is no greater example of this mission at work than protecting and vindicating the rights of those who are under the custody and control of jail authorities, who themselves are duty-bound to protect the public and those in their custody. We began our investigation after LaShawn Thompson was found in his cell, neglected to death, covered in lice. But in the time since his death, several more young men detained

in the jail have died, and many died violent deaths. Our investigation revealed unacceptably high incidents of assaults and stabbings, and in some cases, most disturbingly, jail staff witnessed and allowed the attacks without intervention. In 2023 alone, there were over 1,000 assaults and more than 300 stabbings in the Fulton County Jail. It outpaces the rate of similar assaults in other major city jails almost two to one. Those numbers only reflect the reported attacks. Many detainees told our team that they explained that they feared for their safety if they were reported that they had

been stabbed or assaulted. One such detainee was left untreated for multiple stab wounds for a week until our team alerted the jail of his injuries. Also unaccounted for in these disturbing numbers are numerous allegations of violent rape, sexual assault, and harassment. The crisis of violence in the Fulton County Jail has resulted in part because of the lack of effective classification and housing planning, which allows for extremely violent individuals and gang members to be housed with vulnerable and low-risk individuals.

And particularly, vulnerable individuals are most subject to violence in the jail, including people with serious mental illness, gay and transgender detainees, and 17-year-olds. In addition, the Fulton County Jail employs too few guards relative to the number of detainees to keep people safe, and poor maintenance of basic fixtures allows violence to go unchecked. But numbers aside, jail staff are often unaware of violence because they conduct inadequate security rounds. We uncovered incidents where hours or even days passed

before victims of assaults were discovered by staff. In one shocking case, while an officer sat in an observation tower, a man was killed with his hands and his feet bound, not found until his body was extremely cold. Additionally, hundreds of broken light fixtures and cell doors allow violent detainees to move about at will in the shadows and sometimes through the very walls of the facility. Equally alarming, men and women in the Fulton County Jail also experienced violence from the staff.

Our investigation showed that the crisis of violence, the lack of security at the Fulton County Jail, is paired with staff that resort to the use of force too quickly and too often. We found that staff were regularly deploying tasers and pepper spray without any warning and for minor rule infractions like failing to hang up a phone quickly enough, yelling, or not putting items away as instructed. The rampant use of tasers is particularly disturbing. The risk of cavalier deployment of tasers is not just the temporary pain of electrocution. Detainees have been hospitalized for serious injuries caused by probes that are embedded in sensitive parts of the body, like the neck and even in the bone. The excessive use of force in the jail is not confined to a few bad actors. Officers lack policy and training guidance on whether and when force is appropriate, and when officers cross the line, the jail rarely holds them to account.

In some cases, a policy is glaringly inconsistent with established use of force techniques. Written policies explicitly state that staff may deploy their tasers against suicidal or emotionally disturbed persons without any assessment of danger to themselves or to others. Staff are permitted to use force when a person interrupts their work. And the use of force reports and supervisor reviews bear this out. Supervisors rarely assess a need for the use of force if they do it at all. Perhaps most concerning, our investigation showed that even when the jail determines that an officer used excessive force, discipline is virtually non-existent. Those officers go back to their jobs to repeat the same conduct. Aside from the glaring risk of violence, detainees face insidious threat of unsafe living conditions, constant exposure to

rodents and pests, and an unsettling disregard for food safety. Detainees in the Fulton County Jail lack basic necessities, like working toilets and sinks, and are exposed to flooding, standing water, mold, and what can only be described as filth. Pests carrying bacteria and disease not only run rampant in food preparation areas, but have infested the bodies of the people in the jail, people like LaShawn Thompson. Earlier this year, our team was evacuated from a housing unit in the jail because of a lice outbreak. Given the high incidence of violence in the jail, the need for adequate medical and mental health care is critical. But Fulton County Jail has failed to provide constitutionally

adequate care to the men, women, and young people in the custodied Fulton County Jail in virtually all respects. For a time, because of the unsafe conditions in the jail, Fulton County's health care provider, NAFCARE, nearly terminated its contract to provide medical and mental health services for fear that their staff would become victims of the dangerous environment without proper security escorts. The lack of security left an entire floor of the jail without adequate access to care because it was simply too dangerous for the healthcare workers to go inside. Medication and treatment are often impeded by flooding in a unit, power outages, and the unavailability of officer escorts. This lack of care in the Fulton County Jail has led to at least 17 non-homicide, non-suicide deaths in 2022 and 2023, a rate that is more than twice the national

average since 2019. A detainee who reported chest pain later died of a heart attack. Jail failed to assess a man for rapid weight loss before he died, much like LaShawn Thompson, who died after losing over 30 pounds in three months. These figures likely under-report the true death toll of people who were transported out of the jail to Grady Hospital and died outside of the jail walls. Someone dies in the jail, there's little or no effort by the jail to determine the root cause of their death. Seventy-five percent of the people who have died in Fulton County Jail since 2021 had a current mental health diagnosis or a history of mental

illness. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the mental health treatment options and suicide prevention practices are grossly inadequate in Fulton County Jail. Our team observed firsthand how custody staff deprioritized mental health issues and fail to respond appropriately to concerns. Requests for mental health treatment are delayed or ignored, and mental health staff are simply unable to provide the minimum standard of care for those who need it. Daily medication is often unavailable, and suicidal detainees are often isolated and locked in restrictive housing in lieu of treatment. And when people are released from the Fulton County Jail, they are frequently left without

the medication needed to sustain their health, without notice to their families, and sometimes actively experiencing a mental health episode. This is not a recipe for ensuring the safety of these individuals upon release or the safety of our community, and it is constitutionally unacceptable. Finally, I'd like to speak about a population of the Fulton County Jail that many may not know exists, a population of 17-year-old boys and girls. All of the constitutional violations that I've discussed today apply with equal force to the young people housed at Rice Street and the annexed facilities. The average stay of a 17-year-old in the Fulton County Jail is 392 days.

In that time, they are particularly and uniquely at risk for violence, lack of access to mental health care, risk of suicide while in isolation in restrictive housing. During the team's tour of the South Annex, they learned the boys there were held in their cells for 22 hours or more, frequently. The girls housed at Rice Street fare no better. And to the extent that these young people require a kind of specialized educational programs that are called for by federal law, they are not getting them. In fact, no educational services of any kind are provided to the 17-year-old detainees in Fulton County.

These young people deserve better. You'll see that our report lays out the bare minimum measures the Fulton County Jail must take to comply with its obligations under the Constitution and federal law. We are appreciative of the cooperation of Fulton County, Fulton County Sheriff thus far, and we look forward to working with them going forward to remedy these civil rights violations in the weeks and months to come. The Northern District of Georgia prioritizes the protection and enforcement of civil rights for our district's most vulnerable residents.

We are grateful for the impactful partnership for our colleagues from the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. We would not be here today without their collaboration. 2022, when I became U.S. Attorney, we formalized our tradition of civil rights work in this office. It's a tradition that dates back to the very first United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. We did so by formally establishing a public integrity and civil rights section. This talented, dedicated team of assistant U.S. attorneys, investigators, paralegals, legal assistants, and even interns ought to be commended for this work. 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 Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

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

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories

matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them.

Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Rishi Colbert hosts the Rishi Colbert Show, Sirius XM Radio, D.C., Dr. Greg Carr, Department of African American Studies at Howard University, Lorraine Lauren, Victoria Burke, Black Virginia News out of Arlington. Rishi, the reason I wanted to play all of that, because you're not going to hear any of that for the next four years. You're not going to actually see detailed investigations in jails and prisons like you've seen under Christian Clark at the Department of Justice and the Biden-Harris administration, because Donald Trump, MAGA, doesn't give a damn about any person who's an inmate. And so that ain't going to happen. No, I mean, one of Donald Trump's Department of Justice,

many attorney generals, the first one, Jeff Sessions, and all of them afterwards, completely put a halt to pattern of practices investigations. They did nothing to enforce consent decrees. They don't give a damn about any kind of mistreatment of any kind of malpractice in these jails, and certainly not by those who are overseeing them. And Trump has promised to give police indemnity. And so, yeah, unfortunately, this is the last of what we'll see from this administration trying to do anything about all these injustices. And by the way, these people are not in jail for life. And so when you traumatize people, when you mistize people, when you mistreat people, when you exacerbate mental health issues, then you wonder why people return to crime.

