#RolandMartinUnfiltered - DOJ Tulsa massacre report, Biden/Harris job growth review, Calif. wildfire impact on Black families

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

1.10.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: DOJ Tulsa massacre report, Biden/Harris job growth review, Calif. wildfire impact on Black families More than a century after a white mob terrorized Tulsa's Greenwood community and burned it to the ground, the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a report acknowledging what's now known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. The next administration will inherit a healthy job force. I'll talk to Don Graves, Jr., the Deputy Secretary of Commerce, about the job growth over the past four years.  The California wildfires are leaving thousands homeless.  I'll talk to two black families about how they are coping with their loss. And I will share my thoughts about Amazon paying Melania Trump millions for her biography.  But what exactly has she done? #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio 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.

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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. 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. People just like you help build Fanbase, and we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine.

We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve the opportunity to invest in early stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now, I'd like you to go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in Fanbase right now, today. And then use Fanbase to connect with friends, grow your audience, and be you without limits. Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches. I'm real revolutionary right now. Black media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you real revolutionary right now. Black power. Support this man, Black Media.

He makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Be black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN.

You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. Thank you. 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. People just like you help build Fanbase, and we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase.

We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine. We've already crossed $2.1 million, but we're looking to raise more capital from people just like you that deserve the opportunity to invest in early stage startups without having to be accredited investors. So right now, I'd like you to go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest. The minimum to invest is $399. That gets you 60 shares of stock in fan base right now today. And then use fan base to connect with friends, grow your audience and be you without limits. It is January 10, 2025. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

More than a century after a white mob terrorized Tulsa's Greenwood community, burned to the ground, leading to the death of more than 300 African-Americans. The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a report acknowledging what's now known as the Tulsa race massacre. We'll tell you about that report. Also, Vice President Kamala Harris did not win the presidency. People complain about the economy, which makes no sense because the next administration is inheriting an extremely healthy economy. The last jobs report of the Biden Harris administration is stellar. We'll talk with Don Graves Jr., Deputy Secretary of Commerce, about the job growth over the

past four years. The California wildfires are leaving thousands homeless, including an historic black community. We'll talk about how they're coping with their loss and a GoFundMe that's been set up for that area of Southern California. Plus, I will share my thoughts about Amazon MGM Studios paying Melania Trump $40 million for her documentary. Can somebody explain to me what the hell she's done to even have a documentary? It's time to, oh, and let's not forget,

the orange one is now a convicted felon. Who also had a rough day in a New York courtroom? Rudy Giuliani. We gonna talk about all of that. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Mark Don Filch on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got 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 Roland, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's rolling Yeah. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel.

Martel. Folks, for the first time in history, a president is going to lead the White House, never having a negative jobs report. Today's jobs report that dropped shows that the United States economy added 256,000 jobs in December. The overall unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent. The black unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 percent. Unemployment for black men decreased to 5.6 percent. The black female unemployment rate declined from 5.9 percent to 5.4 percent. We're talking about four years of nothing but job growth under President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris. Don Graves Jr. is the Deputy Secretary of Commerce. He joins us right now. Don, glad to have you here.

And it is still baffling to me that you can have an economy that's working, an economy that recovered from COVID, an economy that was completely rebuilt, an economy that has rebounded better than any other major economy in the world. But Americans still talk about how awful things are. We'll deal with that in a second. But let's just talk about what this administration has done in order to put this country back on track after Donald Trump and Mike Pence left the economy in tatters. Brother, it is so good to be with you. And you are exactly right. You look at what we just announced today, Jobs Day, record growth, 256,000 new jobs. That is a huge bump in the economy and caps off

nearly 17 million jobs created in the Biden-Harris administration. We've never seen this happen before. To your point, we inherited a mess. Donald Trump and his administration left us with a pandemic, reeling, essentially bleeding jobs. And President Biden and Vice President Harris stepped in, came up with a plan, implemented that plan, and started creating jobs from day one in this administration. Just huge numbers, nearly a million new manufacturing jobs since the start of this administration. The lowest gap in unemployment between the white community and the African-American community. That's never happened before. So we're creating massive new jobs and we're doing it in ways that are going to last. These are good paying, family sustaining jobs. What we've seen over the course of the last year

is that incomes were up more than $4,000, more than the price of goods, more than inflation. So jobs are, the wages are actually outpacing the cost of living, the inflation. What we're also seeing is that we're reducing inflation on an ongoing basis. We've seen that average hourly earnings over the course of the administration, excuse me, over the course of the last year were 3.9 percent, nearly 4 percent. So you're seeing this constant uptick in economic performance. You're seeing jobs being created. And importantly, jobs being created in our community, in underserved communities, in communities that historically have not seen the type of lasting jobs that will sustain families. So it's been a great run.

And I expect that thanks to the investments that the president and vice president have championed, these jobs will continue to be created over the coming months and years. Look, we did a whole lot on this show trying to explain to people exactly the work the Biden-Harris administration was doing. But for the folk who were stuck on Stupid Island, can you just explain literally the work that was done every single day, the bills that were passed that put us in this position? I get people, I totally understand inflation. I understand the supply chain.

I mean, look, I mean, I'm looking over here at my other side of my studio and I want to get some furniture for that side. I went to the furniture store and I saw this nice chair. They mean, so but it doesn't snap back immediately. This was a daily grind and a daily battle to make sure that we didn't go into a recession and this economy had to be rebuilt. Roland, that is exactly right. Day one, we were reeling from a pandemic. Supply chains across the globe were shut down. People couldn't get access to the care that they needed. They couldn't get access to the goods that they needed. Frankly, all of us were worried that we were headed into the type of recession that actually would be more like a depression. The pundits all said that it was going to take many years, maybe even more than a decade for job recovery to happen.

But the president and vice president stepped in. We got the Recovery Act passed to staunch the bleeding, to get us to a place where we could make sure that people had the resources that they need to keep food on the table, to stay in their homes, to support the small businesses all across the country that were losing money. That was the start. And then they were able to pass the bipartisan infrastructure law. This is the first time this has been done in decades, investing in the long-term infrastructure that we need to make our economy go. So the roads and the bridges, the transportation systems, the things that make our ports work, our airports as well, these were necessary investments. We hadn't done this basically since the Eisenhower administration. And everyone talked

about it, including the previous administration, but President Biden and Vice President Harris were able to get it done. So you're seeing good jobs being created in every community across the country. So now that we've invested in our infrastructure, it was time to focus on those industries that are going to power our leadership for the next 20 to 30 years. So we passed the Chips and Science Act, focusing on making sure that we had semiconductors. The thing that no one really understood, we were the originators of the semiconductor. That's frankly why Silicon Valley is called what it is, is because that was where the idea of the semiconductors was first started. we lost that leadership. We weren't producing

more than 12% of the world's semiconductors. What that meant is that the goods that people used every day, like their cars, the appliances in their homes, their cell phones, they couldn't get anything new because we didn't have the chips. Our supply chains were shut down. We shouldn't be in a place where our communities, our businesses are being held hostage by other countries. President and the vice president knew about that. That's why they invested in it. And we're now investing tens of billions of dollars that will create hundreds of billions of dollars worth of economic growth and jobs all across our country so that we're

building the semiconductors going forward. We also passed the Inflation Reduction Act. It is going to change our economy for the better. It's creating jobs in a whole range of new technologies like clean energy, like biotech. These are the jobs that aren't just the jobs for PhDs, for the eggheads, as some would say. These are good paying, family sustaining jobs. I was just out west not too long ago. I was in Colorado where I met a company that was receiving funding. They're doing work in this thing, this industry called quantum technology. The thing that folks need to know is that quantum is going to power our computing industries for the future. But they're creating great jobs that you don't even need more than a high school degree to be able to work in the industry.

In fact, the majority of the jobs that are being created out there are actually going to people who don't have a college degree. I was just in New Mexico. We invested a few hundred million dollars in a company called Rocket Labs that's creating new semiconductors that are absolutely essential to our national security and our economic security. There's only three of these companies in the world, and this is the only company based in the United States. The thing that folks don't realize, didn't realize, is it's a majority-minority company. It's a minority owned company. So what that means is that we're creating good paying jobs that folks in our communities are going to be able to take. And it's ensuring that the United States has the technology and the leadership that we need

to power the future. So this is creating a new paradigm for American businesses, and it's going straight through the heart of our communities. Wages. Obviously, that was one of the issues as well. Actually, before I get to the wages, I want to go back to something again that I think it was driving me crazy for people who didn't get it, and that is this here. It's a fact. There were companies and industries that were taking advantage of this situation. Companies and industries that lost money during covid and they decided to price gouge. And that's that that that was happening. We know for a fact now that was a trial where egg companies were actually price fixing. You got the North Carolina attorney general right now targeting six landlords for

colluding when it comes to jacking up rent prices. And so when people were complaining about rent being too high, groceries being too high and inflation, there were people who were taking advantage of this to earn themselves millions and billions of dollars and that made it even more difficult to turn this economy around. So the wins that y'all were going up against, you were going up against price gouging, you were going up against supply chain, you were going up against. You were going up against price gouging. You were going up against supply chain.

You were going up against still dealing with COVID because that was a reality in 2021, 22 and still present day. And through all of that, four consecutive years, every single month of job growth. And even if you include, I don't know if you have the numbers, but even if you include I don't know if you have the numbers, but even if you include the bounce, the jobs, quote, lost from covid, you still had positive job growth, even with those bounce back jobs. That is that is exactly correct, Roland. The numbers are truly astounding. The type of job growth that you haven't seen in any previous administration. But to your point earlier, the price gouging was a real problem. It's something that the president and vice president were concerned about. They heard it every day that people were still having trouble, even as the economy was starting to come around.

People were still having trouble getting food on their table, being able to stay in their homes. And as a result, the president made sure that the Justice Department, that the Federal Trade Commission, that a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were using all of the tools at their disposal to prevent these companies from being able to stick it to the average consumer. So that's why they did things like go after the collusion that's going on amongst a number of our biggest apartment complex ownership groups. It's why they went after many of the companies within, especially the conglomerates within the agricultural sector. It's why they went after some of the grocery chains that had jacked up the prices that were preventing people from being able to afford to get cereal. So it was something that the president and vice president knew we needed to do. But they also used things like the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure that we were able to bring

down the price of pharmaceuticals, something that is allowing us to negotiate from the federal government to get those prices down, to cap the prices that people have to pay for things like hearing aids and insulin. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the

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

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

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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 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, 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 is. 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 iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast and to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content subscribe to lava for good plus on apple 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've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized

my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. It's something that I certainly am worried about going forward, that another administration isn't going to have that same care for the average consumer. You have to be able to make sure that you're targeting companies that are gouging the American public, hold them accountable, make sure that the average American has the ability to just, all they want is the chance to work hard and make a little bit of money, put some aside for the long term, take care of their

family, like their elderly parents, and get their kids off to school and learn and pay for college. And I should just say, that's something the president and the vice president were specifically focused on, making sure that we eliminated college debt for as many people as we could. Now, we know that folks in Congress and the other party were not pleased about this. Folks on the outside targeted this effort. But the president and vice president have helped millions of Americans eliminate their college debt. That means that people come to the workforce without that big debt hanging over their heads, without the constant pressure that, oh, I have to pay off these things so I can't take a risk. I can't start a business.

I can't buy a house. I can't start a family because I have this huge debt on my back. So these are the types of things that the president, the vice president have been focused on from day one. And we've delivered. Well, Don, listen, it's only a few more days, 10 days left. Y'all have done a fantastic job and it was not easy. And I just this last jobs report says it all. And I just think people need to understand the truth is the truth and people can have their feelings. And I get that how they feel about the economy. But the facts are the facts. And the twice impeach criminally convicted felon command in chief is inheriting, again, a great economy that was presented to him by Democrats.

