#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Elon's war on vets, Judge blocks DOGE social security access, Opioid emergency

Episode Date: March 22, 2025

3.21.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Elon's war on vets, Judge blocks DOGE social security access, Opioid emergency  VoteVets, a veterans voter education group, launched a new campaign against all GOP House Representatives supporting the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to the  Department of Veterans Affairs.  VoteVets' Senior Advisor is here to explain this targeted six-figure multi-platform ad campaign. Trump's Commerce Secretary to seniors who depend on Social Security to survive: "Shut Up and Sit Down" and Don't complain if you don't get your check.  We'll show you the weird exchange in the Oval Office when a Fox reporter asked the twice impeached criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald "The Con" Trump about Canada.  A White West Virginia couple got a combined total of  375 years in prison for abusing their black adopted children.  Opioid deaths may be decreasing overall, but there's an organization working to prevent opioid overdose deaths, specifically in Black communities. I'll chat with an advocate who says access to lifesaving medications is unequal.  #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 platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We'll chat with the VoteVets senior advisor about this campaign. You want to be stuck on stupid? How about Donald Trump's commerce secretary? We will show you what this fool said about senior citizens who might miss their Social Security check. He thinks it's no big deal because his rich mother won't complain about it. What a dumbass. We'll show you the weird exchange in the Oval Office when a Fox reporter asked the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief, Donald O'Connor Trump, about Canada in the 51st state. Y'all, this man is stupid. And a white West Virginia couple got a combined 375 years in

prison for abusing their black adopted children, treating them as slaves. And opioid deaths may be decreasing overall, but there is an organization working to prevent opioid deaths, specifically in the black community. We'll chat with him about that. Lots of more. Plus, we'll hear from State Representative Jelana Jones of Texas about the takeover of the Houston Independent School District

of the Texas Education Agency and why she is still fighting to have it returned to the voters. It is time to bring the funk. when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rollin', best believe he's knowin' Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin', yeah, it's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah, it's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah

Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin Folks, VoteVest launched a multi-platform ad campaign called Stop Elon's War on Veterans, targeting Republican House members. It is a six-figure buy that they are taking. Of course, you've seen massive numbers of veterans being laid off by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Watch this ad.

I was at Barnes & Noble with my two children, four and ten, and my husband, and I received a text from my coworker, and he said, have you seen the email? I served in the military for over 33 years, just accepted a new position in the VA. Come into the office, fire up my computer, and I come back and there's an email sitting there for me. I knew then, I knew what was coming. I have not had a single negative performance review

in my 10 years. It feels like veterans are being personally attacked by Elon Musk. I did not put my life on the line for some tech bro billionaire from South Africa to come in here and try to destroy our country. We are going to bear a lot of this, a lot of this cost with rising costs, inflation.

I'm literally donating plasma to buy eggs. And our congressperson does absolutely nothing. Stop Elon's war on veterans now. Well, joining me on my vote bet, Senior Advisor Max Rose. Max, Republicans spend a lot of time praising the military, talking about our veterans. Max, can you hear me? Max, can you hear me? Max, can you hear me? I'm sorry, I'm not able to hear you,

but it's great to see you. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, Max, I can hear you. You can't hear me at all? No, but I can hear you. I can't hear you, but I'll talk a little bit, all right? And we can... Okay, go ahead.

It's great to see you, my friend, and congrats on your show. You know, look, what has been going on recently, what we forget is that 50% of the federal workforce of veterans, 50 percent of those individuals are disabled veterans. And these are folks that have, in many instances, made extraordinary sacrifices, taken extraordinary risks, all in support of our great nation and our collective freedoms. And Donald Trump actually praised many of these individuals during his campaign, right? He openly said, hey, thank you for your service, thank you for your service, you're so great, then turned around and said, you're fired. And that's just such a disgrace, and that's why people really detest politics, that type

of fraudulent lying and dishonesty and dishonor. And so Volfetz is putting our foot down and saying this is wrong and making sure that this message goes out in these critical swing states held by Republicans, where particularly those individuals should be shown some degree of courage in standing up to Donald Trump and to this horrendous effort. So we're just so grateful that you have taken the time to shine a light on this as well and for your continued support of veterans in addition. All right, Max, can you hear me now? You still can't hear me. You still can't hear me? I still can't hear you, but I'm awfully good at reading lips

if you want to go in that direction. But I unfortunately cannot hear you. So I'm going to ask one question. Okay. Are you telling other vets that they need to be fighting back every day in their cities? You know, I wish I had heard what you said, but let me just close out by saying this. I had the opportunity to spend some time with these individuals on a visit to Capitol Hill.