You wonder why there's a high recidivism rate. You wonder why you don't, you know, people don't feel safe and there's no rehabilitation going on. But the most egregious thing about all this is that people saw what this administration did with this Department of Justice and know they didn't do everything that they could have possibly done under the sun. But instead of a Kristen Clark potentially being the next attorney general or playing a large role in the DOJ, we have Matt fucking Gates, Matt Gates, who's a degenerate and likely a criminal himself. And so this is what the people voted for, for this kind of activity

to continue, all the people who lied and said that Donald Trump was a champion of criminal justice reform or anything like that. That was all bullshit. And, unfortunately, unless something comes out of this particular investigation and some sort of consent decree happens in the next 100 or so days, this kind of, you know, malpractice and injustice will continue unabated. I want to actually go to the mayor-elect of Tulsa right now, State Representative Monroe Nichols. And Monroe, Representative Nichols, look, first of all, congratulations. Happy to see you getting elected. It has to be of a concern to you, though, when you look, mayor when you look, going to be the mayor

of a city. And when you look at what's happening in D.C. and you look at some of these picks, man, oh, man, a lot of cities and a lot of states are going to be on their own over the next four years. Yeah, no, I mean, thank you for having me on again, Roland. I really appreciate it. And you're absolutely right. Like, I've thought about it a lot. Like, you know, we are going to have to come together as a city. I don't know what it's going to look like from the standpoint of federal investment and what education is going to look like. It's a heavy concern for us as a city. Certainly Tulsa Public Schools, our largest urban school district, educates more kids of color in any district in the state. And so like what I'm hearing, the rhetoric is actually very concerning. And it's something that's really, you know, top of mind for me. You know, look, I want to be optimistic

and wait and see. I'm struggling to be optimistic right now, but it's not looking great for particularly for urban cities across this country. Yeah. And the reason that's so important because you heard nothing but attacks on urban cities and, oh, Democratic-run cities are trash and they're awful and they're cesspools of violence and on and on and on and on. Yeah, and everybody also forgets we're also centers of commerce and economic development and all these. Hey, man, we're producing all the money we're using.

Right. You know what I mean? Get that part. Everybody gets that part. Right. See, that's the thing that I'm always trying to remind people. So you've got Republicans in Mississippi who love trashing Jackson, but Jackson, Mississippi supplies the largest amount of sales tax to the state more than anybody else.

When you start talking about Oklahoma, you're talking about Oklahoma City and Tulsa. When it comes to who's sending that money, who's sending that money to the state. So I always get a kick when that happens, how people complain about that, but they ain't got no problem with the money that's being generated

in these urban cities. Another thing we learned during COVID, Roland, is that when rural medicine has been gutted across the state, where's everybody to go to the hospital? We got these issues. They got to come to the urban centers. And so we all got to be partners on this thing, man. And, you know, look, we have our challenges in urban cities all across the country, but we provide a disproportionate amount of services for the entire state, which we're happy to do. And I think we have to be real. And mayors are going to have to come

together on a really strong federal agenda to be really clear with the federal government on what we need. And, you know, unfortunately, sometimes that's colored in politics. I got elected in a nonpartisan race. You know, I hope that as we go and ask for things that are necessary for people in this city and in the state, that we get some good reception there and we get past all this rhetoric and we get to the things that's going to impact people's lives, affordable housing, education,

economic development, those kinds of things. Like I said, I'm extremely concerned. Talk about that, the healthcare piece. What is happening in Tulsa with those surrounding areas? We know in North Carolina, Mississippi, other places, when these rural hospitals close, I mean, bottom line is folks got to have someplace to go. Is that what you're also seeing happen where Tulsa is having that you're not just focusing on the people in your city? You're now actually a regional, if you will, hospital

system. Absolutely. We found that during COVID. Look, Oklahoma took forever to pass Medicaid expansion. We had to do it through the ballot. We couldn't get it done in the legislature because, you know, politics, but we got it done on the ballot. But the problem is the rural infrastructure wasn't there. So it wasn't like an immediate, you pass Medicaid expansion and all of a sudden rural medicine comes back. It takes some time for these things to be able to come on. So when we have a pandemic or you have specialty services, you got to come to the urban core to get them. And the fact is, like I said, again, we are carrying a disproportionate amount of load and that's okay. But what are we also having to challenge with Roland? We're not producing

enough physicians in this country right now. You know, we're not producing enough nurses in this country right now. We're not producing enough family medicine folks, especially care. So what we know is if we don't continue to get aggressive resources coming out of the federal government, even cities are going to struggle to meet the needs of these larger states. And so, like, there's a lot at stake in this thing, man. And, like, I'm very concerned. I'm tracking these different appointments and all that kind of stuff. It has a real impact to people, not just these urban cities, but everybody has to understand, if it's not good for your urban core, it's not going to be good for the rest of the state, because that's where commerce is, that's where medicine is, that's where most of your higher

education institutions are, those types of things. If we don't get it right in the urban areas, our states, particularly in these red states, it's going to be a real challenge for us. Well, the other issue you're facing in these red states, they've been so anti-abortion. You've got OBGYNs and other doctors who say, I don't want to go there. That now impacts the babies that are born in Tulsa, in the state of Oklahoma. I mean, I saw some story there. Because of what happened in Louisiana, the top OBGYNs were leaving New Orleans. Well, you know, and that does happen, right? And it also impacts our ability to attract new business here because you have businesses that don't want to go in places

where their employees might not be able to get the health care they need. And what we know about a lot of these states where abortion has been outlawed, it's not just about abortion services. There's a ton in the way of health care for women that gets thrown by the wayside and women's lives are at risk. And then you've got a lot of medical professionals that actually don't know what is and what isn't against the law. Even if you have a baby that's not viable, you know, if you got, you know, kind of where the mother's health is at stake. A lot of these folks, these medical professionals don't know, am I going to get prosecuted if I do something? And so they're trying to make a decision, do I save somebody's

life or do I risk my license? Do I risk going to jail? And that's just not a good environment. And I, you know, what I believe is going to be true is you're probably going to see some movement, at least I hope, now that we've, it's almost like where the dog catches the truck finally, and the dog has now caught the truck, and now there's going to have to be some rolling back of some of these restrictions, because you cannot provide appropriate health care for women under the current environment that we're in right now. Last question I have for you, you get a lot of people all around the country, they are sitting here going crazy, and all this Monday morning quarterbacking. Oh, what happened?

You got to completely blow up the Democratic Party. You've got Vice President Kamala Harris on the team. They screwed up messaging, things along those lines. As a newly elected mayor, as a state representative, what would you say to Democrats who are freaking out because of the election last week? You know, I think we've got to get back to basics, man. You know, I was lucky to win my race at 56 percent of the vote, which means a lot of Republicans in Tulsa supported me.

I think they supported me because we just talked about issues. I listened to their stories. I always say you can't learn something that you already know. So you've got to listen to people and you've got to make sure that that what they're telling you is reflected in public policy. And we got to get to the place where we're really talking about things that impact people, but we cannot forget that we got to spend the time there with them. So I don't think this is time to blow anything up. I just think that we have a disconnect. And I don't really think that we've done a good enough job overall as a country understanding what's at stake in these elections.

We always think that it's Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump. Those are the names on the ballot. But what's on the ballot is affordable housing. What's on the ballot is the future of education, healthcare services, national security, the future of democracy, like all those things. And we have to make sure that we're not only just talking about those things to people, but hearing back from them and making sure that the policies and the things that we're offering are the things that people are telling us that they need. And I think if we do that, it's just a back to basics. I don't think you

got to overthink this thing, man. I think it's just a back to basics thing. I really do believe, and that's the reason why I've been a proud Democrat in the legislature. I believe we have to offer is what's good for the country, but we cannot pretend as though folks who are on the other side of the aisle, those voters are voters that we should not engage. We have to engage and we have to talk to them. We got to make sure we widen the tent in the party, but it is really just back to basics and meeting people where they are. All right. State Representative Monroe Nichols, the newly elected mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We sure appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Absolutely.

Appreciate it. Let's go back to our panel. Lorne, I'll go to you. The thing here, again, when we talk about the Civil Rights Division, that announcement, when we talk about again, the sanity,

the sanity that we have experienced over the last four years. Now we are facing what we all knew was coming, and that is absolutely insanity, chaos. And let's just be real, Frank Lauren, it's some journalist in D.C. in a White House press room, at ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, OAN, Newsmax, who are sitting here going, ooh, this is going to be great. They want this chaos. Yeah, and it makes some money, and the books are going to be rolling, and everybody's going to suddenly show up for the White House briefing like they never showed up for the White House briefing before, assuming he has them, because, of course, remember, he canceled them before. But that White House briefing became like the ticket to your book sales, to your attention that you would get from basically spectacle.

And, of course, I mean, it is true that the news business runs off of spectacle. It runs off of things happening that are crazy. But if that first four years was anything to reference, which, of course, it is, we know that the news business and certain people in the news business—I mean, Les Moonves said the quiet part out loud, that Trump was good for business. And he's back again. What he's bad for is democracy. And what I think the media people are going to find out is that one of his targets is,

in fact, going to be the media. I think that's fairly obvious. So one of the things about Donald Trump, he's very conscious of what makes money, how it's made and all of that. And he doesn't like it when other people make money off of him without him getting a piece of the action. And he also doesn't like accountability. So, the only two things making him accountable, of course, are DOJ and the media.

And he's going after both of those things. So people have to be very careful, because without a plan, you know, there's a lot of talking and there's a lot of melting down that's going on, certainly on Capitol Hill, a lot of times on social media, you'll see it. All that melting down and all that energy has to be converted into a strategic plan to figure out what the hell, how we're going to get through the next two years. Because the two-year break where you can have an opportunity to blunt his power a little bit happens at the midterm elections? Well, I think, you know, when I talk about the sanity, Greg, the last four years

was actually about what do we get done for the American people. And I routinely complained to the president's advisors, from the chief of staff to Green Jean-Pierre. I said to the vice president, I said to numerous people, I don't understand why y'all don't talk about the great stuff that's happening in the DOJ that impacts people's lives. And maybe it's because Americans don't give a damn about people who are in jails, who are in prisons. They don't want to hear about cops being sentenced for being abusive to folks. But I need people to understand, crazy land is coming. And if we thought crazy land was here four years ago, oh, we ain't seen nothing yet.