No question about it. And Roland, it was so important for this administration to do it in an equitable way. I know this is something that you care about a lot, making sure that communities of color all across the country had the opportunity to succeed. What we know is that we've made huge progress in building pathways to opportunity for communities of color. It's why we were so pleased that the Minority Business Development Agency here at the Commerce Department under this president and vice president was made a permanent part of the federal government. It means that our businesses have the opportunity to succeed. What does that mean? This isn't necessarily about African-American communities, Latino communities, women businesses having opportunities above others. It means that, and the Kellogg Foundation

did a study on this, if we eliminated the barriers to the systemic racism in our system, the barriers to being able to create economic opportunity, our economy, the U.S. economy, which is about $29 trillion right now, it would increase by $8 trillion. That's not just black and brown communities. That's the entire community. It's the entire country would grow by $8 trillion. That's not chump change. That's real money. So it's why it's so important. Hopefully the incoming administration will build on the things that we've done and will not undo everything and undermine our economy, but they'll be able to take it to the next heights. But we'll have to wait and see what the next administration does on that.

All right. Don, we certainly appreciate you joining us. Thank you so very much. Roland, thank you. Good to be with you. Thanks a bunch. I want to bring in my panel right now. Joining us for today's show, of course, we've got Nola Haynes, of course, foreign policy expert, professor at Georgetown University. And she still claims she does great gumbo. But I've yet to discover that. What? I'm sorry. You thought things were going to change in 2025? Not 2025, but damn. What? I was supposed to wait until 2026? I'm sad. Can you let me be sad for five minutes, please? No, no.

What about the economy? No, we can't do it. All right. Matt Manning, a civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi, and also Michael M. Hotep hosts African History Network show out of Detroit. So here's the thing that's crazy. I can't find the tweet. I saw it earlier. somebody posted it was a graphic. They said it was it was it was two different stories.

It's one said. Biden leaves with the public, with a poll saying that the worst feelings about a president in, I don't know, 50 years. And then the next story said, leaves with the best economy we've had in a long time. Like, for the life of me, Nola, it is perplexing that you could, and maybe this is what happens when we have Americans who don't get news from overseas. When you talk about France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Russia, we can go on

on. The G20 countries, none of those countries have rebounded with the economy like the American economy has. And this notion that, oh, my God, it sucks, it's awful, it's terrible, it's all going to hell is just nuts to me. Yeah. You know, recently we were we were chatting about this very thing earlier. And so we are definitely in a time where facts do not matter. Not only do they not matter, like people actively seek non-facts. You know what I mean? Like this is something that is culturally happening that is really more of a problem than what's actually being done. And until we crack that code, until we figure out why the

sensationalism, why the Fox newsitization, you know, why that is so appealing and so attractive to people when it's not news, it's just entertainment. It's the opposite of facts, you know, and I'm trying to figure out as an academic, as a messenger, like, how do I how do I tell these stories? How do I tell these narratives in a way to draw people in that keep them interested? Because to be honest, though, I don't think it's an issue of being interesting. I'm being honest. I think he if so, let's just look at how this thing is set up. Fox News isn't just the number one cable news network. It literally is the number two or number three network out of all cable. So when you have an entire network that every day, every show, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful. Things are going to hell. Recession, recession, recession every single day.

Then you take conservative talk radio and same thing. Then you take conservative digital, same thing. Then you take a white mainstream media that's constantly pessimistic, that will send reporters to a gas station to do stand-ups on how high gas is, but don't send the same reporter when the gas is at a record low.

Then when you had, again, and I'll never forget, this point four years ago, Meta, Facebook, Amazon, Bezos, all these people, they were all preparing, Jamie Dimon, David Morgan Chase, they were all making cuts, recession's coming, recession's coming, recession Morgan Chase, they were all making cuts. Recession is coming. Recession is coming. Recession is coming. Recession is coming. And what did we hear?

In January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December 2021, recession is coming, recession is coming, recession is coming, recession is coming. January 2022 and the entire year recession is coming. It was it was this constant bombardment. And so naturally, if all I'm getting is it sucks, it's awful, it's terrible. Oh, my God, what's going on? We're going to lose it. Then that then causes people to go, man, this is awful. It's terrible. Oh, my God. What's going on? We're going to lose it. Then that then causes people to go, man, this is awful. This is terrible. And the opposite was happening. Yes, we were going through dealing with inflation.

But this shit could have been a lot worse. That's it. You cannot counter that when it's every day being beaten to people's heads and there were fewer places like this who were going what the hell are y'all talking about that is not reality it's a monopoly it's a monopoly of information and you know speak from the from an economic perspective we we can have outlets like this all day long. But if we aren't breaking through that monopoly, then what are we doing, right? I mean, is it that we have to be more creative and more innovative if we do not have control of the information ecosystem? How do we penetrate that information barrier? Because if we do not, the MAGA folks are going to be in power for a very long time. And I got to say, I'm very nervous about what's happening in California, that this is an opportune moment for them to slither in to power on the backs of tragedy.

You know, so I'm very concerned about this information monopoly, this information ecosystem that we cannot seem to break through. And we have got to figure this out. You know, Michael, folks always say they talk about, well, you know, perception becomes reality. And it was in the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris losing to that convicted criminal, that felon. People were, they were saying, well, you know, but we've got to understand and we've got to talk to people. I'm sorry. How can you, what more can you do when you say,

yes, to deal with the housing problem, here's my plan. He had none. To deal with inflation, we passed the Inflation Reduction Act. I saw a tweet, I'm trying to see if I can find it, where the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, crapped on and opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, but he's privately pushing the EPA to grant, to place, to approve. Here it is right here. Let me pull this up.

Because I saw this, and this is the BS that I'm talking about that's happening right here. This is from the Huffington Post. And so let's see here. Let me see if I got it. Here's the story. Okay.

Mike Johnson seeks money from Democratic bill he called legislative malpractice. He's trying to get them to approve an environmental justice grant for his district that's funded by the Inflation Reduction Act that he called, this lady did not practice. Yeah, this is typical. This is typical. So a few things, Roland, and I'm glad we're having this conversation. We need to start with the premise that Americans are stupid. They have a short memory. The majority of Americans are stupid, have a short memory. They don't understand how the economy works. They don't understand law, really don't understand politics.

And this is how they can be can be duped again by somebody like Donald Trump, who screwed up the economy the first time, who inherited an extremely healthy economy from Obama, Obama, Biden, who had created 11 million jobs, 75 consecutive straight months of private sector job growth, 4.7 percent unemployment rate when Trump comes into office. And Americans think Trump created the economy when he inherited a great economy, okay? This man, he's the one who screwed up the response to the coronavirus pandemic, COVID. He did not use the 68-page pandemic playbook that the Obama administration used. He has so much high turnover in his administration that a lot of the people in his administration didn't even know the playbook existed. When we look at the interview he did with Time magazine, okay, after he was named person of the year, in the interview he said, well, it's very hard to bring down the prices of

groceries. I don't—it's very hard to bring it down. Back and away from the lies he told on the campaign trail when he said, after I'm elected, they're going to come down very quickly. So Americans fall for this. So how do you address this? First of all, we have to specifically deal with Donald Trump. The reason why I think the 80-page written economic agenda that Vice President Kamala Harris had, which was brilliant.

The reason why it didn't resonate is because they didn't destroy and dismantle Donald Trump's image on the economy. And the way you destroy it and dismantle it is, one, you have campaign ads showing all the lines, the long lines that people were in trying to get food under the Trump administration. When the when when he had the government shut down, you have you have to jar the consciousness. But here's the problem, though, Michael. They literally didn't even blame him for anything during covid like it was as if it was as if people voted based upon 2017 2018 and 2019 and just acting like 2020 never happened and like the after effect of 2021 never happened just like oh that just didn't even exist you just

made my point and i'm about to come to the next point. Real quick, real quick, because I got to go to this burnt orange, Negro. Showing the hospitals overran with coronavirus patients being hospitalized, okay? And how it was the irresponsibility of the Trump administration who didn't lead on COVID-19, which caused governors like Gretchen Whitmer to have to take matters into their own hands and issue stay-at-home orders and shut down the government because of the incompetence coming from the Trump administration. So you have to show those images and remind people this was Trump's America and the sequel to the

horror movie is usually worse than the first installment of the horror movie. So Americans have a very short memory. So those are some things. That's how you deal with this. And you also have to have a rapid response to deal with disinformation. So let me, so Matt Mann is his deal. Again, all these people can say, oh my God, Biden was horrible and terrible. Facts are facts. No president has had the four years when it came to the when it came to the economy that he did.

You know what? And if folks can walk around saying, oh, my God, this is bad, horrible. Go right ahead. But, oh, it could, this is bad. Harbaugh, go right ahead. But oh, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Yeah. And I think, you know, Nola and Michael have hit the nail on the head. I think Nola was really going somewhere with something. I want to take the ball a little further down the field. It's not only that people don't know how to discern what are facts and opinions. It's we validated the idea that people are allowed to have alternative facts, right? Like we have objective facts, but people won't accept those objective facts and they adopt whatever confirms their biases, right? And that's the real problem

that we have is this idea that people can just overlook facts and choose their own facts. Let me give you a corollary to that. If you talk to somebody now who does not like the facts presented to them, they will tell you they've researched. What is that research almost inevitably? It's YouTube videos of people who have whatever position they have, right? And they will give you a litany of quote sources where it's somebody who's either a grifter or somebody who doesn't have expertise in that experience or in that position, just talking about whatever they think their position should be or whatever the economy is, irrespective of what the facts actually are. And the reason we have that issue is Michael's also right.

People are not intelligent. They don't read deeply, especially when it gets to complex issues. So one of the ways we have to dismantle that, to use Michael's terminology, is we have to just repudiate the idea that you can deviate from whatever an objective fact is. If we have a fact point that X number of jobs were created in this economy, then that is the fact. It's incontrovertible. Whether you like that fact or dislike that fact, you can have an opinion on it, but you can't have a different fact. And we as a society have allowed a conversation of alternative facts that makes it such that we're in bizarro world. That's why on this very show, we've talked about how the Atlantic ran an article that said the economy is great. Why do people think it's bad? And that's because they've adopted alternative facts that are really confirmation bias.

Also, Happy New Year, brother. We're going to get that dub tonight. Oh, y'all getting y'all ass whooped tonight. I'm just letting you know. So Ohio State about to whoop y'all ass. So just letting you know that. Also, happy Founders Day to Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated. 111 Founders Day.

That's crazy. January 9th. I need to get that in. Here we go Start early Like literally nobody talks about that day I am Switzerland Oh yes we do I need to get that in

Blue 5 Gold Mountain Y'all got like 25-30 thousand members or whatever Nice little group Nice little group Nice cute little group. Nice little group. So, nice cute little group. But, no. Let me just remind you, that's a real fraternity right there. Don't make me pull that down.

Don't make me pull that down. They're all real fraternities. No, that's one fraternity, the rest are youth groups. All right, y'all. I'm going to go to a quick break. See, you should have brought that shit up. See? Okay, same thing.

And Matt, you should have worn that big-ass, bright-ass Halloween jersey you got on right now. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You won't be wearing it tomorrow. All right, y'all. Got to go to a break. We come back.

Tulsa Race Ride. DOJ releases report about that. Oh, guess who is a convicted felon? It's now official. Oh, he big mad too. Whatever. And who a judge lights into Rudy Giuliani's ass. I'm here for all of the pettiness.