And they have families, they have financial responsibilities, and they've just been fired. And that's a really scary moment. Anyone that's been through that, anyone can imagine that, can relate how scary that is. And to a T, what each of these individuals said, though, is this is not about me. This is about our country. This is about my fellow vets. And I was blown away by that, and I should have been, because that's who veterans are, that level of selflessness, that courage, that commitment to country. That's why they served in the first place, put on our nation's uniform, and that's when they got home, they said, we want to continue to serve.

So many of them had—just were recently promoted. That's why they were on this probationary status in the first place, which made them, I guess, under the Doge target. It's everything that's great about our country, and that's everything that we need in our government. But these folks, they're not looking for efficiencies. They're looking for radical change to bring our country back, not forward. And that's something worth standing up to and opposing. So thank you again for your coverage of this important issue. And I look forward to another conversation where hopefully I can actually hear you. But I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you, though. Thanks. host African History Network show out of Detroit. Avis Jones DeWeaver, author of How Exceptional Black Women Lead,

Unlocking the Secrets to Creating Phenomenal Success in Career and in Life. And also Matt Manning, civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi. I mean, let's just be real clear here. We don't have Avis yet. She'll be joining us. Matt, this is real clear. These folks are liars. They're massive liars. Donald Trump never gave a damn about the military. He skipped military service. He was not thinking about them. He played them for fools. And the vets who supported him,

they're now realizing he never gave a damn about them. This man crapped on POWs. He crapped on Senator John McCain. He refused to go to the cemetery when they were in France. This man doesn't give a damn about the military. He never has. No, he's leveraged them to the end of, you know, the political support end. And I do not understand this strategically. This is one of those things where I can't really see what the GOP strategy is with doing exactly what you said, which is acting as

though they cared about the military, acting as though they cared about the Gold Star families and veterans and all of these people, and then pulling the rug out from under them. I don't understand that logic, especially because that's a contingent of people that's kind of just heralded in our society. So it makes no sense why you would do this to them. One of my partners is actually a veteran. He's a former Air Force officer, and he won at the Supreme Court a couple of years ago on an issue related to a Texas DPS trooper who was an Army person who got injured while he was in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And when he came back, the state of Texas treated him just piss poor. And what I'm getting at is both on the state side and on the federal side, what you see is this rhetoric that's very supportive of the military, this rhetoric that's very supportive of the veterans, to the point of being jingoistic, just patriotic

to the point where if you're not in lockstep with us, you're an enemy of ours. But in reality, we're cutting money from veterans and cutting money from veterans' programs. And I don't know what that's going to look like in the midterms, but that to me seems to be a failed strategy for the GOP, because this is one of those key contingencies in their base that is going to vote for Trump and has voted for Trump. And it seems like he's just cutting the rug out from under them to his own detriment. I don't understand why Democrats are not being far more aggressive with this, Michael, because the reality is this here. There were massive support for the Veterans Administration for the Pentagon under President Biden. And it was there under Obama as well. When you talk about the Byrne-Pitts bill that was signed that Republicans opposed. So they should be far more aggressive at blasting Donald Trump, Elon Musk,

J.D. Vance, and the others for attacking veterans. This is an opening that can have an impact. You've got the two congressional special elections in Florida, one in New York. You've got gubernatorial races later this year as well. This is what you do. This is how you, frankly, beat them over the head when it comes to their cuts. Absolutely. And this is one of the reasons why last week, I think last Friday, it was when we talked about Senator Chuck caved in Schumer and why I said it was wrong for Chuck caved in Schumer

to cave in, because what Chuck didn't say is about unleashing Republican voters who are showing up to these town hall meetings that Republicans — a few Republicans continue to have, like Republican Chuck Edwards, and their voters are pissed off. You let those Republicans go deal with the Republicans that they voted into office. You don't have to try to figure out a pathway out of this. So the veterans are an example of this. You have veterans who are showing up to these Republican town hall meetings saying, we did not vote for this. We didn't vote for you to take our rights away from us, to fire us. We did not vote for Elon Musk.

You correct Donald Trump. Just like many dictators love their generals. He referred to them as my generals. I don't know of any other president in the modern era that referred to generals as my generals. He got five deferments, and he actually said his Vietnam was avoiding getting STDs in the 1970s. I don't know if he was successful in avoiding getting STDs. We'll see. Maybe we need to have somebody do an investigation on that. And remember, also, at the same time, they're firing veterans. You have an attack on DEI in the Pentagon. You have Charles C.Q. Brown, who was fired, and Donald Trump at first liked him, but then he said, oh, he supports DEI.