Not when this fool picks a Robert Kennedy Jr. to head up the Department of Health and Human Services. And let's be real clear, unless Republicans find a spine, everybody's getting confirmed. But I would hope there are at least four Republican senators who go, nah, we ain't having Matt Gates as the attorney general, and we're not going to have a nutcase like Robert Kennedy running through HHS firing doctors and scientists left and right.

Well, it potentially doesn't matter, as we know. Turning our lonely eyes to an utter clown like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski is not going to work. And there is the little matter of an appointments strategy that allows temporary appointments, including acting cabinet secretaries, to serve for 210 days. That's why without being confirmed or even being brought up before a committee, that's why Trump has floated pushing the Senate to engage in allowing him to do the recess appointments by adjourning in January. John Toome, as some type of break on Donald Trump, of course, is laughable. These are the white nationalists.

And so we can expect the fascism to continue. Matt Gaetz can be the acting attorney general. I mean, the young girl lover is likely to be the attorney general of the United States. And, you know, it's OK if you read Chapter 14 of Project 2025, written by Roger Severino, who served in the first Trump administration. I know Trump doesn't know any of these people, but he was at the Office of Civil Rights under Sleepy Ben Carson. He writes—no, I'm sorry, he wasn't under Sleepy Ben Carson. He was at HHS. He wasn't under Hood.

I was laughing because, of course, Carson is so typically miscast. I heard him getting floated for a surgeon general or something. But at any rate, this chaos is only going to get worse. And then when you look at Chapter 14 of Project 2025, he talks about enforcing a federal policy to create what they're calling a kind of abortion database. And they're saying that these states that have protected the woman's right to choose, he's calling the people who go to those states to take care of pregnancies in that way abortion tourists, or—no, he calls—yeah, abortion tourism is what they call it. And they're calling for abortion surveillance.

Bobby Kennedy Jr. is going to do whatever he needs to do in that capacity as secretary of HHS, should he be put in there. And, as I said, he can do it in an acting fashion. This clown car is going to be full. And it I said, he can do it in an acting fashion. This clown car is going to be full. And it might just be full of acting secretaries that can be rotated out every few months. Again, 210 days. You don't need Senate confirmation. But what we heard today from the mayor, from the incoming mayor, who's actually going to come in next month, December the 2nd, is really where the hope lies. It has to be at the local level. Reading some of incoming mayor or mayor-elect Nichols' agenda for his first 100 days, he's

talking about addressing the housing crisis and the unhoused in Tulsa, saying that 44 percent of the people polled who are unhoused are saying that they would take housing, but they lack any access to affordable housing. He's already talking about how he's going to work with folk. Ninety percent of those people said they would accept housing if they could. Data-driven policing. We all remember the white girl, Betty Shelby, who the Department of Justice, under Trump,

declined to file any civil rights actions. You remember our brother Demario Simmons talking about that. Well, we're not going to see help coming from the feds. They're going to close down, as you said, all those patented practices. They're going to shut down a lot of things. Well, he's talking about creating data-driven policing to kind of stop that heavy hand that's on black folk and poor folk in Tulsa, and the Tulsa massacre, the victims of the Tulsa massacre. We can expect Trump's Department of Justice and the little girl lover Matt Gaetz to certainly

shut down the U.S. Justice investigation, the department investigation that was opened up. They'll shut that down. But there's also a Beyond Apology commission that was set up by a previous mayor of Tulsa that the incoming mayor, the mayor-elect, has said that he's going to act on the recommendations from that local commission. And then he says he's going to co-govern, which is interesting, with indigenous people in the wake of the McGirt decision that came down that said that they should have control

over much of the state of Oklahoma, which would include the city of Tulsa, in terms of that decision. I'm bringing that all up as a prelude to this. This could be a glorious time for heroes. In other words, the ACLU has already said, we're going to slap you around beginning on your first day in office. We've got the lawsuits ready to go, the federal lawsuits. We have to punch like that, all the patterns and practices. You heard Joe Griggs say that the courts have to get involved. Now, civil lawsuits, this is not going to be an easy ride for this clown and the people in his clown car. And they don't care. The Democrats, listening to David Axelrod, the Chocolate Wonders friend, saying that they should put, of all people, Rahm Emanuel, another of Chocolate Wonders' friends, in charge of the DLC, shows that not

only don't they get it, they don't care about it, because they don't care about American people. They care about the voters. And they're never going to go after those millions who don't vote. So let's be very clear about the strategy going forward. This is a time for heroes, and we are up to the task if we will now seize the reins, and those reins very much look local. By the way, happy birthday, brother. I appreciate it, Fred. Thanks a bunch. All right, y'all.

I'm going to go to a break. We come back more on Rolling Marked Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Lots to talk about. And I'm telling y'all, it's a whole lot of crazy that's going on in this country. And I told y'all, all I'm going to be playing left and right is Scarface's No Tears. Matter of fact, I was, I think I was. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will

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

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

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on 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. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I texted Scarface last night, and Scarface said, Ro, you can use this one. Hold on. I'll tell you what he said. He said, you voted for the wrong guy.

There'll be no tears in the end. He said, use that, Roe. I said, I got you. All right, y'all. And also, he's also on the men. He's healing from his surgery. So we appreciate that. All right, y'all.

We'll be back. Rolling Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, y'all, support the work that we do. I'm telling y'all right now, the right the right wing man these billionaires are funding these cats that's why they got staff they got all this sort of stuff uh and i'm telling y'all okay we need your support more than ever um and and let me go ahead and announce this uh y'all start on social media and i can go ahead and tell you right now. See, this is what happens when you focus on the work. When you focus on the work.

And that's all we focus on, okay? So this morning, I woke up, talked about a great birthday gift. We have hit 1.5 million YouTube subscribers on our YouTube channel. 1.5 million. We launched this show September 4th, 2018 with 157,000 YouTube subscribers. Yo, we have increased that tenfold in six years.

And so I want to thank all of you, all of you, for your support in helping us get there. But also, and let me thank all of our donors, some 32,000 donors since we launched this show as well. And so

support us this way. You can give via Cash App, via Stripe. You can point your phone to this QR code right here, and you can give us via Cash App. You can also send your checking money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered dot com. We'll be right back. Trade on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not. White people are losing their damn lives. As an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting.

I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this.

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. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the Jobs Act.

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And you're watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to the show. I keep telling y'all the election of Trump in 2016 unleashed these white races to do whatever they want, and there's absolutely no accountability. Well, there was a hearing today in the Michigan Senate with regard to a proposed bill to ban firearms from the state capitol. And listen to this racist testify in front of this committee. Check this out. We are targets. Let's be very clear. This is legislation that targets white people. It is racial because the people who carry in the Capitol

are primarily white. People who have CPLs are primarily white. And this is retaliation for the only demographic that overwhelmingly voted to support Donald Trump. And that is why it is being taken out on us, because you don't like us. And that's how it is. If we want to address gun violence, we would be focusing on the people who bring guns into communities

and shoot people, like where I live in Detroit, where you represent, Stephanie Chang, which are overwhelmingly 13 to 34-year-old sub-Saharan African niggers. Those are the people who... Move on. I am testifying. Thank you for your testimony.

I'm not timed out. Yep, and I'll... Make sure she don't... All right. So... So the response is move on. No. Now, this is the tweet here.

Give me one second. The guy's name, Avi Rocklin, A-V-I-R-A-C-H-L-I-N. He is a representative for Gropers for America. That is the group of Nick Fuentes, the racist supporter. So he has no problem. Oh, no, no. You go after the sub-Saharian N-words. This is who they are.

I keep telling everybody, Greg, oh, hood's off. Sheet's off. Ain't no reason to hide because one of theirs is in the White House. And he brought a lot more of his hood-loving

friends with him. Yeah. Correct me if I misheard, Roland. Did he say he lived in Detroit? Yeah. Oh, great. That's beautiful. Avi, get your little bird chest up.

Go down on 8 Mile. Say that shit again. See, what these guys don't understand is that winning Joe Rogan podcast, listening to these incels on social media or on YouTube is not the same as carrying that BS out into the country. And they're going to find out very quickly. I'm not calling for violence. What I'm saying is that it's one thing to say that in the state capitol. It's one thing to say that in Lansing. It's one thing. It's quite another thing to go into the city of Detroit. And the problem you have, Avi Rocklin, is that not only did you do that, it was taped, and everybody knows your name now. People are talking about, you know, if you don't like it, why don't you leave this country? That man might have to leave the city.

He might have to leave the state. He might have to leave everywhere. No, no, no, no, no. He ain't got to leave. He can go call that black preacher who invited Trump to the church. The one who was- What's his name? Lorenzo?