You're watching Rolling Mark down the filter on the Black Star Network. Now streaming on the Blackstar Network. about the music business. So what you should do is learn everything there is to know about the music business, and I'll make sure that you have the resources to push you through. And so I went and bought books, all you need to know about the music business, hit me in, I just went and bought a bunch of books, just start reading as a 10 year old, just read and read. And so I learned, you know, all things, licensing, mechanical rights, I learned about publishing,

learned about how composition is broke up into two pieces, the writer's portion and the producer's portion. But by the time I actually learned I came back, I was ready to like, okay, I got it. He was going to prison. So I had all this information. All this knowledge. All this knowledge.

You like what I'm gonna do with it now. How did he know? What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume community, through the jobs ad. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're talking about leveling up, or to put it another way, living your very best life. How to take a bold step forward

that'll rock your world. Leveling up is different for everybody. You know, I think we fall into this trap, which often gets us stuck because we're looking at someone else's level of journey, what level up means to them. For some, it might be a business venture. For some, it might be a relationship situation, but it's different for everybody. It's all a part of a balanced life. That's next on Blackstar Network. What's up, y'all? This is Wendell Haskins, a.k.a.

Winn Hogan at the original Chief Golf Classic. And you know I watch Roland Martin unfiltered. The Department of Justice has released a new report on the Tulsa Race Massacre more than 100 years after it took place. Unlike the department's first report issued in June 1921, the latest report asserted that the white mob's opportunistic violence became systematic and stem from racial bias. The report said Tulsa police deputized hundreds of white residents for the massacre and detained black residents in makeshift concentration camps. Christian Clark, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, announced the findings today before she headed to Tulsa. The Justice Department has issued a new report on the Tulsa Race Massacre. The 123-page report documents the findings made

during a review and evaluation of the massacre conducted under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act. The Tulsa Race Massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility, and its utter annihilation of a thriving black community. In 1921, white Tulsans murdered hundreds of residents of Greenwood, burned their homes and churches, looted their belongings, and locked the survivors in internment camps. Until this day, the Justice Department has not spoken publicly about the race massacre or officially accounted for the horrific events that transpired in Tulsa. This report breaks that silence.

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

and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

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

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor 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 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. Through a rigorous examination and a full accounting

of one of the darkest episodes of our nation's past. The report lays bare new information and shows that the massacre was the result not of uncontrolled mob violence, but of a coordinated military-style attack on Greenwood. Now, more than 100 years later, there is no living perpetrator for the Justice Department to prosecute. But the historical reckoning for the massacre continues. This report reflects our commitment to the pursuit of justice and truth, even in the face of insurmountable obstacles. We issue this report in recognition of the courageous survivors who continue to share their testimonies, in acknowledgment of those who tragically lost their lives, and with appreciation for other affected individuals and advocates who

collectively push us to never forget this tragic chapter of American history. Folks, the report does identify by name some of the alleged lead perpetrators of the massacre. These include Claude Yellowhammer Cranfield, a suspect in a previous lynching of a black man, and Tulsa Police Captain George Blaine, a hardware store owner accused of breaking in and dealing out arms. Matt, I want to go to you. Look, DOJ's scope here is limited. It's not like DOJ could say, oh, here you go. We can now award reparations. But at least having an official account of this is critically important. And hopefully, you've got a new mayor in Tulsa.

Hopefully, this will give the survivors and the Justice for Greenwood group, you know, more ammunition to pressure the city and the county, the city, the state of Oklahoma to do right by black folks in Tulsa. Yeah, I mean, I like the idea of there being recognition. I like the idea of there being a report. But I think it's more ornamental than it is substantive. And that's the sad reality with this kind of thing, because one, as you've already mentioned, what I was thinking when I was listening to the segment, the first part of this, is there's not going to be any reparations. And the fact is, Brother Simmons and his team with Justice for Greenwood brought one of the most brilliant lawsuits I have ever seen in framing this as an ongoing nuisance when you have survivors. You know, what's problematic about this is we have precedent in the law where state legislatures

and maybe the feds as well have found ways to change statutes of limitations, particularly in the sexual assault space, to allow survivors to bring claims long after their statute of limitations would have otherwise run. This is a prime example of that. What is really the substantive purpose of DOJ issuing a report if nobody can be held to account, including the government agencies that were involved in malfeasance and not investigating this or not otherwise holding someone accountable? I like the idea of a historical record, but that does nothing to move the ball forward, particularly when you still have people who are, you know, over 100 years old who were little children when this happened, who have had to live with that trauma all these years and have no meaningful way to seek recompense.

Until that happens, this to me is a pyrrhic victory. Well, obviously, I mean, it's not like, you know, NOLA's not like it was going to be able to do the things that folks wanted to do. But at least you have a federal account. And again, what I hope I hope it provides those folks who are fighting with something else to be able to use to push the city and to push the state? Because so far, even without this report, they said, I don't give a damn. Right. You know, I feel a lot of ways about this. I do. There's a part of me that's kind of sick and tired of symbolism, especially when it comes to us, especially when it comes to our history in this country.

And then as an educator, as an academic, I am incredibly worried about what is going to happen to facts, to stories and narratives like this. What is going to happen to Black history over the course of the next four years as education completely gets dismantled and reconstructed in a way that will push more alternative facts. So there's a part of me that sees this as a first step towards maybe another lawsuit that can be structured from this lawsuit that maybe can provide survivors with some sort of financial reparation? I don't know. But I am very worried about when it comes to the black community historically in this country, that consequences of people who have perpetrated horrible crimes against us hardly are ever held to account.

And secondly, I am very concerned about what's going to happen, not just to primary education, secondary education, but also higher education in this country, and how there seems to be a push to specifically hide Black history in this country because people don't want to reconcile with the reality. So I feel different ways about this, Roland. But so here's my whole deal here, Michael, how I look at it. One, you can't hide what's now in a document. Now, you could ignore it. But the reality is you have this official federal account. You know, going in in there are limitations.

You know that going in. But I would rather have this than not have it. It wasn't until 2018 that students in Oklahoma in the school books were taught what happened in Tulsa. It wasn't in their books for all for almost 100 years. And so is it symbolic? Sure, you can call it symbolic. I get that. But I still would rather have the Civil Rights Division do this report, issue the report, have it documented in folks hands. Then not to have it. Absolutely. And I think it's important to note a few things here. Number one, it was President Joe Biden who made June 1st a National Day of Remembrance. I think it was called for the Tulsa race massacre.

OK, number one. So we need to commemorate that every June 1st and teach the history. Number two is extremely important to have this documented also by the federal government. Now, something like this would never happen under the Trump administration. I just want people to understand that. Because these are facts that can also be incorporated into the school system in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but this needs to be taught in schools all across the country. When it comes to specifically Tulsa and trying to repair the damage as much as they can and give economic opportunities, business opportunities, things like that. They need to deal with that. There's a movement across the country dealing with municipal reparations. OK. And I did a presentation to the Detroit Reparations Task Force here in Detroit, March 2nd, 2024. And it deals with understanding what the local government

can do to provide opportunities to citizens that are there today to try to repair this damage. So whether it's business grants, whether it's expanding city contracts to, quote unquote, minority owned businesses, things of this nature. They need to explore all those options. OK. And one of the most important things that gets left out of this history. And I've done lectures on this history and I'm in a documentary about the Tulsa race massacre as well, is that these brothers and sisters rebuilt the Greenwood district after the race massacre with their own dollars. And they got help from the surrounding black townships because there are about 50 black townships in Oklahoma because of migration out there. It's one that even though it was horrible what happened, there's another success story because we rebuilt it. And that oftentimes gets left out of the conversation and how we teach this history. Again, the there's going to be a as a renewed push to demand accountability from the city of Tulsa, the state of Oklahoma. real let me be real clear I believe that we as African Americans should be forcing every city

every state and the federal government to have an official count of all of the massacres that impacted our people and if anyone calls them symbolic, I don't care because the history needs to be documented. And the problem that we've always had, this country has conveniently ignored it. And so if you have an administration that's not going to ignore it, then so be it. That's what needs to happen. It needs to happen. Every single massacre that took place. Folks, can we come back? We're going to talk about the devastating fires in Southern California, in Los Angeles, that have destroyed a number of areas, including an historic black community. We'll talk to folks who've lost their homes. There's also a GoFundMe for them as well. And we're going to talk about the orange one. Oh, I wish his

ass was in an orange jumpsuit. We're going to talk about what took place today at his sentencing. Also, Rudy Giuliani, breaking news, held in contempt for a second time. Man, please just throw that punk ass in jail. And Amazon costs up $40 million

for a documentary about Melania Trump. What the hell has she done? I'm also share with y'all some movies that had a smaller budget than what they give in plastic woman. Folks support roller Martin unfiltered the black star network by joining our bring a funk fan club. The goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each over the course of a year, which comes out to $4 and 19 cents a month,

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PayPal's R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo's RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. There's a lot of talk about the inevitability of another civil war in this country. But on our next show, we'll talk to a noted author and scholar

who says we're actually in the middle of one right now. In fact, Steve Phillips says the first one that started back in 1861, well, it never ended. People carrying the Confederate flag, wearing sweatshirts, saying MAGA Civil War, January 6, 2021, stormed the U.S. Capitol, hunted down the country's elected officials, built a gallows for the vice president of the United States, and blocked a peaceful transfer of power in this country. On the next Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. This is Reggie Roth-Faithulid. You're watching. Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable.

You hear me? Folks, the battle continues in the Los Angeles area to get control of the thousands and thousands of acres of land that have been that has been burned. And it's not just land, folks. The homes of so many people have been completely and utterly destroyed. Homes, businesses, you name it, whole neighborhoods, areas completely, completely destroyed. You see the devastation right here. We're talking about the life savings, the personal savings of people, people who have lived in these homes for 20, 30, 40, 50 years. A lot of the attention has been focused on celebrities, but there are a lot of regular, ordinary folk, working class folk who have lost their homes. Dozens of communities have been under a mandatory evacuation order in Southern California with evacuation warnings affecting dozens more as crews continue battling these blazes that have destroyed Pacific Palisades, Malibu and other areas.

Ten people have died in these fires. My next guest family has lost several homes. Danielle Gray joins us right now. And Danielle, certainly sorry for your Nola's cousin. We were talking last night. She reached out to me. Glad to have you here. And certainly sorry for your loss and those of your family members. You know, and it's just, you know, for people who don't understand. And again, I think a lot of folk out here and how you look at a lot of this news coverage, they focus on celebrities. But it's a lot of people who are not celebrities, who are not rich,

who didn't have five and six and seven, 20 and 30 million dollar homes, who now are trying to figure out where they go next. That's true. That's true. My parents worked really, really hard for everything that they had. And just like that, it's all gone. It's it's it's it burned down to the ground. It's all gone. When when did. First of all, where were you? Where were you? Where exactly were your parents home? Where was it? They lived in Altadena. So if a folks who don't know what Altadena is, what explain what Altadena is?

So Altadena is the foothills right above Pasadena, California. So it's that it's kind of like at the top of the mountain. And my parents lived on a private road where there were like 13 houses and um 11 of them are gone third 11 of the 13 are gone they're gone that's my parents home right there that's their home when did when did it all start um because this move extremely quickly. Well, it started. Their power was turned off at 2 p.m. Today's Friday on Wednesday. That's their home. Wow. Oh, my God. And so they turned the power off at two. And they said the fire was on the east of Pasadena,

Altadena, and that it wasn't coming their way. So that was at 2 p.m. So they were without communication from 2 p.m. all the way until the end. But at about 3 a.m. in the morning, they heard someone on a bullhorn saying, you need to get out and get out now. And when they woke up, they looked out the back door and the fire was in the backyard.