OK? So you see this all across the board. You see Pete Hexeth replace Lloyd Austin. Lloyd Austin, four-star general. Pete Hexeth is not even qualified to tie Lloyd Austin's shoelaces. So all of this is an insult to veterans. So, yeah, this is a big opening for Democrats. But at the same time, we're going to need some different type of Democrats, those who want to fight and know how to fight. And you see many of them stepping up, Representative Jasmine

Crockett, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You see Bernie Sanders, even though I have been critical about him in the past. You see Bernie Sanders and AOC on their fight oligarchy tour, et cetera. So this is a huge open for Democrats. Well, and again, the bottom line is this is about how you fight and then how you target folks when it comes to that. So hopefully, again, they are going to realize that you really, really can really get folks focused on what is happening. Now, Elon Musk doge gets hit with another legal defeat. A federal judge temporarily blocked the agency from accessing systems of the Social Security Administration that contain the sensitive information of millions of Americans, delivering another setback to Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander wrote a 137-page decision that a group of unions

challenging DOJA's access to the Social Security Agency's record systems was likely to succeed on its claims if the efforts violated the Privacy Act and a federal law that governs the agency rulemaking process. The judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by the labor unions in February. They filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the SSA's decision to allow Doge to access sensitive, personal, and confidential information about millions of Americans. Now, let's talk about this whole deal with Social Security. Y'all want to see some sheer stupidity. Check this out.

In a podcast, Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, billionaire Howard Lutnick, who ran Cantor Fitzgerald on Wall Street, literally had this message for seniors if they don't get their Social Security checks on time. Listen to this. Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks on time. Listen to this. Let's say social security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain. She just wouldn't.

She thinks something got messed up and she'll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining. Okay, I want you all to hear that again because I need you to listen to what this billionaire just said. Listen. Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain. She just wouldn't.

She thinks something got messed up and she'll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and complaining. You need to listen to him. Did y'all hear that? So my 94-year-old mother-in-law, she's not going to complain.

You're a billionaire! This is the crass, shameful, despicable stuff that comes from these idiots. There are people who, when we say depend on that Social Security check, it cannot be a few days late. Oh, she's not going to call.

She won't say anything. She's just going to yell at me. How callous, crass can you be? 73 million Americans depend on Social Security checks. There are people who literally live check to check. And these assholes say stuff like this.

Michael, you first. Well, Howard Lutnick, billionaire, is a reflection of how Donald Trump thinks about many of these people who voted for him. They're screwing him over. So they don't care about these people. They use them as pawns to get in the office so they can get as much money as they can, however it is, and they don't care who they hurt. But those 73 million people on Social Security, they need to organize. They need to protest. But also, go to FEC.gov, Federal Elections Commission, and look at the top two or three corporations that financed Trump's campaign and launch nationwide economic boycotts against them to hurt them economically. But these people do not care at all.

Matt? I mean, I think y'all have said it. I think it's callous. And again, from a political strategy point, I really do not understand why on earth they would do anything to affect Social Security and have this kind of rhetoric regarding Social Security. Because in my view, this to me seems to be the greatest risk to their efficacy in the midterms and continuing forward. Because you start messing with people's Social Security checks. I haven't cross-referenced the data, but I surmise that the people who get Social Security are also in the contingent of people who vote most consistently, right? So maybe you're claiming your 94-year-old mother is not going to call and complain, but there's a pretty large swath of people who will be receiving Social Security checks. And if they're not getting that check, they're not going to forget that when they go to the ballot box next. And I don't understand why on earth you would tinker with that. And to address the legal part of this issue, it's interesting that we're discussing this

because I listened to this podcast called We the People. It's all about constitutional issues, and it's put on by the National Constitution Center. And they were discussing Doge the other day. And even in the legal circles, there's a pretty clear schism on whether what Doge is doing is constitutional and legal and whether it's not. And there's some lawyers out there that are arguing pretty vehemently that the president is able to allow Elon Musk to do this. I tell you that to say I'm glad that we had this win from the federal judges. But if the federal judges don't hold the line, there's not going to be any check whatsoever on this. And it's crazy that Doge is plugging into agencies getting secure data that is really, to me, doesn't seem to be germane to the question of whether there's waste and fraud and all these things they're allegedly looking for. It looks like it's a land grab, as Michael said, because we know that data is, you know, today's gold. That's what these companies use to make money. So I'm hoping

that the federal judges continue to hold the line as this one did. But there are a lot of legal thinkers out there who are thinking that this is permissible. And that's a scary thought in and of itself. Absolutely crazy. All right, folks, got to go to break. We'll be right back. Roland Martin unfiltered right here in the Blackstar Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Succession. We're hearing that word pop up a lot these days as our country continues to fracture and divide. But did you know that that idea, essentially, of breaking up of the USA, has been part of the public debate

since long before and long after the Civil War, right up to today? On our next show, you'll meet Richard Crichton, the author of this book, who says, breaking up this great experiment called America might not be such a bad thing. That's on the next Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. This week on the other side of change. Let's talk vote blue no matter who. We need political imagination more than ever. And

unfortunately, some people on the Democratic side really are discouraging that. We're going to dig into all of it. The Democratic Party needs to remember who they are and who they are responsible to. This is On the Other Side of Change, only on the Black Star Network. Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint. Hey, Saras, I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Sheryl Underwood Show. Well, should it be the Sheryl Underwood Show and the Roland Martin Show?