Is that Lorenzo something? Yeah, call, call, call little Lorenzo. Call your friend. Call your friend Lorenzo. Call your little friend. But I will say this, though, while we're laughing, rolling about, thinking about it, because we know it's deadly serious, but we also know as black people, we've survived a whole lot worse. The ACLU was purporting

on a letter that they wrote to Congress, urging Congress, the House of Representatives, you know, of course, we see the MAGA puppet—I'm sorry, the MAGA Muppet, because he damn sure looked like a Muppet, looking like Ernie and Bert and Ernie, little MAGA Muppet Mike and his crew—not to pass H.R. 94-95. That is a bill that, if passed, would threaten the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit that was accused of disagreeing with the

administration. And they called such disagreement terrorist-supporting comments. I raise that only because when you say something like that, let's say that bill passed, which I don't think it will. I think now, here's what—I'm telling you, the lawyers get involved. People say, well, Trump's got the courts. No, no, no, no. This isn't the point. This is putting the Constitution in direct confrontation with the fascists who have the levers of government. Whether they choose to follow the Constitution or not, once they tear this thing up, you won't be able to put it back together. And somebody sitting like that in public, talking about sub-Saharan as if that were an insult, in words, which of course is an insult,

yeah, you let them get their way in terms of persecuting people for terroristic supporting action. Guess what? Those laws work all kind of ways, and you might not like what happens when you unleash the beast in these kind of circumstances. You know, Recy, Nikki Barnes of Florida asked the question, hey, has Trump appointed any black?

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

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

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

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

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

episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey.

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

This was somebody's response. I had to laugh at that one. Come on, guys. That's what's on my iPad. Thank you. This was, they said, this is the only black cabinet you're going to see with Trump. I got a kick out of that one, Reesey.

Well, we know that Trump like his white cabinet shell, but that was very clever, very good. I'm just trying to figure out where the wokeness was in that video because I saw a motherfucker sit up there and say the N-word

hard R. And I didn't see no woke ass response you know all these white folks running around claiming how they have such a back list to racism everybody's so woke you can't even say nothing this motherfucker just sat up there and said the n-word and nobody busted him in his shit

so all this stuff about wokeness and and oh you know anxiety around is too much, calling out racism. I didn't see it. Not in that video. I ain't seeing it happening right now. So I think people need to just shut the fuck up about this woke shit.

And I think that people need to have more consequences and make people feel a little bit less comfortable to say those kinds of things. You might be able to get arrayed with it in front of these decorum-loving, civility-loving legislators, but as soon as you walk outside, those homeboys and those young black males and those sub-Saharan N-words should be waiting for you to bust you in your shit. I think Recy may have been looking for this response, y'all.

Are you kidding me? Where you from, nigga? Where you from? Where you from? Where the fuck you from? Here, nigga. You from here? Get the fuck out of here.

You a clown, nigga. Oh, God, you a clown, nigga. You from here? You a clown. What you gonna smack me with that? Smack. Smack. Smack me. Smack me, that? Smack. Smack me.

Smack me. Come on, get it. Drop it. Yeah, you got yours, buddy. Call me another fucking nigger. I don't give a fuck. Hey, man, you got to get out of this session, man. I don't need to be here. Call me another nigger. I think that's a fuck. All right, man. You got to get out of this session, man. I don't need to be here.

Call me another nigger. I think that's what Reesey was thinking about, Lauren. Yeah. Yeah, well, you hear that voice in the background. Hey, you got him. You got him. How about shut up? You know, this Dylann Roof thing, you know, when Dylann Roof did his thing, you notice he does it at, like, some church where people are having Bible studies.

This is what these guys always do. And to Greg's point, you know, you're not standing in Detroit on a street corner. You do it at some hearing. And to Recy's point, nobody says anything. I mean, I'm not surprised at what happened on Election Day with regard to the question of allies and how white women voted. They voted that way before. When it comes to the Hispanic vote, they voted that way before. It's never been a surprise. We're the group that's always looking out for everybody else in terms of our advocacy groups standing up for other causes all the time. You don't see the duplication of that the other way around. And, Greg, even though, yeah, it is a time for heroes, I'm not seeing any so far. We definitely have a Neville Chamberlain problem in our politics, always on the left.

We always have somebody who's placating, as we saw yesterday at the White House, not only placating white supremacy, but placating a fascist, sitting in the Oval Office and acting like everything is normal. And so far, that is what the Democratic Party has been doing. I think it is absolutely shocking. And they've got to get their act together. And in a few minutes or so, I'm about to get on another call to hear what the deal is with another faction of advocates in Virginia. But, you know, I'm not feeling it in terms of an opposition. And I know it's only been a week, but still, you know, we let—the other crazy thing is we let James Carville run his mouth again. James Carville needs to be shut down. And I think

people need to understand, what we're seeing right now in our politics is, in fact, Clinton-era politics. James Carville had 1992, 1996. Then they ran Al Gore. He loses, or loses in fat quotes. And, of course, John Kerry. And it wasn't until United States Senator Barack Obama shows up and breaks that chain of Clinton era. Then it comes back again, of course. Of course, Hillary, of course, ran in 2008 and loses in the primary. Then she comes back again in 2016 and loses, and we end up with Donald Trump. So we, in a sense, are still in the Clinton era, you know, and we have to turn the page to the next generation, whether it's Wes Moore or Pete Buttigieg or Gavin Newsom or Josh Shapiro. But we don't even—we haven't even seen a Gen Xer show up. A Gen Xer hasn't even shown up, because there's too many people in the way. And the reason this happened this year is because Joe Biden decided to run again. Another baby boomer tried to run

again. Nothing against baby boomers, but, you know, you can't run again at 80, 81 years old. And all of his staff and everybody who's in the same generation he's in, by the way, nobody said anything. And that's why we find ourselves with a second Trump presidency, and it was completely avoidable. Well, you know, go ahead, Rishi. No, I want to jump in on that James Carville point exactly, because, you know, we've been hearing everything about, especially from dumbasses like James Carville, exactly because, you know, we've been hearing everything about, especially from dumbasses like James Carville, all these white men

need to shut the hell up about how oh, it's too much wokeness. I'm trying to figure out what part of woke did Jon Tester give in white-ass Montana? What part of woke did whatever the white man was in West Virginia? I don't even know who the hell it was. What part of woke did Joe Manchin,

who was too punk-ass to run for his Senate seat again because he knew he was going to lose? What part of woke was that? Or Sherrod Brown or Bob Casey? The people that lost were white men. Okay? And they lost because they got out-whited by other white people. Okay?

So this election wasn't that Democrats doubled down on wokeness. White people doubled down on whiteness. Okay? Where the Democrats actually embraced diversity, they won. Where Democrats actually embraced the base, they won. Some places, I'm sorry, you ain't got enough of us to get your wins in. But this had nothing to do with goddamn wokeness in this election.

And all the people sitting out there talking about that shit need to shut the hell up. This had to do with the most successful dissuasion campaign, the most successful disinformation campaign, and another campaign where Democrats tried to get the white woman and never-Trump voters. Failed strategy, and the base stayed home. And that's why we're in the situation that we're in, in addition to the fact that people are fucking assholes, and they shoulder shrug at a goddamn fascist, criminal, degenerate running for president again. Yeah. Recy, it's even, Recy, it's even stupider than that. Okay. All those senators that you named, OK, Casey, Manchin, Tester, I mean, they ran in 2018 during wokeness, during defund,

and they won. So they won during defund, OK? So I don't know what James Carville is talking about, but James Carville wants to say it. He's stopping himself from saying it. He tells these politicians in these off years, particularly in Virginia, do not embrace anything black. If you break, you see, James Carville is still doing triangulation from 1992. James Carville is still doing what he told Bill Clinton, you know, do the conservative crime bill, do the conservative welfare policy, don't do anything for blacks, do the sister soldier. Slap somebody

around black in public to show white voters that you're not really for these people. That's what James Carville really wants to say. I'm not sure why he's stopping himself from saying it, because it's so obvious that's what he wants to say. And that's what he tells people on the phone. So the guy needs to go away, because it is—basically, what they're saying is that their base doesn't matter, and in fact, they should talk disrespectfully to their base. It is black voters that wins the Democratic Party these elections in so many of these cities, no other group under the Democratic umbrella. And yet it's black voters that are told to shut up when we have to watch George Floyd

get choked out on the street under somebody's knee. We're the ones that are told to shut up when we have to watch George Floyd get choked out on the street under somebody's knee. We're the ones that are told to shut up. Everybody else can say whatever they want, but we're the ones that are told, don't forward your policy, don't say anything. And these are life and death types of situations. So I'm a little bit tired of James Carville because he's politically wrong. He predicted that the vice president was going to win.

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

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

Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. He was wrong again. He doesn't know what he's talking about. So that show has got to end at some point. Well, I'm going to come

back to that in a second, but I do want to play this video. It's black. It's black and niggers. I'm gonna come back to that in a second, but I do want to play this video. Oh, shoot. Oh, shoot. Shut your goddamn mouth! No! Come on, tip me off again! Shut your goddamn mouth, bro! Shut your goddamn mouth!

Sir! I think that brother's form was quite impeccable. I mean, he was coming from this direction. I did see this one, too. So go ahead and play this one. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Oh, what you gonna do with your fat ass? Yeah, I know you got that shit.

You know, I like that. Stop playing, man. It's like, you like this shit. Yo, why every mother fucker got to get in some fight and you call the police on me? Yes, shit. Fuck on. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay, so I'm just gonna help somebody out here. If you call somebody black the N-word, and I just want y'all to study what happens in this video.

First, he's calmly unbuttoning his shirt. Yes, sir. Two, he methodically removes his eyeglasses. You see, matter of fact, I want you to go back right here. First, he does this here. He strokes his chin first. No, come on. He does this.