Wow. And that's the thing that I mean, you've got people out here, folk who ain't even from California, folk who don't even know anything about wildfires, who have no experience whatsoever when it comes to forest management, blaming the governor, blaming the mayor. Oh, my God, where's the water? And I was seeing other experts yesterday who said that you had 100 mile an hour winds. You had, and first of all, you said the power was cut off. So explain to people why the power was cut off. So explain to people why the power was cut off. Wasn't it because, because of the winds, they were afraid that the winds

were going to snap the power lines and that was going to spark fires. Absolutely. That is correct. So the winds were very extreme and they were, they were ferocious and they were, um, it was very windy up there. When I spoke to my parents, It was super windy. And so they were, you know, they were battling that situation. And then so so that's why they initially cut the power off. Yeah, I'm just and at the end of the day, when that fire hit at 3 a.m. and it was in their backyard, it moved very quickly. It took the entire street almost out. I mean, were they able to I mean, obviously, were they able to grab anything to try to salvage anything?

Nothing. Wow. We had the clothes on their back, the shoes on their feet. And that's the only thing they were able to take. They were able to take their IDs. And that's it. I mean, everything else is. How long have they lived there? Fifty years. Fifty years. Fifty years. We'll bring Nola in here. Nola, one of the things that you said to me last night was this is like going through Hurricane Katrina all over again. Yeah. It's I get chills like every time I think about it, because it's the exact same situation in Katrina. You had to get out quickly and you weren't able to take anything with you.

And my aunt and uncle's home is where a lot of our family evacuated to, including our grandmother. This is where this was our stability. This was our safety. California, you know, El Tadena, Redondo Beach, like, you know, where we had set up where we were all living in Hollywood. And yesterday, the past few days, all that was upended. And in one lifetime, our family has seen Katrina. And now this, where we brought the few memories, you know, that, that people were able to salvage for Katrina, you know, the photos or whatever. Like you should see us sharing the same photos because so many of our memories are gone. It's it's it's complete devastation.

Danielle, there's a lot of blame happening. And I was at someone, a friend of mine who's from California. We were in a group chat and the question was asked, I don't understand how the homes in Malibu, which are on the beach. How did they burn and water was in use in the ocean? My response was you can't send planes up with 100 mile an hour winds. It's the equivalent of a hurricane. And I think that's just one of the things that like when you start talking, when you start in a very calm way, trying to walk people through to explain to them what a natural disaster is. It's like, yo, you can run around trying to blame folk,

but you've had in that area eight months of virtually no rain, extremely dry. And a lot of experts have said that this catastrophe was waiting to happen, that firefighters always feared that when the winds went above 50, 60, 70 miles an hour, there was nothing that they could do. Had your parents dealt with fires in the past? Yes, absolutely. We've dealt with many fires in the past and, you know, nothing like this. It has not affected us in a way to where we actually had to evacuate and get out and get out so quickly and and what was so different for again for people who who who aren't there what was so different about this time than in previous times? Well, I would have to say that, you know,

the fact that they were not able to get the resources that they needed because of the winds. They couldn't get the helicopters up there. I'm not sure what happened on the ground level because there was no water. When we went up to our house on Wednesday afternoon, it was still on fire. We drove through Altadena, my community. So many houses were still actively burning and there was no water. There was no the fire department was not present. So I'm not sure why on the ground level, once the winds did stop, why they didn't take place. I'm not sure why it didn't happen.

Well, as I look at several things, first of all, you have officials talking about how they are making progress in getting these fires under control. You also have some smaller fires that have broken out, and officials have actually said that more than likely that's arson. So even in a time like this, you've got yahoos who do stupid stuff who actually contribute to this. And I saw another piece that said, I think it was,

I think Manhattan is something, I forgot, the story was like in Manhattan is 11 or 12,000 acres, and they said, in this case, the acreage that has been, that fire has consumed is upwards of 17,000. So they said, so imagine if all of Manhattan and a few more thousand acres were completely burned. That's how massive this is.

Absolutely. My aunt's house is on Pine Avenue in Altadena, California, in the entire block. Her entire block is burned down. There's blocks and blocks where both sides of the street is completely burned down to the ground my junior high school is burned down to the ground all of the stores all of it is it looks like a war zone it looks like we were bombed Matt the thing that has really been getting on my nerves and it really has been a lot of these idiot media people out here running their mouths. One of the blame, one of the blasts. I mean, I mean, look at this, y'all.

This video here, they are literally driving through fire like like you watch movies. You watch movies. Excuse me. You watch movies and you see that this ain't a movie. This this is absolutely real life. And the thing that's really been, again, getting on my nerves are the folks who are yelling and screaming. You had first false reports saying the fire department budget was cut. You've had people who saying, well, water tanks were empty. But here's one of the other things is that, uh, and Daniel, correct me if I'm wrong. Normally wildfires start June to July and go through October.

Um, they aren't, y'all aren't used to dealing with wildfires in January. That is correct, right? So, and normally around this time, we've had some rain, a little bit at least, in California and Florida. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business,

taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

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

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I assume that that would contribute to some of the, you know, the way that the fire spread. I mean, it spread quickly. I mean, very quickly. Like, it just, I don't know. Like, there was, it seems like it became an accelerant to the fire. I'm not sure. It's just, it's crazy. Matt, this was today's Los Angeles Times.

Everything is burned down. It said over 6,000 structures lost in devastating firestorm. That number has now gone up to 9,000. But it is really getting on my nerves, Matt. Listen to these people yell and scream and trying to place blame. You've got people like, oh, it's the Democrats fault. Well, the Republicans didn't pass this here. It's a natural damn disaster. And for the people who keep yelling, you cannot send planes and helicopters up when winds are blowing 100 miles an hour. You can't. And when you're talking about thousands of acres, water hoses are limited. You literally need to have blanket drops from the air when you're talking several thousand acres. Go ahead, man.

Well, first, I want to express the utmost sympathy to you and your family, Danielle. I'll keep you in my thoughts and my prayers and God willing, you find some kind of peace as soon as possible as you start to rebuild. But, yeah, Roland, you know, people are going to say things because they want to say something. Right. Because this is a topic to understandably. And, you know, we've talked about it. People have alternative facts. There's also no bottom these days. There's just no standard of decency where you don't speak on things that aren't true and you don't do anything beyond provide a kind word in a horribly tragic situation like this. One thing that I wanted to mention, though, is in reading one of the articles about this, I saw that Southern California Edison filed kind of a preliminary report that they may have a

belief that some of their equipment may have contributed to this. And one of the things that I'm really interested in seeing that I hope the state of California or maybe even the feds find a way to get involved is that if that company is involved or there are companies involved, I hope that they are able to hold them accountable because a lot of times public utilities have very, very strong immunities. I actually had a case where a person's house was burned down, an electric utility was involved, and it was very hard for us to hold them accountable because they have so many protections. So I say that to say if this is something beyond truly just an act of God, if you will, I'm hoping that those people are held accountable. Those companies are held accountable, particularly because I read that a great number of people there lost

insurance coverage right before this. And insurance companies are already going to do everything they can to not pay meritorious claims, let alone claims where there are questions about coverage. So this is going to be a tragic situation all around. But hopefully, if Southern California, Edison or other companies are actually partly to blame for this, the California legislature will find a way to let people hold them accountable. To the point that Matt just raised here, Michael, go to my iPad. This is The Washington Post. Dozens of homes in the Altadena area, including some near Eaton Canyon,

still had power when the Eaton fire sparked near a large transmission tower and distributed pole around 615 Tuesday. The fact that electricity was moving along transmission lines between Eaton Canyon's hillside

and nearby homes at a time of high wildfire risk raises safety concerns. According to two experts interviewed Thursday, it has become routine for utilities in California to shut off power during red flag events when weather conditions pose the risk of winds downing electrical lines that could ignite vegetation. And again, those Santa Ana winds came roaring in. And look, I've seen some video that looked like a hurricane that I've actually lived through. And so this is why I would really like a bunch of people with platforms to just shut the hell up and stop trying to find somebody to blame when right now they are trying to put out fires trying to recover body people are trying to find places to live they only have the clothes on their back uh and so it's just i wish some people just shut up especially a lot

of media people just shut up michael go ahead michael you're on mute no i'm not go ahead not yet hear me now go okay okay a lot of uh a lot of media people a lot of disinformation agents a lot of people blaming dei for this like scott jennings on cnn and CNN and Representative Jasmine Crockett had to chin check him on that a couple of nights ago. So, yeah, you have all this taking place. You have Donald Trump calling for Governor Newsom to resign. And the traitor in chief and 34-time convicted felon is not providing any comfort or empathy for the victims either. And at the same time, you know, I'm really concerned about these reports about insurance

companies canceling fire insurance policies for victims there in California as well. So this is a huge catastrophe. And what I'm hearing from a lot of experts is that a contributing factor to this is climate change. Okay. And then you have those that deny climate change is happening. So first and foremost, you have to put out the fires, help the victims, things of this nature. My condolences to you, Danielle, and your family. This is a huge tragedy. And then we have to find out how this happened, how to keep it from happening again. But one of the things that I'm wondering is, with insurance companies canceling these policies, is it possible in the future that we can have some type of government type fire insurance?

Just like you have the Affordable Health Care Act in government sponsored health care plans. Is that possible to have government sponsored fire insurance for homeowners? Right. Well, that's obviously up to the policymakers there. This is there was a news conference today, and this is what President Joe Biden had to say about the role the federal government is going to play with paying for a number of things regarding this wildfire. Listen right now. This morning, due to the magnitude of the disaster, I was talking with the governor. He requested if I could increase the federal funding that was authorized under this legislation from 75% to 90%. We're increasing it to 100% of all the costs to be covered by the federal government for both the fire management assistance

grants and the elements of what they call disaster declaration. So today, I'm announcing that the federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost for 180 days. This is going to pay for things like debris and hazard material removal, temporary shelters, first responders salaries, and all necessary measures to protect life and property. And folks, I want to underscore, I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense to do what they need to do and contain these fires and... Because, of course, there's the inauguration in 10 days and you have the twice impeached, criminally convicted felon who is going to be coming to the Oval Office.

And he has a history of having disdain for Democrats in California. So this is to protect the state, to ensure they get those funds. I want to bring in another California family seeking help. The Jones family, Adonis, Denise and Rochelle. They're from Alta Dina. Their home has been in the family for generations. Denise's mother bought it as a young woman. Adonis, Coach A.D., is a well-known former football star in the Pasadena-Alta Dina area who played for Pasadena High School and Pasadena City College. He went pro but suffered injuries. A popular youth football

coach in the community for decades. They also have started a GoFundMe to help them start over. Coach AD, Denise, and their daughter, Rochelle, join us now. Glad to have you on the show again. Our condolences for what you're having to deal with and go through there and so many other families. As I asked Danielle, when did this begin? When did you first were alerted that there were dangers regarding these fires? What day, what time? Tuesday night, approximately 1030 when we were told to evacuate so what was so there's been a lot of there's been

a lot of people have been criticizing mayor karen bass for being in ghana for the inauguration and people were saying well there were alerts before that so let me go back to saturday to Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Were y'all seeing or feeling anything Saturday, Sunday, Monday that gave you an indication that, oh, there might be some trouble happening on Tuesday? No. Nothing that I can remember, no. So the conditions Saturday, Sunday, Monday

were just what normal conditions in southern california normal yeah everyday regular conditions and then all of a sudden tuesday comes and in the daytime tuesday was it slightly windy was it what like like so when did all of a sudden things begin to just change? Right. Like Tuesday, early Tuesday morning, we had the winds were picking up kind of heavy, real heavy. Then, like with the newscast, it said it might be fire involved. But, you know, we done heard about fire before. Yes, I mean, this is, like,

I've seen the reports, they're like, look, there have been fires and you've had winds at 40 and 50 miles an hour. Can you remember a time of Santa Ana winds 100 plus miles an hour gusting that hard and heavy? Not in my lifetime.