Well, whatever show it's going to be, it's going to be good. All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Don't forget, if you're watching our YouTube channel, be sure to hit that like button because all of that impacts for folks. Of course, the video being recommended. So hit the like button as you are sitting here watching the show. All right, folks, let's get on to our next story. Again, the sheer madness that we see taking place in Washington, D.C., is astounding.

And every day, it's something else. It's another thing. Now the Department of Justice, another top prosecutor with years of experience, has resigned amid major changes from these idiots. In an interview with NPR, Sean Murphy, who served in the group that prosecuted crimes stemming from the January 6th attack, said, quote, it just was not a Department of Justice that I any longer want to be associated with. He's a veteran prosecutor, previously worked for the Bronx District Attorney in New York. In 2018, during Trump's first term, he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in Puerto Rico and worked on drug trafficking and illegal gun prosecutions. Most recently, he served in the Department of Justice's Capitol Siege Section, which prosecuted more than 1,500 people for crimes stemming from the January 6, 2021,

domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. Now, what we know is Donald Trump, of course, he pardoned all of those individuals. That's what you see. Now, if you really want to understand something that's really crazy, and that is this, this agreement that he struck with major law firm, Paul Wise. Now here was, here's what's crazy about this here. So Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting law firms linked with Democrats, law firms that represented progressive organizations. OK, so here's what happened. He specifically named them. Now, nearly every legal scholar

says the executive order is simply illegal. But Paul Wise decided, hey, you know what? We can't chance it. So let's negotiate a deal. Now, the firm is called Paul Wise decided, hey, you know what? We can't chance it, so let's negotiate a deal. Now, the firm is called Paul Wise Rifkin Wharton & Garrison. All right? So its chairman, its chairman, Brad Karp, actually went to the White House in the Oval Office, met with Trump, and they came to an agreement. In exchange for Donald Trump dropping this executive order, they would agree to $40 million in pro bono legal services for Trump-approved causes.

Trump also attacked, in the executive order, a former law partner of Paul Wise, who had gone to work for the district attorney's office in New York. And he said, oh, that DA was, that former partner was corrupt, was unfair. So then he claims that he got an apology from the chairman of this law firm. Well, guess what? Legal folks across the country are shocked of the capitulation of Paul Wise. They're like,

what the hell are you guys doing? But this goes to show you the corrupt nature of the thug in chief. He is on a retribution campaign. He is targeting enemies. He is using the power of the office to target private companies, law firms, and others. And guess what? Republicans are saying nothing. They are saying nothing. In a moment, I'm going to play for y'all a clip from a town hall from Iowa, from Iowa, of Chuck Grassley, who is the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, okay? And folks are like, are you going to call this unlawful stuff out? This is a lawless administration, and they don't care.

We are operating in a dictatorship. That's what's going on here. Matt, I'm going to start with you. For this major law firm to fold the way they did, and when you see media companies folding and other people, basically they're all saying, we are scared to death of this man, Donald Trump, so we're just going to bend over and take it. You agree to $40 million in pro bono services

for stuff that Trump approves? What the hell? Yeah, it's ridiculous. And I didn't read anything that Paul Weiss put out. I actually read about this, what you're talking about with the $40 million pro bono in a Facebook group for lawyers, lawyers all across the country. And overwhelmingly, the comments were people excoriating Paul Weiss. How dare you? If anybody's going to stand up, it's got to be us. This is what we do for a living. We fight for a living in courtrooms every day on behalf of people. And if anyone knows the mechanisms to stand up for yourself, it should be lawyers.

So for a major law firm like this to capitulate in this way is abhorrent, and especially to try to sanitize it by saying, oh, the $40 million are going to be for, in pro bono, is going to be for things like, I think, veteran services and some other stuff that they were trying to kind of spin it and make it seem like it's not as bad as it is. But what it comes down to is they are giving in to this dictator. And what I don't understand is how law firms of this magnitude, of this level of respect, don't say, absolutely not. You can't punk us that way on the world stage.