What this means is, should I smack his ass or should I let him go ahead and just walk? I'm gonna go ahead and smack his ass. So roll a video. You see right here, the brother on the left, you see him.

He's stroking his chin. You know what? Let me unbutton my shirt. And I'm just, because he didn't rip the buttons off because he ain't trying to mess up his shirt. Okay, methodically took his glasses off, put it in his pocket, and smack. So here's the deal.

If you're going to call a black person the N-word, my advice, you don't turn your back to them. Right. I'm just saying, you don't turn your back to them. I'm just saying you don't, you don't turn your back to them because it's not necessarily going, uh, to, um, uh, uh, to end well when you do that. I'm just saying. So I think, I think a lot of people, um, I think a lot of people make that mistake. And so I think you're going to see a whole lot of that happening. And the end result is probably going to look like this. Stand me in my face and tell me you're sorry, nigga.

Tell me you're sorry, nigga. What's you sorry for, nigga? What's you sorry for? Why, nigga? Why you sorry for that shit, nigga? It's disrespectful as fuck, nigga. to me and my whole people, nigga. All these niggas right here. All these niggas right here, bro.

Ain't no talking to you. This is crazy, bro. That shit is crazy for you to say, nigga. You know that shit is not okay, bro. You know that shit. Then why do you say that shit? Why do you say that shit, nigga? You know that shit is not... Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick.

Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick.

Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick.

Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick.

Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick.

Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. Hey, Patrick. So, this is all I want to know.

Why don't people pull the crazy fool off before he gets punched? Like, if you're going to use the N-word, why don't you snatch that fool and say, you don't want this smoke. This ain't going to end well for you. So, I'm just saying. I'm just saying, a lot of y'all out here,

y'all can sit here and keep talking trash if y'all want to. Oh, that was pretty cool. So I know how YouTube, excuse me, Twitter pops up another video. So Dr. Carr and Lamont came up on Urban View Mornings. And so they popped up next. So just wanted to go ahead and just show you that. So I'm just saying, y'all, it's really... It's Kim Burns of all people. Huh?

Who's trying to hold it together, but he can't hold it together. That was a quake. But, you know, it's funny. That is funny that I pulled that up. Kim Burns has spent his whole career trying to narrate an American narrative that brings us all together, And I commend him for that. It's fantasy. It's aspirational.

And that's what I asked him for yesterday. I was like, man, you know, you've done all this, and race is at the center of this. Why? And so he starts talking about that. But let's be clear about this. You know, we know that this isn't a country. It's a state with a lot of different kind of people in it. And, yes, I don't think we're going to see it from politicians, the heroism,

Lauren, and everybody. I don't think we're going to see the heroism. What we're going to see is that this orange clown and his clown car of people, and Thomas Massey was caught going up the escalator the other day, and they said, Matt Gaetz. And he turned around and said, recess appointment. Deal with it. He's the attorney general. It's going to be dealt with, Tom. The problem is that you may be walking through DCA on your way back to Kentucky.

You might be in Lexington or Frankfort or Louisville at a basketball game. You might be walking to your car. And you might get dealt with. What is unpredictable, you see, isn't the politicians. They're predictable. The James Carvels coming out of the cemetery, the Clintons aren't going away, Barack Obama's going to be who he's going to be, and Axelrod and Clough and all the people that you both, in terms of you, Roland, and you, Lauren, talk about in terms of the camps encircling

these folks, they're going to be pretty much the same. What is unpredictable, except when you understand history, is the people. Ken Burns tells the history in all of his documentaries, the Civil War, Jack Johnson, or baseball, or jazz, or Thomas Jefferson, or you name it, Muhammad Ali, which kind of gives this sense of black people as resisting, but resisting within the lines, when in fact the reality is at the height of the lynching of African people in the South, in the 19-teens, in the 1920s and 30s, what is usually not accounted for and told in these sanitized history is the cascade of ass whippings that were handed out in casual places. We're not talking about Du Bois.

We're not talking about Charles Hamilton in the courtroom. We're not talking about Brown versus Boyd. We're talking about the street corners of places like Columbus and Macon, Georgia. And what this is really tapping into for us—and we don't go about this work, Black women or Black men, to save democracy. In fact, my man Ron Walters, our friend Ron Walters, the late Ron Walters, in his book, White Nationalism, Black Interest, talks about the fact that Black people support consistently—that's what he calls the Black mainstream—support policies that benefit everyone, not because

we're thinking about everyone, but because culturally we think about the collective. We think about the community. So health care and employment, you know, wage guarantees and pensions like Social Security, these are things we vote for because they are in our interest, but because culturally we think about other people. So people incidentally benefit. But watch this. Finally, Langston Hughes had a little short poem. He said, look at the Negro, meek and mild. The weather day, they changed their minds. Those videos are evidence. Oh, so no more generosity? No problem. Say it again. Say it again. I'm not politicized. I'm in Southeast D.C. with all these guns they dump in from Northern Virginia. Call me the N-word out here. I'm not politicized. I didn't vote. I don't care. But I know one thing.

Trump's in office. You call me the N-word, and I don't think you're going home tonight. This is the kind of thing that is unpredictable, because this isn't politics anymore. This is people who are just tired and saying, well, as Klaue McKay said, we must die. Let us nobly die. That's why you lay a man on the damn subway tracks touching the third rail, because you had the nerve to say some shit and turn your back. See, I

don't mind what's going on right now. I just saw this tweet right here that I had to go ahead and show. Dr. Ray Cunningham posted this. He said, they kicked a black man out of the barbershop. I go to this AM for saying he voted for Trump and was trash talking Kamala.

Like literally got him up out of his chair and low key dared him to come back. LOL. You see, I have no problem with this energy. No, I don't. I don't. I definitely don't either. People took a side, they took a stand,

and they thought the shit was cute and it was funny, and it's like... Now, bitch, ain't nothing funny about what we're seeing right now and this is just like the the prelude he hasn't even been sworn in yet he already got us like oh my god what the fuck even as much as we warned people about how disastrous this was going to be it's on a whole nother level of like of of just a shit show so yeah if you chose that

side go that way and go that way very very fast don't come in my presence flexing like that's the thing to do i'm in my chill mode for the next four years i'm in my well she we're gonna ride this out best became some of us ain't gonna make i it. I'm going to try to do what I got to do, but don't test me. Don't come over here with that bullshit. I think you're going to walk away unscathed. Period. Listen. Listen, I know, Lauren,

again, a lot of people, you were talking about earlier about all these Democrats. You know what? I saw this one item, though. Tom Bonior. Matter of fact, he just posted something 30 minutes ago. He said, I know there were a lot of early. Give me one second. Let me go ahead and show you this year. He was saying he said, I know there were a lot of early takes last week at the Dem Bay stayed home. But as the votes continue to be counted, we now know that Harris won more votes than Biden in four of seven battlegrounds and ran almost exactly even with him across the seven states.

And you can actually see the numbers right there. So let me explain for people who don't quite understand what's going on here. And I've told you all this here. I've told y'all this here. I've said this to y'all repeatedly, that elections in America are driven by white people. In the last two elections, 70% of the electorate was white, which means, which means, and I know we always say, without black people, Democratic Party, I get all of that. But again, you gotta deal with the reality of whiteness.

And so, I'm gonna find another, I posted earlier what happened in Georgia. And they broke down the turnout in Georgia. So I'm just going to, here it is right here. Let me put it in our group me. Then I can pull up on my iPad. Because I really want you all to understand what happened here. And when y'all keep hearing me talk about the numbers, the numbers, the numbers, the numbers, and why we have to vote at 70% of our numbers, this next graphic is going to help you greatly understand what I'm talking about when we talk about the numbers, the

numbers that people don't get. Hold on one second. I'm gonna pull it up for you. Here we go. All right. This was, nope, not yet. Don't go to me yet. Here we go, let me find it.

Right here. Okay, this here dealt with, said Georgia is the first state to release full vote history for 2024. As a share of the citizen voting age population, turnout rates went up for all groups compared to 2020 except black Georgians. So look at this data right here. Okay. And the total turnout in Georgia was 65.9%. Look at these elections. 57.4, 52.7, 65.5, 50.7. So turnout in Georgia was higher in 2024 than it was during COVID.

Look at that white number. During COVID, now I want y'all to look at those numbers. In the 2016 election, white turnout was 62.7%. In November 2020, white turnout went up almost 10 points to 72.1%. White turnout in November of this year was 74%. Now, let's look at Hispanic. Hispanic was 33.5 in 2016, was 38.6 in 2020.

It jumps almost four points to 42.3% in 2024. But look at black. 2016, the black turnout was 53.3%. Four years later, the black turnout went up almost seven points to 60.2%. Four years later, black turnout drops 2%. Two years, four years later, black turnout drops 2%. So, we walk people through this. If you look at the

black number alone, look at this black number alone, if black people in Georgia had voted at 70% of our turnout, I dare say Harris wins the state. Now, the numbers are right here, y'all.

It's right here. That's additional 12 points. That's additional 12 points. That is a significant number of votes. Now, I said the exact same thing. If black people vote at 70% of our numbers in Philadelphia, if we vote at 70% of our numbers in Detroit, if we vote at 70% of our numbers in Wisconsin,

then Gary Chambers always talks about it. What's happening in Louisiana? Folks, this is across the country. And so a lot of folk don't understand this. And so I will say this. And let me be clear. The strategy that was given to Vice President Kamala Harris was stuck on stupid.