No. Not that I can think of, no. Nothing that heavy. So from a wind standpoint, y'all had never experienced anything like this. Plus, something I asked Danielle about,

normally y'all are dealing with wildfires in June and June, July through October. So all of a sudden you're dealing with winds that you've never dealt with before and a month, six months earlier than you normally deal with. And so for the average person, you're simply you're not expecting this to happen in january now we went from actually like you said in january we should be wearing a nice winter jacket you know and uh the wind part and it even tried to sprinkle a little bit as well that morning but it was still warm warning of the fire and we just got bombarded with like all three that day you know that's the part that was real spooky plus a power outage so all of these things moving, just frankly, converging.

Y'all got the notice that night to evacuate. What were you able, were you able to grab anything or was it literally get out now? Well, we kind of, we knew the fire was happening. And because of where we live, we're at the base of the foothill so I kind of told him let's start gathering some things just in case so we were able to get some paperwork a few clothes and that was really about it well after she said that and then within a half hour uh it turned into no like now i'm like you know let's go now and she did mention they haven't said anything to us yet but when i went up to the street the way our house is sitting down you couldn't actually see the fire over the mountain so i walked to the street and then that's when I seen the red sky.

And I just told her, we kind of got into it. I said, we're out of here right now. I didn't wait until no patrol car came or nobody knocked on the door. Neighbors were in the street, you know, discussing this matter about what time should they pull out. And that's what we ended up doing with this time to take off. This here is a video that gives people an indication of what those winds were like on that night. And pull the audio up, guys.

That is, I mean, that shows right there um just how fierce those winds were and how they were moving right yes and hurricane speed um it was just crazy and listen i listen i i'm from houston uh i've lived through multiple hurricanes uh hurricane alicia uh the eye and the tail came over our home uh in Clinton Park community in Houston. I know what hurricane winds are. And when you're talking about gusts anywhere from 100 to 120 miles an hour, that's what I'm trying to explain to people. You could not send up helicopters and planes to douse the land.

No, no no no way no i mean it was to the the way it went like you said you could not so the best thing to do was to vacate and just really uh pray to god and cross your fingers that your structure will still be standing in a day or two you know that's the way it went um like she said we just grabbed a few things started was this going to be a day or two. That's the way it went. Like she said, we just grabbed a few things, thought it was just going to be a day or so. Ended up with three pair of socks, one pair of shoes, and

a jacket. I'm going to ask Danielle. I'm going to come back to y'all. Danielle, I pose this to my panel. The blame game. The folks who will say, oh, Mayor Bass, how dare who have said oh mayor bass how dare you governor newsom how dare you oh democrats y'all made this happen uh uh california insurance regulators well the insurance industry had to make money and so y'all put them in a difficult position um are people Are people having those conversations or are folk like you and your parents and the Jones really want other people to say, shut the hell up?

We're the victims and y'all are just talking. Yeah, people are having those conversations and they are blaming a lot of people. Excuse me. It's still really smoky, but they are having those conversations. And for us, we're just we just want to rebuild. We just we're trying to just get back to some sense of normalcy. And to see everything just go down like that. It is, you couldn't imagine. I mean, you know, you see the videos, but to actually go there and see your house, our house was still on fire when we got there to, to, to see it. My dad actually passed out and, um, he ended up getting burned. He ended up cutting his hand in two different places because he was just he couldn't believe the devastation that he saw so you know no matter what happened however it happened

at the end of the day our community is burned down to the ground and and and and that's the bottom line and and for the Jones family again this is the people, again, for people who are outside, who have no idea what the hell they're talking about. Altadena is its own city, correct? Yes. Pasadena is its own city. Exactly. Santa Monica is its own city, right? Yes.

Malibu. Is Malibu its own city or are they part of Los Angeles? No, that's their own city. They're not a part of our family. But all of these people, again, who are pontificating don't even understand that you're talking about literally municipalities that are individual municipalities. So it's not like this is all Los Angeles and all of that. And so that to me also, again, is also why I wish folks would

just shut up. Jones family, what do y'all make again of the blame game that you're seeing play out on mainstream media and a bunch of other people who are yapping on YouTube and other platforms? Well,

you know that the yapping and that kind of stuff and like the lady said um just now with her watching the place burn uh we're so much of a tight community right there out to dina uh the yappers until you actually go through this yourself i I think, you know, you need to be quiet because there's a lot of hurt families. We have lost people to death for this fire, the tragedy, heart attacks, uh, strokes,

whatever, you know, if you didn't move fast, then you could, you might not be here today. So it was a training that we went through on the run, you know, and you,

you can't practice this. now sitting in the waiting game of what so-and-so want to give you in this and applying for all these different loans and uh getting stuff out of people's closet to cover your back then i think you need to just really like pipe down um i'm gonna ask the jones family this and then danielle's this for the jones family was this the first time y'all had to flee your home as home as a result of wildfires? Now, it's the first time that I that I fled that I when I came back, there was no home. But no, it's not the first time that I have had to evacuate. Gotcha. So you've had to deal with that before. Danielle, same for your family. My parents, there was one fire where we needed to evacuate, but my father declined to do so. We all left, but he did not. And fortunately for us at that particular moment

during that fire, and there were winds that, too, now that I think about it. He stayed, though, and the house was fine. And so this time when they were told to get out now, he figured we'll come back tomorrow or in a couple of days and we'll still have a house like we, you know, like all the other times. But this time, no, it's gone. Nola, give our audience this, the perspective of the historical perspective of Altadena and African-Americans. So first of all, my heart goes out to the Jones family and to my cousin, I love you.

Our family's been through a lot and we will get through this too. You know, El Tadena, so, you know, a lot of people talk about Pasadena and when they talk about Pasadena, they're typically talking about the Rose Parade. I went to high school in Pasadena, so I spent a lot of time and a lot of years there. In many ways, I guess the second part of my life, I grew up there. And Altadena always had this pride of place within a Black community because it was... A lot of times, the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

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

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Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. There's always this affluent black area, but not the type of affluency that necessarily comes from everybody in the entertainment industry. You know, another huge misconception about everybody who may have property in California, that somehow you have to be adjacent to the entertainment industry. We're talking about families that work those good old 30 year jobs, you know, those good old government jobs. You know, my uncle Roland, my cousin's dad, you know, he got a great name. He got a great name. Oh, anyway, Roland, anyway. The other uncle Roland,

he bought that plot of land and poured his heart and time and soul into it you know and the beautiful backyard that you saw that's a culmination of decades of love time and energy and you roll through El Tanina as a black person and there's this sense of pride that you feel because you know all these black people own these beautiful homes and they pass them down generation after generation. And I cannot help but to think about the similarity in New Orleans East when Hurricane Katrina happened. That was another affluent black area that is just gone. And so the things that I'm concerned about, what I saw that happened during Hurricane Katrina. First of all, there are going to be insurance issues are going to be loopholes.

You know, did you have this type of insurance? I mean, there was a family in Katrina that the insurance companies contested. They didn't have insurance to cover the second floor of their home, flood insurance. So there's going to be all this stuff you're going to have to deal with. And then there's going to be people seeing opportunity, wanting to come in and buy land from people cheaply because they're vulnerable and they're desperate and they're hurting. So you're going to see that. And then, unfortunately, you're going to see a community that's going to try and come back together. And I hope and pray that Altadena is able to do that. But what I've seen is that it is nearly

impossible to bring back that specialness and that uniqueness in a natural disaster situation like this. And then another point that I want to make about Altadena, I really hope and pray that the seniors, that the elders were able to evacuate. People don't understand about the aging population in Altadena, because like I said, these homes have, these are generational homes. You know, these are people that, you know, work for the post office and stuff like that. We are talking about seniors and elders in Altadena. And maybe some of them did not get out. I don't know. Well, actually, that was one of the stories that I was just reading, that that's what a lot of the firefighters fear. They said as they get these under control, the death toll right now is 10. And they fear that that is going to go up dramatically

because of people who didn't leave their homes. I remember there was a video we posted that two guys were in their home and literally it was fire on all four sides and they were still in it uh and a lot of people uh unfortunately may have thought um may have unfortunately may have thought like what danielle said uh her father did uh the previous time by saying you know i'll ride it out and again i i know what that's like when you have family members who say, I'm going to ride a hurricane out. And you're like, you know, my daddy did it. Katrina, he got out the last minute and had to go to Xavier and was locked in Xavier for two days and had to swim out. I understand. Absolutely. I'll start with Danielle. Danielle, what's obviously it's all about rebuilding, but what's next? What do you for your parents and others? What do they do now?

That's a good question, Roland. We've been trying to figure it out day by day. We've been doing everything that we can do. We've been following the claims. You know, unfortunately, these insurance companies, you know, they are not, you know, doing the best that they can do. And they did cancel a lot of people in Altadena, you know, they were planning to cancel my parents next month. Or where they were up for renewal, and they were saying they didn't think that they were going to renew the policy, you know, so

the insurance is going to be an issue for a lot of people. Unfortunately for my parents, it's not going to be an issue, but they are still trying to, you know, lowball my parents, you know, they're not trying to give the proper value. So that's a fight that we're going to have to fight. And I just hope that other residents in our community will stand firm and stand tall and fight and fight to the end and get what they actually deserve you know they they worked hard for it and so um I just pray that they don't walk away and they don't give in and that we you know as hard as it may be we rebuild so that we can continue to be there. And, you know, Altadena is a great place

to be. And I want to see Altadena come back to life. And I just hope that everyone has the wheelhouse and has the will just to stay and fight and just rebuild and just stay in our community and build it back up. Jones family, where are you now? What's next for you? Rebuild. We're going to. I have been in contact with numerous of families, homeowners or whatever. So we may say, and we have been chatting about staying strong, like she said, sticking around. We're not going nowhere, and we're ready for the fight

as far as insurance purposes, you know, if they want a low ball or whatever. Our guns are loaded, and we're ready to go. Pull up the GoFundMe for the Jones family, please. They have posted this. If you go to YouTube, it says Help Adonis, Coach AD, and Denise Jones Rebuild After the Fire.

And so if you go to GoFundMe, you'll actually see that there. Also, a couple of major black law firms, Attorney James Bryant, Rodney Diggs, Brian Dunn, Rod Davis, along with activist Jasmine Koenig. They also have a GoFundMe called L.A. Fires. The impacted black community urgently needs help. And so that is it right here. They have a targeted goal of fifty five thousand ninety five hundred has been raised. I don't. And so the amount for the Jones family, I don't have that one up.

So, y'all folks, please do what you can to assist this family, to assist these families. Danielle, do y'all have a specific one? or what is uh what is yours um evany has it nola has it just give me just give it give me the name so i can search it then pull it up oh it's christian's c so christian is c-r-i-s-t-i-. apostrophe S. And then it says Kristen's grandparents. All right. Let's see if we can pull that up. Control room, if y'all have it as well, go ahead and pull it up. Let me know. C.R.I.S-T-I-N-E apostrophe S

Huh? C-R-I-S-T-I-N-E Oh Tristan got it alright Tristan's grandparents so guys if y'all could pull that up but again we want our audience to assist

again this is a huge moment that people need. And so this is the time for our folks to step up as well. So we'll share all three of those GoFundMes on all of our social media accounts. And control room, if y'all can pull up that Tristan one. Guys, go ahead and let me know. So again, let me thank the Jones family. Let me thank Danielle. We are thankful that all of your family members are safe,

that y'all are healthy. And so, of course, no one wants to lose their belongings in a home. But as you said, Coach, homes can be rebuilt. Lives cannot be restored once they are over. So, again, thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.