But when they capitulate, when Schumer capitulates, when all of these people capitulate, all it does is give more gravity to the idea that he can keep playing the game this way. Because look, with a bully, you normally got to punch a bully in the nose. Somebody's got to stand up to him. And if you don't stand up to him, he's going to keep doing what he wants to do. So I don't understand why Paul Weiss took this tack, but I was heartened to see

that lawyers across the country thought that this was terrible. And they were calling him out, like, you know, you can't spend this to me like it's going to be a benefit from the pro bono money. If anybody should have stood up, it's you, because you have the kind of platform and the kind of gravitas to stand up and make a difference. I mean, here's also what's happening here, Michael. A lot of these firms refuse to also

represent Donald Trump in many of his legal cases. And so he's now attacking them. There's a letter that some former Paul Wise workers are working on. This is from the Bulwark. Sam Stein has this piece. And the letter says, here, I had some degree of faith that the firm I loved and thought I knew so well would stand by the ethos that recruited me there in the first place. A place filled with fearless advocates who valued the rule of law. A place with a storied history where merit, judgment, and principle were prized above all else. A place that elevated women attorneys, black attorneys, Jewish attorneys, and un-pedigreed and unconnected attorneys decades before any political or capitalistic win would justify doing so.

A place that led with professionalism and a deep faith that doing what is right will, in the long run, dovetail with what is financially, professionally, and reputationally successful. Here's what Donald Trump and the Republicans are trying to do. They are trying to attack any potential adversary. And so the capitulation of all the tech companies, all of them showing up, and what have they gotten in return? The dropping of cases against Amazon, the dropping of cases against Google, the dropping of cases against Google, the dropping

of cases against Elon Musk and other companies as well. So what Donald Trump is saying, I am going to severely handicap and shut down and limit any potential enemies. So therefore, I will have free reign to do whatever it is I desire. Yeah, well, this is what the criminal dictators do. And this is what we were warning people about before the election and what the stakes were, what the consequences were. And we told people the second Trump administration was going to be much worse than the first one. All you have to do is just read one chapter of Project 2025. So here we see this attack on this law firm and really a shakedown, getting them to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services. And it was spurred by a by an executive order, which probably is not even legal in the

first place. OK, so, you know, this is we we're in deep trouble. We're in deep trouble. America has. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business,

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

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

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

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

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

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

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you'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. Not really been in this situation. Well, America has, we haven't dealt with a dictator since 1775 with the beginning of the American Revolution, and the 13 counties were voting against King George III.

So hopefully you have some courageous attorneys who realize you cannot capitulate to a dictator. We just saw the story late this afternoon about Columbia University giving some concessions to Donald Trump to try to get back the $400 million that he withheld from them, another dictator move. So, you know, this is like the fight of our lives right now. Yeah. And I just need people to understand that what they want to do is they want to act as thugs. They want to act like mafia dons. That's what you got going on here. This was a town hall in Iowa where people stood up to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and demanded to know why in the hell was he not being more aggressive in calling out the lawlessness of these thugs. The Congress system created and in violation of the Constitution.

My question to you is, why do you believe that President Trump is above the law and I'll just reinforce what other people have been saying here why have you not spoken out for it? We are here to do your job and we have trusted you with our votes. We have sent you to Congress for decades. We expect you to follow through for what we Iowans really want our government to do and not to have a federal government that is being dismantled by this President Trump and Elon Musk. Please, stand up for what's right and do your jobs. Thank you.

Your statement gives me a wonderful opportunity to explain to you that constantly, every time I go from my office to the Senate floor, there's journalists, not by the dozens, but by a couple dozen, that are there to ask me questions all the time. And I take time to answer their questions. And I never see anything in print that I ever say to them. So I have to assume that you don't get a chance unless you do a vast amount of reading that you ever see anything that I say to the journalists in Washington, D.C.

So this is why on a weekend I put out something on my website called The Scoop that carries all the things that I have said or speeches I give on the floor of the United States Senate or press releases because I can't count on the... Michael, here's why Chuck Grassley's full of shit. I am literally scrolling through his Twitter feed and I'm at February 7th and he's got stuff about heart disease. He's got stuff about

the post office. Oh, Chairman Grassley discusses Pam Bonney's commitment to the Constitution as Bonney takes the reins at DOJ. I'm sitting here and I'm scrolling. Oh, he's got all this stuff about a whistleblower against Hunter Biden being promoted at the IRS. Oh, a whistleblower provides records to dealing with Jack Smith. Let's see here.

Let's see. Senior Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley discusses Cash Patel's nomination for FBI Director. Patel is the right change agent for the FBI. I'm still going through. There is nothing. See, I need everybody who's watching and listening to understand what he did. When I come out, all these reporters

are out there, and I talk to these reporters. And so, I say these know, all these reporters are out there and I talk to these reporters. And so, you know, so I say these things and these reporters don't report. Do y'all know how bullshit that is? Let me explain to everybody who's watching. So y'all really understand what I'm talking about. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, talked to a reporter and said to a reporter, and he criticized the lawless actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and MAGA and Stephen Miller and J.D. Vance. I can guarantee y'all there would be headlines, there would be video,

there'll be stories. He stood in front of those people and lied, Michael. Oh no, it's the media's fault. I'm saying these things. I'm sorry all of you back home can't hear these things because guess what? The media, they're not reporting it. It's their fault. Okay, Chuck, explain to me then why I see nothing on your Senate feed, Twitter feed. I see nothing on your personal feed. You're a damn liar. Absolutely. Chuck Grassley is a liar and a coward. And if you remember the last time that he ran for reelection, he was on the campaign trail with Donald Trump as well. Chuck Grassley knows better. He's been in the Senate for decades. I think he's in his early 90s. He knows better, but he's a coward. And this is what someone as corrupt as Donald