Follow what I'm saying here. Listen to me very clearly. They handed Vice President Kamala Harris a campaign strategy that was the same as Joe Biden. That's General Malley Dillon. And the done guy walked out that's pretty much what it was this is what I have been long saying

if you don't spend your money on concerts in Atlanta and you put that money on the ground I would love to look at a forensic analysis to say

how much money was spent on concerts in Atlanta. I totally understand media attention. And let me be real clear, I am not chastising Meg Thee Stallion. I'm not chastising any of these different people. I'm speaking about how do you win? And I'm just going to tell y'all, because I've already said it before,

but this is exactly what I said to the VP in November of 2023 when we had the dinner with her and I've said it y'all numerous times ever said to other people this is what Roland Martin said the Biden-Harris campaign from January to July should be in a massive education, enlightenment, informative stage. I said, I literally said it, I said, y'all should be advertising enough with us to where we are in six to eight cities a month

broadcasting town hall conversations, discussions with black men, black women, young folks. I wanted to do something with Pastor Jamal Bryant at his church, and I only wanted 35 and under in the audience. Now, let me explain what I'm talking about here. Now, all of a sudden, now, all of a sudden, you're counting numbers. You're actually engaging in conversation because what is it the research shows? People said, I ain't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. And the vice president did some of this, the opportunity tour.

But what I'm talking about wasn't dealing with her. These should have been conversations that they were driving with black city council members, black county commissioners, black state reps, black state senators across the country. So imagine when you were organizing these discussions in all of these cities all across the country and obviously in the seven battleground states. Now, all of a sudden, you're spending seven months educating and forming and enlightening people on what actually happened.

I said, then you go from July, August, September. You now are in a registration phase. Then when you get to September, October, you're now in a voter phase. That's literally how you win. It's literally how you engage. 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 Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't

working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear

episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's Dadication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I totally understand. Everybody listen to what I'm about to say. I totally understand having an HBCU strategy. But HBCUs only have a

total of 230,000 students. Maybe 240,000. There are 1.6 million black students at PWIs. So here's the question. What was your black PWI strategy? I don't think somebody understands what I'm talking about. I'm talking about literally how do you engage and win. The numbers were there for Democrats to win. They were there. But what you cannot do, what you cannot do is spend so much time on Liz Cheney and thinking you're going to get those

Republicans because the numbers didn't lie. And all these other folk and just, again, I appreciate all of the viral ads of the Lincoln Project,

but have they actually moved 3% of Republicans away from Trump? Has any of those groups, have any of those groups actually moved Republicans over? How much money was invested in them? How much money went to them? And I really want to know. I really want to know what's the total number that went to black groups, and I've seen some reports,

the Reverend Sharpless National Action Network got 500,000, National Urban League got 2 million, all these different groups. If I'm the campaign, I want to know what you did with it. It's very easy to find that out. No, no, no, no, no. Now how much you got.

I said what you did with it. Because I'm talking about what you did with it. I'm saying if I'm looking at how I spend money, I want to look at effectiveness for the next campaign. Right. Well, so, as you know, the FEC reports are being filed. Right. So, yeah, it's not hard to sort of go through the numbers and get a feel for where a lot of this money was spent. Obviously, a billion-dollar campaign that's only 107 days. But to the point that you made earlier, Roland, and happy birthday, by the way,

about a plan of action that lasted, of course, more than a year, more than the campaign year, that's something that is heard at a lot of canvas kickoffs, a lot of barbershop events. I can't think of one barbershop event that I witnessed where somebody didn't look up and go, this is the only time I've seen you. But one of the biggest problem of this campaign, in my view, is June 24. That leads to July 21. The vice president did not know that she was going to be running a 107-day presidential campaign. And, of course, she had to adopt the staff of Joe Biden, which is, of course, headed by General Malley Dillon. At that moment, everything is just compacted into this, you know, moment where you don't have the strategy that you'd normally have.

I mean, I've seen campaigns for attorney general that were planned two years in advance. And this is a presidential campaign that she had to be a part of in 107 days. And to me, that is the reason that you don't have what you were talking about, Roland, with regard to a deliberate strategy. Now, that's not the reason you don't have a GOTV plan, because you can see something is wrong with the GOTV. I can't speak to Georgia, but the number in Virginia looks like it's going to be the lowest since the 1990s in a presidential year. We don't exactly know that yet, but it looks like it will be. So there's something going on with the turnout with regard to black voters that is hugely problematic. And it does lead to what you were just saying with regard to investing and things like, you know, not only the concerts, which by the way,

I didn't have any problem with, but the, but the, the lack of GOTV focus, there's something that was off there. Yes. Here's, here's what I hear. Here's what I keep saying is happening. And I don't understand why these people don't get it. And I'm going to say it again right now. For every year you get away from the civil rights movement or the black

movement, every year you get away from that movement, African Americans less self-identify as Democrats. Which means that that person is like, I ain't a Democrat, I ain't a Republican, then they go you're independent, man, I that amount of time, that amount of energy, and that amount of money. And so the problem is you had this white woman, Jean O'Malley Dillon, with no cultural competency, who was sitting there, who did not understand what was happening out here when people like me were literally saying it every single day.

It was there in the data. It's in the conversations. So you had black folks who was sitting here like, all right, I might choose the couch. The couch was real. When did we start saying the couch was real? In 2023. Right.

But when you run this campaign of, oh yeah, what we only gonna do, we're gonna throw a little bit over here. No, no, no, no. And then, what did I also kept saying? I kept saying on the show, your runway is getting shorter. It's

getting shorter. If's getting shorter. If you fly on a plane and you're like, shit, come on, pull up, get the maximum energy, pull up, pull up, pull up, because I got to clear the trees. Runway was getting shorter. And so as they kept BSing along, guess what? Runway getting shorter. So now you were losing your informative education and enlightenment stage. You already now into registration voting stage. So now you're trying to play catch up. And oh, damn, how do I now communicate with folks?

And the thing here, Recy, and I got no problem saying it, they weren't listening to black people. Black people were telling them, if I'm on a campaign, and I'm looking, this is real basic, if I'm looking at a campaign, and I gotta win Wisconsin, I gotta have 70% black turnout in Milwaukee.

And I've got to, and I know I gotta do elsewhere. Here's what they miss, Recy. They miss that white people increase their turnout. That's what they miss. Trump did better in Milwaukee this time than 16,

than 20. He did better in Detroit, 13,000 votes in Detroit compared to 2020. But that's still an increase. You have to offset that somewhere. And so, again, what you're dealing with here, and this is what the James Carvilles and the David Axelrods and all these people, they don't want to deal with. have no cultural competency and know how to appeal to a changing multiracial electorate. That's just the facts. Of course, white turnout increased. Everybody was going after the white voter. Duh. Everybody telling them their vote is golden. Everybody wants them. Yes,

of course, they're going to come out. The stakes are all on them. So, yeah, their vote is going to turn out. I think part of the problem is, it really does go back to education and engagement. And it goes back to the choices that Democrats tend to make across all levels of government and trying to hop on the bandwagon of people who already have what they consider a platform, instead of investing in the platforms that actually engage with Black people on a political basis, and activate and move the needle with Black people on a political basis that speak to Black issues and not just entertainment and not just propagating the disinformation and the rage baiting and the Black trauma porn and all that bullshit.

And so when they just want to hop on something, but those people don't have the credibility in moving the needle with getting people off the couch, with getting people to be able to carry forward the message of that education when they don't want to invest in people who have credibility because they're not famous enough, because they're not celebrity enough, because they don't have enough followers, and they outsource the education

to people who don't have the depth, don't have the range, and don't actually have the concern, who as soon as you lose or as soon as something don't go that way, oh, well, back to business as usual. We back to talking about who's fucking who, who's scoring what points, and we

none of this shit even matter to us. Meanwhile, those of us who do the work day in and day out, Roland Martin, Urban View, The Root, all these people, black journalists, I can name off a hundred of them, who do this work, we still on the outside. We still fending for

ourselves. We're supposed to just scratch it and survive and do this out of a sense of community and purpose, which we do as opposed to being invested. Then they ask dumbass questions like, where's our Joe Rogan? Hello? Where's the money? Where's the investment? Where is the platforming?

Where is the, hey, if I come on your show, you're going to have the best ratings. I'm not talking about my show. My show's lit. But I'm just saying for other people, the view got the best ratings than they had had in how many years? Fox News, best ratings they had had in how many years? When they make the choice to bring their capital

and marry it with credibility of those who do this work, that could actually work. But they don't want to do that. But that's their hard head. They want to engage consistently. They just want to try to hop in and hop out, go to the black churches, hop in and hop out, go to the HBCU, hop in and hop out.