Love you, Danielle. Thank you. Love you, too. This is, and so, again, for our folks who are watching, it is very easy. So go ahead and pull up that third GoFundMe again, says support Kristen's grandparents, rebuild their home. And so you see that GoFundMe as well. So what we're going to do is we're going to do screenshots of all three of those. Put the links on all of our social media accounts for folks to be able to assist. And so again, I just really hope in moments like this, there are a lot of people out there who are pontificating, who are running their mouths, who are whining, who are complaining and

who are, you know, calling folks out. There is absolutely time for all of that later. But right now, this is about saving lives. This is about saving homes. And we're not talking about just buildings. We're talking about people's literally life savings. Imagine every person who's watching right now. Imagine if your home and everything in your life went up in smoke. As a matter of fact, I saw this, you know, the Jones family were able to get out. They said they drove

away. I saw this one video of a sister. She got back. House was gone. Car was gone. Everything. She had no mode of transportation. There are people who weren't even in the city who were gone. And also to people, don't get caught up. And listen, whether you are a working class person or whether you're a celebrity, whether you had a house in Altadena or you had a house on Malibu Beach, gone is gone. And so, look, I saw a photo of a billionaire's house who was gone. And so whether

you're a billionaire or whether you are a thousandaire, last thing you want is to go through this type of devastation. So I just need people to keep that in mind when folk are running their miles right now. Let me go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about a couple of criminal cases, both involving an orange man who should be in a orange jumpsuit. You're watching Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Coming soon to the Black Star Network. Well, y'all, when you're on that stage or when you're and you're seeing two and three or four generations in the audience, that's got that's got to speak to you about the power of what y'all have become.

Oh, most definitely. I think we were doing our show before our break. And remember, I was watching this kid. I could not take my eyes off him because he was about nine or so. He was sitting in the front row with his parents. Over on the right-hand side. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I was amazed that this kid knew everything.

And I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all. We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him, you know, at the end of the show and stuff. Because it was just that amazing. It was like, this is crazy. You know, the music travels everywhere. You know, like what Phillip was saying,

seeing this young kid. Then you see, hear our songs on commercials, cold commercials. Then you have the younger ones that see and hear our music in animation. I'm Russell L. Honore, Lieutenant General of the United States Army, retired, and you're watching Roland Martin on Filth.

Well, folks, today was a day that the orange one learned his sentence in a New York City courtroom. He tried everything to get out of it with the Supreme Court. They were like, nah, bro, in a five to four vote, you got to exhaust all of your appeals. And of course, what did he do? He went there and complained, talked about all the votes that he got and went state by state, just constantly just ran his mouth, ran his mouth, ran his mouth. And then eventually he got sentenced to an unconditional discharge. That means that the orange man will get no prison time or probation as he prepares to enter the Oval Office on January 20th. A jury convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

That's right. He wasn't in office. Of course, he didn't physically attend the sentencing. He appeared via a remote video feed from South Florida. After the 30-minute hearing, Judge Juan Marchand released Trump without any ongoing conditions, wishing him Godspeed in his second term in the Oval Office. And so, Matt, here's the deal. He is. And, you know, I saw Alan Dershowitz on with Nutcase right winger Charlie Kirk by saying this is an innocent man who's appealing. No, he's a convicted felon. And Matt, when you hear these people say that, oh, this is weak, this is nothing more than a misdemeanor. This is all trumped up. No one else would have gotten this if they weren't Donald

Trump. I had to remind people the Trump DOJ convicted and sent Michael Cohen to federal prison for the exact same crime. So it's like, I'm sorry. So it was good enough for Cohen, but not good enough for Trump. Just your thoughts on all of this. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Cohen go to prison for lying? I mean, I don't know that it was the same. No, no, no. He actually. No, no. Go ahead. I'm going to actually pull up the DOJ press release. And maybe I'm misremembering, but I I think that one, these are felonies. And obviously he could have and should have given him some kind of punishment, because here's the reality of this. This is frankly, to me, this actually undermines Mershon's position.

The idea that we're going to, you know, not erase a jury's verdict by giving him an unconditional discharge. Right. Giving him the felony designation, but absolutely no punishment whatsoever. And yes, I understand that the office of the president is a unique position, really, as compared to anywhere else in the world, the head of government of the United States of America. However, if a jury found him guilty, to not give him any punishment doesn't accomplish anything beyond putting the scarlet letter F on his forehead, which will not meaningfully affect anything. So, I mean, I kind of wish Rashawn would have just capitulated and not done anything at all, because in some way this is even worse. If you ask me, oh, we're going to label you a felon, but there's no meaningful punishment specifically and particularly because this

happened before he was the president. So all this immune talk, all of that stuff is really asinine because this jury sat in judgment long before he was reelected. And there has been ample time for there to be some kind of meaningful punishment. Like, as I've said on the show, you know, it's not plausible to have him checking in with a probation officer in Manhattan or doing something that other people might do if they were to get some kind of punishment. I mean, there are just some practical realities that are not possible in this case. But jail time, even a week of jail or a fine.

I mean, if you don't want to give him a jail time, giving him a fine. Right. He was a self-professed billionaire would be some pound of flesh, if you will. But this is nothing. This is just a piece of paper, and it's a pyrrhic victory, and it's looking like you're not capitulating to the political winds telling you not to sentence him, and then not doing anything at all. I don't see this as a victory. Here is the press release on August 21, 2018. Michael Cohen pled guilty to

in Manhattan federal court to eight counts, including criminal tax evasion and campaign finance violations, more than $4 million in unreported income and $280,000 in unlawful campaign contributions. And it says here, and the $280,000 payments was to be made to silence two women who otherwise planned to speak publicly about their alleged affairs

with a presidential candidate. That is Stormy Daniels is one of those two women. So yeah, the Trump Department of Justice, Michael, sent Michael Cohen to prison. For covering for violating campaign laws on behalf of Donald Trump and folk are mad that Donald Trump gets convicted in a state court for the same thing when he was the one behind it all.

Which goes back to our first segment when I said Americans are stupid and they have a very short memory. Now, I was the one when I was on 9, 10 a.m. WFDF here in Detroit. I was the one that broke this story when the story first came out about Stormy Daniels making these allegations. OK. And I know some people want to call Stormy Daniels a hussy. But if it wasn't for Stormy Daniels, we wouldn't have this conviction. She actually helped bring Donald Trump down. Michael Cohen also, after Michael Cohen went to prison and right before he went to prison, he testified in Congress and said, if you if you keep defending Donald Trump, if you keep working on behalf of Donald Trump, you're going to end up just like me. OK, he said that before he went to prison. But it's also important to note, even though the initial infraction, which was the initial

payments that Michael Cohen made to Stormy Downs, the $130,000 he took out the line of credit that happened before the 2016 election, Donald Trump was sitting in the White House writing payments to Michael Cohen to pay him back. And that was the falsification of business records. So you have the initial infraction, which was before the 2016 election. And then you have Donald Trump actually in office writing checks to Michael Cohen to pay him back, overpaying him and disguising it as legal fees when it was really paying back the hush money. OK, so it's important for people to understand that. Now, I agree with Matt. I think Judge Juan Marchand, who handled this overall, I think, pretty well, I think there should have been a fine. There could have been a fine. This is a class E felony, lowest level felony in the state of New York. It could have been a fine of

up to $5,000 for each count. I think there should have been some type of fine to send a message to Donald Trump, who is still defiant today and show no remorse whatsoever, just like that other punk ass bitch, Rudy Giuliani, that you about to talk about as well, to show him, look, you're not above the law. There's still consequences. So I think this should have been a fine. But hey, this is the only conviction. And we have to, Alan Bragg, I take my hat off to Alan Bragg. A lot of people think that thought that this wasn't going to work. You should go with another case first, things like this. They they have to they can't decide on a conference call. Hey, who should go with the first case? No, the statute of limitations was running out on this case and he had to make a decision. Do we go with it or don't go with it? He made the

right decision. You know, Noah, to Matt's point, to Matt's point about, I mean, given nothing, no, no real sentence. It actually aids all of these right wingers who are like, well, this was all a waste of time if nothing was going to actually happen. And so, yeah. And I think what happened, I think what happened here was and this is the problem that I have. You don't get immunity until you're the president. Not elect, not before, not when you're out. And so I just think this was total capitulation. And there should have been something. But I still stand by the fact his punk ass should have been indicted.

He should have been prosecuted. He should have been convicted. And all these people who are now mad and that I love all these people like, oh, oh, actually, he can he can. He says a good chance of getting thrown out, whatever. OK, good luck with that. But the bottom line is he did it and we know he did it. Yeah. You know, in the broader sense, it's another dent in democracy, right? It's another dent in the democratic system in that it really does feel like this one person can get away with any and all things when everyone else around him seems to pay the consequences. But when you kind of invert the triangle a little bit, it also further dents the reputation of the criminal justice institution. You know, it's already struggling, you know, not to mention the fading reputation of the

Supreme Court. And now you have this. It makes the criminal justice system seem toothless and you're right. It does give the right more fodder. Um, there, you know, it, it makes, it makes Trump seem even more invincible, which makes them buy into the narrative and the myth of him being invincible. And it also, you know, it, know, it sets a bad precedent. And I'm, you know, from day one, you know, we've had conversations, Roland, going all the way back to the national security case regarding the documents.

That's a situation that I am still reeling over. You know, this is a—that's a very serious situation, and this person is going to be the president of the United States again in another 10 days. And I say all that to say that I understand the framers thought about this country from a moralistic standpoint. I think, you know, when you talk about norms, when you talk about values, when you talk about more race, a lot of that hinges on morality and that you're already assuming that a person who's going to sit in an office of that of the presidency is going to have—the standards are going to be so high that there's no way that these norms and values that get —you know, that there's no way that a person would act in a certain way.

They have circumvented every single law. They found every single loophole to make American democracy seem fickle, to make it seem as if it is this kind of old and dying thing. And in many ways they've proven that point. So how do we counteract that? That's where I'm going with this. What needs to happen institutionally to where not every single norm, not every single law, you can find a loophole? Because if we continue down this road, what's the point? What's the point of having a criminal justice system when Donald Trump can literally get away with everything.

Indeed, indeed. You talked about other people paying the price. Well, Rudy Giuliani talk about a dumbass. He did all that bidding for Donald Trump. Trump wouldn't pay his legal bills. Now he's been held in contempt of court for a second time. Man, the federal judge, I mean, just ripped into him because he's been hiding assets. And then, of course, after he was held in contempt for a second time, this is what this little punk had to say. You know, she's talking about criminal contempt because she's dying to put me in jail, like she put all the J6 people in jail. Woman's bloodthirsty.

That's an unconstitutional order. What. That's an unconstitutional order. What? That's an unconstitutional order. Well, what does she care? How many did she do for the J6 people? You can't do that. Telling other judges they weren't given strong enough sentences?

I mean, that is a mockery of a judge who has an opinion prepared. You had to have prepared that decision yesterday or the day before with all the citations in it. Can you tell the room that we're out here and we are leaving soon? Can you tell the whole room? I think it's utterly laughable that a former U.S. attorney who went after mobsters, who was the mayor of a city, is trying to say that a federal judge. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters,

and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,

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

comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

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

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

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

Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Holding him in contempt of court for defaming two black women, hiding assets. Somehow it's unconstitutional. Dude, shut the hell up. Matt, go ahead.