Trump does. He corrupts people around him. But at the same time, you cannot be in power and be a coward, because you're going to back down from a tyrant. So those people there were absolutely correct to call Chuck Grassley out. I want to know, Chuck Grassley, were your sit-down interviews with Fox News where you called out this corruption, you called out Donald Trump, and you called out Elon Musk? I'm sure you've done some sit-down interviews, more than just reporters in passing asking you questions in the halls of the U.S. Senate. So, yeah, he absolutely lied. And the other thing, Roland, I think that very soon you're going to start seeing some of these Republican constituents initiating recall elections from members of the House of Representatives and members of the U.S. Senate who they have deemed have betrayed them. I think you're going to start seeing that.

Well, remember, the recall elections can only take place if state law allows that. I don't know in what places you can actually have a recall election of a member of Congress. Now, there are certain states, California, you see recall elections of mayors, of DAs, of the governor, but I don't know about members of Congress. Now, there are certain states, California, you see recall elections of mayors, of DAs, of the governor, but I don't know about members of Congress. But, Matt, this is the thing that cracks me. He's literally going, it's the media. It reminds me of Chris Rock in Bring the Pain.

It's the media. It's the media. It's the media's fault. We all know that if Grassley called out some of these actions, it would be wall to wall coverage. This man is he is gaslighting these people and just staying there and lying. And I'm glad to see that you got Republicans. I says another video. It was from a town hall in Wyoming.

Because, you know, the former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson passed away on March 14th. And this woman stood up and she said, you know, I am a Alan Simpson Republican. And she was going off. She was a veteran, was going off. And so this heat needs to continue. And the Republicans can keep trying to say these are Soros funded protests. They learning real quick. No, no, no. It's y'all Republicans. It's some pissed off Republicans. And I keep saying, Matt, Matt, the only way these things change, if more and more white people get pissed off.

Yeah, and to that end, this morning, consider this. NPR ran a story on podcast about farming and how uncertain things are for farmers and agriculture in the United States. Well, the state of Iowa in 2022, 22% of its GDP came from agriculture, corn, soybeans, and other crops. You know, when you're imposing tariffs, that makes it such that, you know, other countries don't want to buy these crops, especially when, for instance, when I was listening this morning, if Brazil has a big soybean crop, you know, American soybean farmers have significant issues moving their crops. It makes it much harder when the government is working actively against USDA,

as we've seen reports where they're not honoring previous contracts and they're not, you know, earmarking the same number, same amount of money. And to that end, I'm on the local food bank here in my area. And I read a New York Times article today that said that Feeding America, which is the organization over food banks, is expecting considerably less money this year from the USDA, which will mean that far fewer people can get food from food banks. And I think in Iowa, especially in a place like Iowa, where it's ethnically homogenous for the most part, primarily white people there, you know, they're feeling the effects of these Trump policies on the ground, because many of them are receiving farm subsidies. There are 97,000 farms in Iowa.

So I'm sure somebody in that room with Chuck Grassley is connected to a farm that does not know how it's going to move its crop. And when the government is not helping you, and that's what the government has done for decades, you're feeling it on the ground, the effect of those policies. So it doesn't surprise me. And I think this is exactly the kind of thing that needs to take fire across the United States. And you need to see exactly what you're saying. This is not Soros Democrats. This is not AOC or whomever you're trying to make the far left, you know, this scary, bad Marxist. This is not Soros Democrats. This is not AOC or whomever you're trying to make the far left, you know, this scary, bad Marxist. This is the person down the road from you whom you think is a normal American or, you know, the prototypical white American who is realizing that now they

voted for a person who is working actively against their interests, despite what they were told. So we're seeing that. And for Grassley to stay in there and act like, oh, it's the media, when what's really happening is all of these cowards in Congress and in government are afraid that they're going to draw Trump's ire, so they're just rubber-stamping everything, which makes no sense to me, because if all of them stood against him and said,

look, man, you don't got that kind of juice, then they would be able to make things happen in a way that they're not completely cutting out their base and completely just capitulating to the authoritarianism that we're seeing. So I think it's going to require profiles and courage, not only from Democrats, not only from people on the other side, but from people within that party. And we are not seeing that yet. So if y'all want to see the sheer stupidity, and again, the dumbass in chief is Donald Trump.