This work, it requires cumulative, consistent engagement. To the extent that you can't do the level of work that is required, then you have to partner with those who are doing it and help build that ecosystem and that infrastructure. Until Democrats do that, and like you said,

with Black people who have cultural competency, and not just us, because you got to get the Hispanics back, you got to get the Asians, you got to get everybody. Until they learn that lesson, then we're going to all be sitting up here

talking about how white folks did what white folks did, and we're all sitting up there left get the Asians. You got to get everybody. Until they learn that lesson, then we're going to all be sitting up here talking about how white folks did what white folks did, and we're all sitting up there left holding the bag. I remember, Greg, in the first quarter of 2024, a Trump PAC was

running radio commercials on, they were running commercials on black radio stations, ripping Democrats on LGBTQ issues and transgender. And I remember saying to several folks in the campaign, y'all better deal with this. I said, I'm telling y'all, this is gonna be an issue for you. Blew it off. Late in the campaign, when I asked telling y'all, this is going to be an issue for you. Blew it off.

Late in the campaign, when I asked about those transgender commercials, this is what a high-ranking campaign official said. We don't see any movement in the data that this is having an impact. I said, don't nobody spend $120 million on ads and it ain't having no impact. No, they tested that earlier in the year and they saw the movement and they said, let's go hardcore with it. Let's go all in.

Again, this is what happens when you run, when you have arrogant strategists who say, no, no, no, we know best, candid, we got this here. And I'm just going to go, just like, listen, when they had that rally in Houston, even I went, why y'all going to Houston? I'm from Houston. I love my hometown.

But I literally said, why are y'all having a rally in Houston this late in the cycle? Well, when I sent a reproductive rights, I said, Houston, Texas ain't, you ain't winning Texas. I said, Colin Allred ain't winning Texas. He was horrible with black people

all around the state. That's why he lost by nine points. So I'm like, you spend a massive amount of money on a rally in Houston to center reproductive rights as if that was going to make a difference. That would have made more sense to take that money and literally go hardcore on the ground in Philly, all across Atlanta,

in rural Georgia, in Detroit, and East North Carolina. But again, I ain't a white Democratic strategist, but guess what, Greg? It's a whole bunch of white Democratic strategists who created companies

that overnight took in millions of dollars one of them just started two years ago greg go ahead go ahead with your comment and then i gotta play y'all somebody's posted this uh this wonderful uh video from representative ilhan omar just three seconds of loveliness. Go right ahead. Roland, I mean, there is no one solution. There may not be any solution. And I say this again. I repeated ad nauseum at this point, having no investment in the United States of America

as an ongoing enterprise. My investment is in our common humanity and as an African person. The Democratic Party is not at a crossroads. JOHN YANG, Former U.S. Secretary of State for Human Rights and Human Rights, Nope. JOHN YANG, Former U.S. Secretary of State for Human Rights and Human Rights, And they're not going to change. They are soft white nationalists.

We agree with many of their policy positions, which is why—and this is for my friends who are so radical, who are going to be fine, particularly the college professors who have benefits and health care and this kind of thing thing who think they're going to be fine, who would say that you and I and Recy and Lauren and everybody here on this network are shills for the Democrats, I would advise them to read Ron Walters' book, White Nationalism, Black Interest. Black people move with the Democratic Party because the policy recommendations and the policy agendas of the Democratic Party more closely align with our values. JOHN YANG, Right.

JAMES CARVILLE, Right. JOHN YANG We have expressed them in our politics, not because we identify with the Democratic Party, using them as a means to an end. That having been said, the thing that blocks the Democratic Party is, of course, their white nationalism. They are white nationalists. James Carville is useless as a human being. No, no, no, no, no. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

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

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really 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. No, no, no. James Carville, if you want to impress me, why don't you keep your ass in Louisiana and why don't you organize Democrats in your home state? Well, that's what I mean, Roland. The point, the fact of the matter is he does not want to impress you because you're not a human being. So I don't want to hear him run his mouth.

Why don't you organize Dems in your own damn state, James Carville? He's not going to talk because black people are two-dimensional, one-dimensional, really. The black person in the mind of the average white nationalist is a movie black person, a basketball player, a singer. That's why they have huge rallies.

They're feel-good releases. And at the top of the class food chain in the white—among the white nationalists—and this includes all the, as you call them, the smart-ass white boys—they're going to be better than fine. They're already preparing to spend millions more in the midterms. The challenge we have—and this is, of course, the challenge that we saw with Brother Jones in Arkansas, where the insufferable Huckasann, Governor Grimace, beat him because white nationalists would rather vote for an indeterminate liar over a literal rocket scientist, because they will take their whiteness over everything, even on the way to the cemetery.

The Democratic Party understands that, which is why they continue to chase the phantom white voter. When I say there's no possible—there's possibly no solution to this, I mean there's possibly no solution at the federal level, at the national level, at the conceptual level of a notion of America. To quote the late Elijah Cummings when he says, we're better than this, no, Representative Cummings, there's no we, and this entity is not better than that. George Washington was a fascist, where we're concerned. Thomas Jefferson was a fascist, as far as we're concerned. Abraham Lincoln didn't give a damn about us when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. He was trying to make love to the South to make them come back home. So he didn't give a damn about us either. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed because the union had no choice but to impose a federally supported military regime, five military districts on the South, in order

to break them. And they used us as the instrument to do it. That's why we got those amendments. After that, a century later, we fought our way out of the reconciliation between the white North and the white South. That was the civil rights movement. And these white nationalists, aided and abetted with a federal government, have fought for the last three generations to roll back the 20th century. I think, finally, perhaps now, they may have broken it, and we may see some progress. What do I mean by that? White nationalists hate the federal apparatus, unless they're in control, at which point

they want to impose it on everyone. White nationalists hate state-level control until they're in control of it. Well, guess what? Now that you have the whole federal apparatus, now that you have, in the words we heard earlier from the mayor-elect, caught the car, you're going to realize that what you caught isn't what you thought it was, because now states' right strategy can be inverted, you see. Westmore in Maryland, Gavin Newsom in California, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. Fine. That's at the state level. But the key to this is the local level. James Carville is never going to talk

to local people organizing, to local people on city councils and school boards. Well, guess what? We don't want you to talk. Roland, when you go through the South and when you go anywhere in those churches and those community centers and your work, that is the work that's going to allow us piece by piece to gain some measure of control. And when the feds come in there, does anybody believe that this is going to go smoothly when that man that sounds like he's been drinking in a day and stumbled out in the broad daylight, the one they're going to put out over ice. Does anybody believe that when he tries to send somebody, send some troops into New York City or South L.A. or Atlanta to snatch children,

particularly teenagers or any child, out of a school room to say that they are illegal, does anybody think this is going to go smoothly? I'm not talking about there won't be pain. I'm not talking about there won't be violence. I'm not talking about the fact that they will use the military. What I am talking about is that having taken the apparatus, they may very well now, and I'm kind of counting on this, break it. Because

the contradictions will be so stark and so obvious to everyone that individuals will have to make a choice. It doesn't mean people will be politicized, but it does mean you're not going to put your hand on my six-year-old and not expect me to do everything to stop you from doing it. And I'm wondering at that point whether or not we're going to see something very different than polite conversations about who wins for president. Indeed, indeed. Y'all, I'm going to go to this real quick before I go to break.

So this guy challenged Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in an elevator and told her she needed to go to Gaza, sweetheart. And she answered him. Check this out. Go to Gaza. Go to Gaza, sweetheart. Go to Gaza. Go to Gaza. Go to Gaza, sweetheart.

Go to Gaza. And she said, F you. Go to Gaza. Go to Gaza, sweetheart. Just to Gaza. And she said, F you. Go to Gaza, go to Gaza, sweetheart. Yes, sir. Just saying. Go ahead, old hon. Just saying. All right, y'all, real quick break.

Real quick break. Then we'll come back with these final stories. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, covering these things that matter to us speaking to our issues and concerns this is a genuine people-powered movement a lot of stuff that we're not getting you get it and you spread the word we wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us we cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them

to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, raise $100,000. We're behind $100,000, so we want to hit that. Y'all money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland

at rolandsmartin.com. How you doing? My name is Mark Curry, and you're watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered, deep into it, like pasteurized milk. Without the 2%, we getting deep. You want to turn that shit off? We're doing an interview, motherfucker.

Florida files a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency director and a fired employee for telling a survivor assistance team after Hurricane Milton not to visit homes, displaying signs supporting Donald Trump's candidacy. Ashley Moody, the state's Republican Attorney General, alleged FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, agreed to deny Trump supporters relief alongside determinate employee Marnie Washington.

We had Washington on the show earlier this week. She explained that they skipped homes after being met with hostility. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Fort Pence, Florida, asked for unspecified damages and a declaration that the two FEMA officials unlawfully conspired to violate Floridian civil rights.