Well, you got in front of what I was going to say, which is crazy that he's a former U.S. attorney. What you often see in courts is you see when it's a police officer, you know, being sentenced or dealing with some kind of like contempt. Or if it's anybody who's got a position of the public trust, very often judges are angry that that person is in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system, and they're more harsh with the punishment they mete out to them. So, one, I'm really surprised that a former U.S. attorney would just brazenly disrespect a judge in this way. And I think some of this is part and parcel of what we've talked about. I mean, some of this just toxicity with ideological positions, especially on the conservative side, going so far and just saying anything, having no guardrails. But what's crazy about this is federal judges, I mean, pretty much have wide latitude to do whatever they want. So it's reckless to be outside talking about this judge crazy. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on, Matt, Matt, Matt, not even outside. This is the Associated Press story. Giuliani smiled and chuckled as the judge explained why she was holding him in contempt. She said it was outrageous and shameful for Giuliani to suggest that he is the one who has been treated unfairly in this case.

I'm sorry. Send his punk ass straight to jail. He is laughing in the face of a federal judge. You get see this is where these judges have. And Nola Haynes, Michael Imhotep, or Roland Martin stood in court and laughed at a federal judge in a contempt case. All four of our black asses will be behind jail right now, sitting there thinking about what the hell was I doing talking smack in court? Look, let me tell you, anytime the federal court sends me a hearing or a setting for a show cause hearing, meaning myself and my client needs to explain to the court why something has happened, I have a small heart attack, right? Because it's a federal judge. They could do whatever they want. They've got wide latitude. I think maybe in this case, part of what she's doing is not being overly heavy handed so as to not look like some part of it is political.

I'm not sure who appointed her, but what I don't Obama did Obama appointment. There may be some some part of that playing into this. But what I really don't understand is in a situation where the litigant here, Giuliani, is so brazenly flouting, you know, disrespect of the court. I don't see how the court doesn't just automatically jump to a graduated sanction like putting them in jail. Sometimes they start with money. Sometimes they do other things. But I mean, he's continuing to engage in the conduct that is at issue in this case. He's continuing to claim that these women helped steal an election. And I don't understand why the judge has not just thrown him in jail at this point.

And he's clearly asking for that, you know, standing in front of the courthouse, maligning the judge the same way he was inside the courthouse. It's baffling to me. But, you know, I think it's going to end up with him sitting in a jail cell. Well, I just think at some point, Nola, if these people want to F around and find out, guess what? You F around, you're about to find out. And I'm sick of the special treatment. I'm sick of the – here's the deal. Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, there is no bottom. So that's where you stop playing nice.

You stop giving the benefit of the doubt. And that's when you say, that's cool, Rudy. I'm sending your punk ass to jail. And if y'all want to holler and scream, I'm unfair. He ripped the judge saying, oh, she's a bias. That's what you say. Guess what? Sit your ass in that jail. And if you keep talking, I'm going to add a week. And you keep talking. I'm going to add a week. You smirk. That's another week. That's the only way, because you know what? That's what happened to any regular person.

Absolutely. Five thousand percent. But wait a minute minute when did really Giuliani turn into the penguin like what's what's going on here like I was like confused like wait look at that when did he turn into the penguin anyway that's that's what he been he's been a penguin I guess so like I guess I haven't looked at him in a while but listen you turn into the penguin when you start representing an evil ass fool like Donald Trump. Evil is contagious and it is not a good look, honey, because that ain't cute. But to your point, it you know, I'm going to go back to the destruction of institutions. Right. You have Rudy Giuliani being flippant. It's so much of the ickiness reminds me of Roy Cohn.

And I know he is somewhere rolling around in pig's dirt, being happy as hell because his legacy has assisted, you know, and I I'm just watching him and I just see the ickiness and, and I see the arrogance and it infuriates me, you know, because you're right. None of us could behave like that. And if the courts do not get it together, they are going to be responsible for their own. For destruction is a heart is a harsh word, but they're going to be responsible for their own kind of destruction of their reputation. Right. I can tell you, you know, like I used to teach politics, policy and law,

and my students would always ask, you know, how could the United States Supreme Court, how can you be unbiased when the starting point is you're either liberal or conservative? And so, you know, that already kind of muddles the waters. And here we are in the lower courts where we are seeing the same sorts of things. And they have got to get it together, Roland, because this is a mess. They and to your point. So what if he says she's biased? So what if he said if he says she's an Obama appointee? And right. You hold judge. Yep. So Michael, real quick.

Michael, real quick. So. So Rudy is continuing to spread lies about these about these sisters, Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss. I think this civil lawsuit is the way to break these insurrectionists, these people who plotted to overthrow the government. Rudy Giuliani was involved in January 6th. You may not be able to get get to put them in prison, but you can financially break them. OK. And hold them accountable in civil court. And they should get is one, it's $148 million judgment. They should get as everything they can just leave them standing out there in his underwear outside of this house.

Like, uh, the IRS did red Fox, uh, folks, um, a couple of things. And,

and, and I went over with, with the fires, but that was absolutely needed. Uh, meta Facebook and now say they're getting rid of all their DEI programs. Uh, more of Mark Zuckerberg kissing the ass of Donald Trump. Dealing with supply diversity, dealing with hiring, you name it, they're getting rid of

all of it. I'm going to show you they never gave a damn about it in the first place. That's what Isaac Hayes III, the founder of Fanbase, said in this video. All right, let me pull a video up. So what I have to understand what's going on is all of these companies are doing all they can to kiss up to Donald Trump and the right wing. And so that's all they're doing. And they're going to keep doing that. And so let me play for you. This is what Isaac said. Go. Today, Meta and Mark Zuckerberg announced the termination of their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion just days after loosening their content moderation policies.

This is a problem that must be addressed. Social media is supposed to be a place where everyone is seen, heard, and respected. This must not only be reflected in what happens inside the app, but also what happens inside the company. A company's commitment to diverse representation should not change because of political administration, profits, or because it's just good PR. That just shows us that these apps never cared about or respected diversity, equity, and inclusion, as long as it can be exploited for their financial gain. But now you know how they feel. So let me tell you how I feel.

Fanbase was born out of the need for a new generation of social apps that don't suppress voices, encourage free speech, offer monetization for anyone to start earning revenue from the content they create, and reflect the diverse communities of this country. We just don't talk about inclusivity. We live it. We believe all creators deserve ownership, respect, and real opportunities to succeed. We are designed to give power back to the people who make the culture happen, not only by giving you the chance to own a piece of the platform, but by valuing every user, every voice, and every story.

Diversity is not a trend for us. It's the foundation of who we are, and we will never step back from it. We are eternally committed to building an inclusive and supportive space for all. But now, it's time for action. and we will never step back from it. We are eternally committed to building an inclusive and supportive space for all. But now it's time for action. It's time to bring your passion, creativity, personality,

talent, and community to Fanbase. I want you to download Fanbase right now and tell the world the future belongs to you. With every download, we rise on app stores, gaining visibility for the movement that's already in motion. Your download is more than a decision. It's a declaration that what's happening is not okay and that you have a choice to go places where you are appreciated,

accepted, and respected. We won't stand for platforms that turn their backs on the very people that built them. At Fanbase, we see you, we hear you, and we're here for you. Together, we can rise, thrive, and create a world that truly reflects the power of awe. Just a note here to my panelists, which I thought is pretty interesting.

He said because of Facebook and Instagram ending DEI and the possible tick tock ban, Facebook fan bases had the largest one day growth ever in the history of the app. Here's the whole deal. These companies are kissing the ass of Donald Trump. And so here's the deal, Michael. Enough of this. What did Dr. King say? April 3rd, 1968. He said we don't have to throw one Molotov cocktail. We don't have to start any riot. He said he said all we have to do is simply retreat, pull our money. In this case, this is where we as black folks say, Mark Zuckerberg, you can kiss our ass. We're going to go from Facebook over to fan base.

I said before that one of the things that fan bases will launch because the middle of a 17 million dollar raise they've raised 4.8 4.9 million Once they hit 5 million, they're gonna be able to have enough money to have the engineers and launch Something called spark which will be there which will be their Twitter functionality and so just like how you do how to utilize Facebook they can do that This is important because what has to happen, what has to happen is our people have to make a decision that we're not going to just keep sitting here going back and getting abused. This, this change

is so pathetic. They literally, oh all supply diversity, which means contracts. They're like, oh, yeah, no, we're good. All that. That's gone. Oh, they're no longer going to require a diverse candidate pool to be interviewed. Mark Zuckerberg is simply bending over and he's saying, give it to me, Donald. That's what he's doing. Yeah. Hashtag punk mother Zucker. OK, make that trend. Punk mother Zucker. Now, this whole thing is spelled out in Project 2025. Also, Roland, as you know, the attack on diversity, equity and inclusion is going to intensify under a second Trump administration. It started with the attack on critical race theory in the first Trump administration,

and it has continued, and they're going after corporations. We've seen Walmart. We've seen some in the auto industry, Facebook most recently. And I downloaded Fanbase, so I'll be posting on my social media platforms. I've got a million followers on Facebook, the African History Network. I'm going to try to migrate people from there over to fan base, but redistribute the pain through targeted, sustained economic withdrawal strategies. This is what Dr. King said April 3rd, 1968 in his speech. I've been to the mountaintop. People need to go on YouTube, listen to the entire speech because he lays out an economic blueprint for African-Americans.

But, yeah, fan base is that's what we need to focus on, support, set up, migrate over to that platform and invest in it as well. This is what I keep trying to explain to people, Nola, that they don't understand. When you see all of these companies announcing these D.I. rollbacks, the area this isn't just about jobs. The area that jumps out the most is is business diversity, supply diversity. That's contracts that because, again, when you're talking about black owned businesses being able to get contracts, now we're able to grow our businesses. We hire other people, not just one person getting hired. That's what's going on here. And these folks, that's the game that they're playing. And again, Zuckerberg, who's worth billions, is doing everything to kiss Trump's

ass. Oh, he was whining today about other media on Joe Rogan, the media, how they were just coming after me. I mean, he has done a complete capitulation. I mean, he is, look, matter of fact, we should go ahead and play Ice Cube's No Vaseline for Mark Zuckerberg. Yeah, I said it.

I said it. Go ahead. You know, i'm not trying to i'm not a mean person i am not a mean person i'm petty i ain't mean but i'm petty i'm trying to understand the new look um the fro the little chain he looked like a background person from like a black exploitation movie from the 70s like he's going through something is what i'm saying i don't know what this version of him is he may not know what this version of him is but it's not a good look i have not been on uh facebook in buku years and i'm happy that that you know that i left i am on instagram and threads and i also do have a fan based account that i will spend more time cultivating.

Look at, what is going on with this look? What is that? That's Justin Timberlake look. Is that what that is? Justin Timberlake don't even look like that no more. Mm-mm. He going through something, y'all. I don't know what it is. But anyhow, rolling to your point,

I had threaded or put on Blue Sky the other day something about, you know, we are not powerless. You know that the billionaires get to be in their yachts because we are consumers of their products. We are not powerless, especially in the black community where we spend dollars, where we are on social media the most, where we create content the most. We need to be where we are on social media the most, where we create content the most. We need to be where we are appreciated. And, you know, Charlotte Clymer had tweeted something earlier that, you know, it's going to be a circle back for all of them. It's going to be a circle back for all of them.