In the Oval Office today, Fox News' Peter Doocy asked the idiot whether he would be concerned about whether Canada became a state. And I just want you to understand. Canada is a country. A country. Now, a huge part of America was created through the Louisiana Purchase. Texas had a revolution over slavery as they became independent from Mexico and later joined the United States. So this idea that, oh yeah, Canada is just going to become a 51st state, it's crazy. And his was also stupid.

And this is why these right-wingers are really dumb, because they go along with Trump. Do y'all understand that if Canada became a state, Canada would have two Democratic United States senators? And Canada would have so many congressional seats. The Democrats would control the House. But don't mind the facts. So this is only for comedic purposes. In fact, control room,

I need y'all to change the lower third. I need you to change that lower third. Okay. I need that lower third to say, this is for comedic purpose only. This is for comedic purposes only. No, no, get rid of that. Get rid of that.

I need that lower third to say, this is for comedic or entertainment purposes only. That's what I want the bottom to say. See, I'm going to take you all back. When I was at CNN, we were talking about Donald Trump. And I said this. I said, anytime Trump comes to this network, we should have a crawl at the bottom and say,

this is for entertainment purposes only. And Ken Jouts, who was executive vice president, literally sent me an email telling me not to criticize Donald Trump when he was coming on the network. And I was like, are you serious? Y'all, that was literally the executive vice president at CNN who sent me that email. And so this was, let me know when y'all have it ready,

because I want it, I'm not going to run this video unless it's at the bottom. But this dumbass just sits there and just says stuff. And then y'all going to hear something in there. Well, I don't know. How is this perfect line drawn to create the border. I keep telling y'all this man is stupid. You know, Robert Kennedy Jr.

admitted to having a worm in his brain. I think this fool got a worm in his brain because I swear he says some of the dumbest stuff you've ever heard in your life. Oh, yeah. You know, I just, I don't know. They just drew a line. They just drew a line.

And it was perfect. And how did they come up with the line? So, y'all don't have it ready yet? Because I got to go ahead and play it. All right, let's go ahead play it are you concerned that if they became the 51st state they would be a very very blue state very very big and very very blue now there might be but it would you know you have that artificial line that goes that straight artifact that looked

like it was drawn by a ruler. Somebody with a, I don't mean a ruler like a king. I mean like a ruler, like a ruler. This way. And it's just an artificial line that was drawn in the sand. Or in the ice. Can I tell you, Peter, just, you add that to this country, what a beautiful landmass. The most beautiful landmass anywhere

in the world. And it was just cut off for whatever reason. It would be great. Now, is it liberal? Maybe. But, you know, a conservative, until I got involved, because I don't care who wins up there, I frankly probably would do better with a liberal than the conservative if you want to know the truth.

But just a little while ago, before I got involved and totally changed the conservative, if you want to know the truth. But just a little while ago, before I got involved and totally changed the election, which I don't care about, probably it's to our advantage, actually, but the conservative was leading against... 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 two of the war on drugs. 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 a Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman trophy winner. It's just the compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King,

John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

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

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. Call him Governor Trudeau. The conservative was leading by 35 points. So, you know, so I don't know about that. I think Canada is a place like a lot of other places. If you have a good candidate, the candidate's going to win. Now we already know this fool can't read. So he has no idea that the French used to control that area, now known as Canada.

Then there was a war, and they handed it over to Great Britain. And then a law was passed creating the province of Canada. And that's what led to Canada becoming its own country. So he's talking about a line being drawn. Do y'all realize that that territory, now known as Canada, dates back to 1534?

1534. You know, it's real hard for me to have to deal with stupid people. So if the province what we now know is the country of Canada dates back to 1534 Madam Michael do y'all

do y'all know when the pilgrim showed up that would have been 16 we talking about 1620 on the Mayflower. 80 years later. 80 years later. This fool. How was this perfect line just drawn? The area existed before the Department of Education.

This is why this is what this this is what this is why they want to ban books. This is why these dumbass right wingers. I mean, I just saw a video of some dumbass white couple in Texas whose child died from the measles, and they were like, well, we still don't believe in vaccines, and it was God's will for our child to spend the few years they did

on Earth. These people, the Republican Party appeals to stupid people. And you shouldn't call voters stupid. Yes, I can call people stupid who exhibit stupid tendencies. And they love this idiot. They love this fool who can't read. They just love, it's just a perfect line that was

just drawn. We have a dumb ass sitting in the Oval Office making monumental decisions and 71% of the voters in the last election were white, and these white folks just love this dumbass sitting there saying stuff like this. Yeah, well, remember a few years ago, Donald Trump said he loves the uneducated. And this is an example why. He absolutely does. He's ignorant of history.