Marnie is still trying to get her lawyers. I really hope a black attorney steps up to help her because this sister has been just maligned left and right by folks all around this country. And so that's the latest happening here. Oh, yeah. Rudy Giuliani's attorney. Maybe they can call her. They want to stop representing him. On Wednesday, attorneys Kenneth Caruso and David Lakowski cited New York rules allowing them to withdraw from representing the former New York City mayor as he battles with two black Georgia election workers over their efforts to collect a $146 million defamation judgment. The attorneys

say they have a fundamental disagreement with their client. They also cited provisions allowing withdrawal when a client insists upon presenting a claim that can't be supported in good faith. And when a client fails to cooperate in the representation, a representative for Giuliani says he was blindsided by the motion, which was filed two days before the deadline for Giuliani to turn over property and financial information to the two former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss. U.S. District Judge Louis Lyman has yet to rule on the attorney's request. Oh, I hope they take

every damn thing. Reesey, everything. Hi, Jemani, y'all. It's poor people around. By the name of Rudy Giuliani. Listen, this is reparations, and I fucking love every It's pouring people around. By the name of Rudy Giuliani. Listen. This is reparations and I fucking love every bit of it. Yeah, drop that client like a bad habit because that's what Rudy Giuliani is. And I hope that them black ladies, Shea Moss and Ruby, are somewhere in their Rolex watches,

in whatever their old ass Jagger, whatever he had is in their penthouse suite just sipping on champagne, living their best life because you definitely deserve it in Trump's America that we about to enter into. Take all of it. A West Virginia corrections officer charged in the death of an

inmate in 2022 has pled guilty in federal court. Mark Holdren admitted he conspired with other officers to violate an inmate's civil rights, which resulted in his death. The inmate, identified as Cortez Burks, had been in jail for less than 24 hours when the assault took place. Four other correctional officers, as well as former Lieutenant Chad Lester, were all indicted in November 2023. In connection with the death, Tony and Booth had already entered guilty pleas in the case and will be sentenced in January.

The trial for the other defendants is scheduled next month. According to his plea agreement, Holdren faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Again, here's another corrections officer going to prison. That's what happens when you have a progressive Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Greg. You're on mute.

Sorry about that. Absolutely, Roland. We're not going to see that again. We remember Jeff Sessions. We'll see Matt Gaetz. But that doesn't mean you don't go to court. It doesn't mean that you don't fight. And I think what they're on the verge of, we're going to see a lot of people emboldened in this administration, a lot of racists.

Although Trump knows how to not pay back favors. So Rudy Giuliani is in trouble. And I hope you'll share with everyone what you put on Twitter, which I just saw, which is the positions that I think you say that Tim Scott and Byron Donalds are up for in the Trump administration. Yeah, somebody asked they said, are they going to get a point in the cabinet? I said, yeah, as the White House usher. Yeah, it ushered the White House. Maybe they're going to fight it out.

Maybe they'll throw the bow tie in the middle of the floor and then put them both in there and say, whoever comes out, you get the job. But, I mean, yeah, we're going to see a lot of people emboldened. And it's really tragic, because you spent the first part of this show dealing, of course, with Attorney General Clark, who could have been the attorney general of the United States had people shown up in the way that we needed to show up. But at the end of the day, all of that's going to be rolled back. People are going to be emboldened.

But I really don't think that they have the numbers that they think they have. And what they finally have misjudged is the idea that them seizing the apparatus of the law will mean that we will all conform because we have respect for the law. And that's when they're going to find out that black people in this country have never respected the law except for its ability to punish people. Once we lose that fear, it's going to be a different story. I don't know how many more times these prison guards and cops and stuff are going to be beating up on people before at some point the fight back may overwhelm their capacity to keep tamping that down. But I guess we'll all see. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Folks, some sad news to tell you about. Lou Donaldson, known as Sweet Papa Lou, is now an ancestor. He passed away on November 9th at the age of 98. Donaldson was the final surviving member of the original Art Blakey Quartet. In 1954, the group introduced hard bop

into the growing jazz classification lineage. A native of North Carolina and a World War II veteran, Donaldson performed with everyone from Thelonious Monk to George Benson. His blend of soul, blues, and pop led him to achieve mainstream recognition with his 1967 cover of

one of the biggest hits of the time, Ode to Billy Joe, and his notable album, Alligator Boogaloo. Our hearts and minds are with the family of the musical jazz legend. I know you have something to say about that, Greg. Yeah, I mean, 98 years old is a good run. Roy Haynes beat him by one year in 99.

These are two of the last bebop legends, man. These are the cats that played with everybody. When I think of Lou Donaldson, Lou Donaldson was in the Navy. He got drafted into the Navy and was at Camp Robert Smalls, just outside of Chicago. I mean, a legend all the way through. And, of course, Roy Haynes, of course, Snap Crackle, you know, and with Juden Jameson, who I know you're talking about in a moment. You know, that last generation, although the man that you interviewed, and let me ask him

a question, which I will cherish to the end of my life, the great Sonny Rollins still walks to earth. There are very few, man. And for young people, go back and listen to this music. Listen to Lou Donaldson. Listen to Roy Haynes on the great blues and abstract tunes, Stolen Moments with Oliver Nelson. Ground yourself in that. We need our artists to step up now. And Lou Donaldson,

of course, is in the first rank of those. Go gently, brother. You'll become a powerful ancestor. You spoke of Roy Haynes, a percussionist nicknamed Snapcrackle. He passed away November 12th at the age of 99. Haynes was known for his punchy snare and cymbal patterns.

His distinctive style made him an in-demand percussionist for marquee talent like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and Lester Young. Haynes earned two Grammy Awards, the first for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance in a Group in 1989 for his album Blues for Coltrane, a tribute to John Coltrane, and then 2000 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance Individual or Group

for the album Like Mines. Like Donaldson, Haynes had a prolific recording career. Our condolences certainly go out to his family as well. And as Greg mentioned, one of our greatest artists. We also have lost this sister. I got an opportunity to be on the same show with her when Monique had her show on BET. Judith Jamison, an internationally acclaimed dancer who later served as artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for two decades, passed away on November 9th after a brief illness in New York. She was 81 years old.

Famous, she grew up in Philadelphia and trained in ballet there from a young age. She performed on Broadway and formed her own dance company before returning to serve as artistic director for the Ailey troupe from 1989 to 2011 as a dancer, choreographer, director, and speaker. Her distinguished career leaped over barriers of race and gender. Recy and Greg, I mean, she absolutely... You talk about greatest American dancers.

Judith Jamison certainly is on that Mount Rushmore. Yeah. Cry, revelations. You talk about not only a muse for Alvin Ailey, which is just one way to describe her, but Judith Jamison was literal walking elegance and grace. And so I can't imagine what it was like to be there in conversation with her

and be in community with her. Judith's every, what did they say? Every move, a picture. You see her there talking, whatever she was doing. But to see her perform cry or to see Alvin Ailey's revelations with Judas Jamison at the center, there she is right there, man. That's just a photograph. So, yes, yes, can't be overstated.

Well, the day before the election, of course, we lost the great Quincy Jones, and we've been so busy with that. So for everybody who's watching and listening, on Friday, Friday's show will be a two-hour tribute to the artistry and the magnificence of the Renaissance man, Quincy Jones. Talk about somebody dying at the age of 91. I dare say he packed 200 years of life into those 91 years. And so we wanted to make sure that we give him a proper tribute. Things get so busy. You know, we didn't get a chance to do a James Earl Jones and a John Amos, you know, special.

But we certainly believe that Quincy Jones is deserving of that. So tune into our show Friday. We'll pay tribute to the great Quincy Jones. Reesey, Greg, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Lauren as well. Thanks a lot as well. So I appreciate it.

I appreciate it. You know, people kept asking me, Reesey, they were like, what you gonna do for your birthday? I said, I had two dental appointments. I got the show to do. Then I'm going home. Folk don't, listen, we traveled so much and went so hard during this election.

I said, listen, I said, I can celebrate my birthday throughout the whole year. I said, between now and January, I said, look, it's about just resting. We got events coming up, of course. For instance, I'll be, we'll be in Atlanta next week doing a couple of shoots. The following week, of course, is Thanksgiving. The following week, I will be on the road.

I'll be speaking in a private memorial service for Frankie Beverly in Oakland. So I head to the Bay Area for that. And then, of course, we got Global Hope Forum coming up. I'm speaking in Detroit this December 11th, and so look forward to that. But it's a whole lot going on. Global Hope Forum in Atlanta going on. Then I head to Jamaica for a couple of weeks for R&R. Oh, and by the way, we will be broadcasting on January 20th,

but we'll be discussing MLK Day. So just letting y'all know. Just letting y'all know. Just letting y'all know. I'm letting y'all know what we gonna do. And so I'm trying to work it out. We may be at the MLK Memorial broadcasting from there on

January 20th. And so there will be no mention of anything else on January 20th. I know that. But MLK Day. That's what happens when you own your shit. Alright! Pre-C Greg, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Alright, folks, don't forget

to support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is real simple, getting 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. That raises a million dollars. Plus, we'll be able to fund the operations. Our expenses are about $195,000

a month, and so it's a lot that are going on. And so we want you to support us. Now, we finally have gotten around the Cash App and all their drama. If y'all want to support us via Cash App, you can do so by using the app Stripe. This is the QR code to use. So point your phone to it, tap it, click the Cash App to continue, and then put in your amount, and there you go. Also, you can see your check and money order at PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.

Venmo is RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV,

Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available bookstores nationwide. So I'm going to go home, have some dinner, celebrate my birthday. 56 years around the sun. My brother's birthday was yesterday. 57 years around the sun.

His son's birthday, my nephew Chris, was on the day before that. 17 years around the sun. And so we got lots to celebrate. And my grandmother, God rest her soul, her birthday was the 16th of November. And so a lot of Scorpios in our family. All right, y'all. I will see y'all tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. And again, thank all of you for moving us to 1.5 million YouTube subscribers.

Next goal, 2 million. Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! A real 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, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter and it brings a face to it. 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. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up.

See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.