And then they're going to try to say, oh, well, you know, that that was a different time. We didn't mean what we said. There are going to need the DEIs again. And, you know, I want to say one thing about the whole DEI thing that has become a cuss word, that has become a slur against black people. The one thing that I fear is when I think about what they're going to put Karen Bass through in California, what I think about what they have done to those women in the leadership roles, the firefighters in California, how they have labeled DEI as

something that you are automatically unqualified if you are not a white male, which is something that pretty much Scott Jennings said on CNN the other night, how do we counter this? I keep coming back to this. How do we counter these sorts of attacks? How is it okay to every person, every black brown person, every LGBTQIA person, you can just call DEI as if it's a slur, as if you are automatically unqualified. What is the counter to this? I will keep asking this question until we collectively come up with something. There's only

one counter. Matt, there's only one counter. It is to penalize people economically. But that actually requires black people having the guts and the unity and the collective thinking to do it. Yeah, I mean, I think that's correct.

And what I don't understand about this that I think is a very interesting study in power, if you will, is if you're a billionaire, if you're Mark Zuckerberg or you're somebody with that kind of gravitas, if you know who has F you money. Why do you ever capitulate to Trump? Right. Because somebody Trump is always trying to put out that he's powerful. Right. Well, you look at Musk, you look at Zuckerberg, you look at these mediocre but extraordinarily wealthy people who are in that echelon, at least financially, like why would you ever capitulate? I don't understand what the strategic move is here beyond, I guess, some concern of the government reigning in meta. I mean, obviously it's about money. I don't know where it ends with the money, but I just don't understand why Zuckerberg would do this because to me, it seems to be counterintuitive to his business goals. It seems like if you not only continue DEI, but if you continue to fact check and you continue to do anything that puts into controversy,

you know, the conversations on social media, that probably is monetizable for you. So I don't understand the long term strategy of this beyond maybe cozying up to power but it seems like they've got enough he at least has enough power on his own to to not have to capitulate to trump and i just don't understand why you play it this way also i want to say nola this is the malibu's most wanted that's what you're seeing with mark zuckerberg so malibu knows one so all right so listen i i know we're over time and i was gonna but but but i gotta squeeze this in because I just got to get y'all's thought on this. So Amazon MGM Studios announced that they are giving 40 million dollars for a Brett Ratner directed documentary on Melania Trump. Now, Brett Ratner is the famous director who hasn't directed anything since 2014

when he got hit with a slew of Me Too allegations. But I guess he's cozying up with Trump as well to bring him out. So you might ask, why is Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, why are they giving $40 million to a Melania Trump documentary? Y'all know the budget for the movie Selma was only $25 million. So maybe there's something in her bio that is so unbelievable that we would actually watch a documentary on Melania Trump. So let's see. She's born 1970 in Slovenia. She studied architecture

and design at some unknown university for one year. Then she came to the United States in 1996. First, she came here on a tourist visa, then a string of working visa for skilled immigrants. I guess the skill was being nude in photo shoots. She meets Trump in 1998, marries the orange one in 2005. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley, But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. 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 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. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working,

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

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

Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. 2006, she gives birth to her son, 2017. That's it. That's the documentary. Who the fuck pays $40 million for that? Let me just call this exactly what this is. Jeff Bezos and Amazon MGM Studios is spending $40 million to kiss Donald Trump's ass. This is a way to directly put money in the pockets of Donald Trump in order to keep him from targeting your company. There is no way on God's green earth

at any Hollywood studio, anywhere, whether you talk about Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, Tubi, Mansa, I don't care what it is. There is literally nothing interesting about Melania Trump worth a $40 million documentary. In fact, can y'all control room, check what the Oscar requirement is for the maximum of a short film. Is it what?

12 minutes? 15 minutes? I think a documentary on Melania Trump should be a YouTube short. That's it. There's no there there. Melania Trump wasn't a major model. No.

Melania Trump wasn't some philanthropist. Melania Trump wasn't some person out there doing the public good. She can barely talk English. She's a birther.

She was a horrible first lady. She didn't care about the people. She chose not to even send Trump a text or a tweet on January 6, 2021. This is corporate America being so in the tank for Donald Trump that they know they couldn't just give $40 million to his PAC. So, hmm, Amazon and Jeff Bezos and the Amazon MGM studio executives, hmm, what could we do to curry favor with the with?

Hey, how about this? We can give Brett Ratner again, a man who did a lot of Hollywood films, the Rush Hour films. hasn't directed a movie since 2014 when he got hit with Me Too allegations, and he's the one behind a Melania Trump documentary at $40 million. I only have five words. Get the fuck out of here. I'll go to my panel for y'all final thoughts. Noah, I'll start with you. Bruce. Get the fuck out of here. I'll go to my panel for y'all final thoughts. Noah, I'll start with you.

You know, I've been out of Hollywood for a while, but I remember back in the day when a documentary, if you were getting a million dollars for a documentary, honey, you were doing it big. A $40 million documentary. And you know, to your point, million dollars for a documentary honey you were you were doing it big a 40 million dollar documentary um and you know to your point i'm i don't i definitely don't like to malign other women um but when you're talking about um 40 million dollars to document a person's life

there has to be something to document to your very colorful point, Roland. And I don't know that much about, you know, the future and former first lady. I just read it for you. There's no there there. She is limited. No, no, no, no. She's not limited. She's non-existent.

Okay. Okay. But my point is. No, no, no. Let me say it again, Nola. She's not limited. She's non-existent i don't i don't even think you could put a camera on her and talk to her for longer than eight minutes okay this is not going to be a documentary. I'm telling you, YouTube short used to be 60 seconds. They've now increased YouTube shorts to three minutes. That about tops it. That about wraps it up. That about wraps it up. But, you know, this is we are entering a time where we're going to see a lot of this.

It's going to be a lot of frustration. It's going to be open grift. That $40 million is either, it's going to be parked in her account or somebody else's account. Oh, it's parked in the Trump account. And we already know Donald Trump has to pay her to show up to stuff.

We already know that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's completely unfortunate. The last thing that I will say is I have seen some very engaging documentaries of former first ladies that are incredible and dynamic women. And I don't know,

you know, where this is going to compare. It won't, but it won't, it won't level of corruption. It won't. It won't. It won't. It's the level of corruption. It won't. That we're going to see the next four. I hear you.

We're going to see a lot of this type of corruption over the next four years. And we're going to have to buckle up and call it out at every single juncture because it's about to be more of this. This is a grift, Matt. It is a grift. And only because MAGA are a bunch of idiots, this documentary should get a zero rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But we know MAGA idiots are going to flood Rotten Tomatoes and go, oh, my God, this is the most amazing thing in the world. This is unbelievable. What does this say? I'm sorry. I can't see it.

Get money. Get money. Get money. what does this say I'm sorry I can't see it get money in the word get money Christopher Wallace baby get money all I gotta say is those two words and you know I think Noah's 100% right there's gonna be a lot of corruption we know that that is the

Trump playbook but I don't think this is corruption as much as it is as the old idiom says a fool and his money are soon parted. Why you would pay $40 million for this documentary, I don't know. And I'll tell you, to be the devil's advocate here, she was born and raised in an Eastern Bloc country in the middle of the Cold War. Maybe there's an interesting backstory. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. I can't. It's not.

It's not. Dude, she went to she studied architecture for one year. I doubt Melania Trump can do a stick figure. Hey, man, can we talk about this genius visa that she got? Do we know that for a fact? Does she really get an H-1B visa? Because if so, this is where I have an issue with this. I have actual genius friends who are right now waiting for that visa so they can continue to stay and work and contribute to the scholarly community of this country. Do we know that that is a documented fact? Because if so, I want to know how. No, it was the, let's see here. According to the New York Times, give me one second.

Did Melania Trump merit an Einstein visa? Probably immigration's lawyers say, oh, please. She ain't bright. It says, it is known as the Einstein visa. Nuclear scientists, Nobel laureates and doctors get it. But so do acrobats, stuntmen, event planners and plenty of models. It says Belonia Trump received an immigrant visa reserved for individuals with extraordinary ability in 2001 when she was a model. That child had no extraordinary ability. Yeah, I remember hearing about that before.

The way in was that she was a model. So this is a waste of 40 million dollars. It's a way to curry favor with Donald Trump. She she dropped out of college. Also, she's a college dropout. She posed. She posed nude. And I think twice she posed nude. In 2024, she said she was very proud of her nude modeling, things of this nature. But what they should highlight in the documentary is that, once again, Donald Trump has outsourced to immigrants a job that an American wouldn't want to do, which is marrying his ass.

He married two immigrants, and she's an immigrant. He outsourced to immigrants another job that Americans don't want to do, which is marrying him. So you're going to have MAGA eat this up, just like they bought those ugly-ass $400 gold shoes and the $60 Bible. And the signed guitars and the $60 Bible and the signed guitars and the Trump cologne. It's all a damn

grift. It's all a damn grift. And so I listen, I listen. I mean, maybe Bishop Magic Don Juan know about talents, extraordinary talents, but ain't no talents there. Ain't no talents there. Ain't no talents

there. Ain't none. Zero zilch. And I'm telling you right now, okay, Amazon, MGM Studios, y'all just paid $40 million for a YouTube short. Y'all did. Ain't no there there.

You ain't never seen anybody interview a Melania Trump and go, my goodness, that's a bright one right there. Ooh, that's what. What? Since they left the White House, what'd she do? Did she try to sell some jewelry? Was she on QVC? Ain't no there there. I don't know what she did. That's my point. $40 million

for a dropout who studied architecture. That girl can't draw. That child can't draw to save her life. But again, this is all about currying favor with Donald Trump. It is a way to funnel money into his pockets because

in America, Donald Trump is totally transactional. Matt, hold the sign up. If you get money, he's going to give you whatever you want. He hated TikTok. Dude, stop putting money on this campaign. Oh, you know what? I'm against that TikTok ban. His ass will flip faster than a crack head in front of an attorney. He will flip.

Donald Trump is a is is an economic snitch. He will absolutely flip 40 million dollars. I'm telling you all right now. It's a YouTube short. I don't know, man. She from Slovenia. She might be able to rebuild a 1987 Yugo or something. You know, I mean, she got to have some kind of skill with that kind of background.

It might be something there, you know. Have a little faith, brother. I would just sit here and smile and be pretty. Really, Matt? I mean, it's the best I got. I don't know why you paid $40,000 for that. I'm trying, bro. Like, I'm trying.

Really? Really, Matt? That's the best you got? I mean, you know. That's why Ohio State up 7-0. Anyway, y'all don't waste y'all time even

Do y'all understand the trailer for the Melania Trump documentary is going to be longer than the documentary? Man, let me go. Good luck to my texans tomorrow uh we don't care about no other uh cities uh teams uh so to let y'all know so we we don't i don't think the saints are in the playoffs are y'all in the playoffs no you're not it's always go saints around here i'm not a fickle

fan no no no no, no. You can be an exuberant fan, but you sitting at home is playoffs. It don't even matter. That's all good. Matt, by the end of the night, you'll be crying. And Michael, we don't care. All right. So, there

we go. So, you know, that's all I got to say about that. Say what? Texas A&M ain't playing, so that's all I got to say about that. But Ohio State is playing. So there we go. All right, y'all. That's it. I appreciate it.

Nola, go cook some gumbo. All right, y'all. Dr. Nola Haynes, good night, y'all. Since he always seemed to want to forget, as my mama would say, remind everybody all the time. Remind us of what? Remind us of what? Remind us of what? You forgot Dr. Nola Haynes multiple

times. Okay. Okay, Dr. Dre. Okay. Alright, y'all. Be sure to support the work that we do here at the Black Star Network. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. do here at a black star network join our bring the funk fan club if you want to support us join our bring the funk fan club use the cat use the stripe app

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with that right now. I'll see y'all on Monday. Ha! Thank you. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. Small but important ways from tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastain.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. I get right back there and it's bad. I'm Clayton English.'m greg glad and this is season two 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 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. Here's the deal.

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