That is his wheelhouse. He'll mention it He's ignorant of history. That is his wheelhouse. The uneducated is his wheelhouse. Yep. He'll talk about 1776, but he's probably ignorant of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 or the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the

Compromise of 1850, which allowed, which reorganized the land that the U.S. got from Mexico, from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, which ended the Mexican-American War. He's ignorant of all of this. the U.S. Department of Education, even though the Department of Education does not set curriculum. That's set at the state and local level, but also the attack on higher education. Dictators cannot control people who are highly educated, who understand how law works and things like this. So this is a concerted effort to continue to dumb down Americans. And Americans are very ignorant of history, law, politics,

how the economy works, things like this. But Trump wants them even dumber, okay? So when we look at this attack on the Department of Education, once again, this goes back to the fight after Brown v. Board of Education and the IRS threatening to take away the nonprofit status of these Christian schools, these segregation academies that refused to desegregate and were using vouchers, giving them to poor white children to keep the schools segregated. OK. And then when the Department of Education is created in 1979

by Congress signing the law with President Jimmy Carter, you had immediate backlash to it by conservatives. Ronald Reagan wanted to dismantle the Department of Education. He didn't do it. But now you have Donald Trump trying to fulfill that promise. And this goes back to this divide between the South and the North as well. No, no. It really goes

to the divide of smart and dumb, Matt. I mean, I'm sorry. I just I can't. See, we love to sit here. No, no, we shouldn't say that about people. We shouldn't say that because, you know, we should be listening to them. No, I'm sorry. I don't know about y'all,

but if I'm at a dinner conversation and somebody's just dumb and they're just saying dumb stuff, I just can't sit there in front and listen to it and go, hmm, that's an interesting point. Sorry, I can't. I just don't have it in me. Yeah, but see, I think it's way more sinister than smart and dumb because, yeah, I don't think Trump is particularly smart. But the people he's surrounded himself with are smart at trying to do whatever they can to be dastardly and evil. And that's leverage uneducated people. I mean, that's the only reason there'd be more white people on welfare and people would vote against, programs, right? White people in the southern states that are overwhelmingly on welfare

would vote against it or vote for the candidate who's against that because they're not educated. And I think the sinister part of it is, all of these people in his orbit are people who are leveraging that lack of knowledge. The other thing that I think is kind of crazy about this is we know he's full of contradictions and just straight up lies. But the idea that it's an arbitrary line, interestingly, doesn't apply when it comes to immigration, right? Because all of these land

masses, all of these nation states are things that came about one day, but they're arbitrary. The Rio Grande is a river that separates Mexico and Texas, but it's an arbitrary line. Before that, people lived on both sides, and there was not the United States and the country of Mexico. Those things are all relatively recent in the course of human history. So to act like, oh, there's an arbitrary line separating the United States and Canada, like all of these are not arbitrary lines, and like indigenous people did not live here for millennia before it was ever found by Europeans is one of those things that you don't bring up because it's not about the actual facts. It's about the rhetoric and it's about the vibes, if you will. And the vibes are,

I'm Trump. I say whatever I want to say. I'll call out whoever I want to call out. I'll make fun of people. I mean, we all know Canada is a sovereign country, right? But to call him Governor Trudeau, that's about getting at Trudeau and trying to undermine him and his authority more so than it is anything else. I mean, nobody realistically thinks Canada is going to become the 51st state. And even with that, all those Canadian provinces have unique cultures in and of themselves. Alberta is basically the Texas of Canada. You go to York or you go over to Toronto, it's completely different in terms of how it is constituted.

So that's not a thing that would even happen within one state, having that kind of multiplicity of cultures and things to the extent that they've existed in these separate provinces. But to me, this is a matter of the sinister and the evil, and that's just always advancing their goal. It's not about smart and dumb, because they know nobody is dumb enough to really think Canada's going to become the 51st state. Maybe a small group of people out there, but I can't imagine that's a real thought. All right, folks, this just ends some breaking news. These, Donald Trump and his fellow racists, they are revoking the legal status of more than half a million migrants. And these are individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Now, we know he didn't give a damn about the Haitians. But I'm sure all those Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who voted for him are going, what happened? How did you do it to us? So Trump and his bigots are terminating their work permits, removing the deportation protections under an immigration authority known as parole will take effect in late April. And this is a notice that was posted by the federal government. And in this notice, give me one second, it says termination of parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. And yeah, and what they are urging them, Matt, to self deport.

That's man. I mean, I don't put anything past this administration. And you said Venezuelans are in that group, right? I haven't read that order myself. But did you say Venezuelans are also in that group? Is that correct? Yes. Cubans? Yeah.

The order is very specific. The order is very specific. And we're going to pull it up in a second. Let me, literally, this just came down. Give me one second um let me i'm sending this to the control room so the order says um the order says uh department of homeland security termination of parole processes for cubans ha Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. Well, it's interesting that that's happening at the same time he's trying to use the

Alien Enemies Act to... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

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

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

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a 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, It's really, really, really bad. Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

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

thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts 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. Deport, you know, a number of people from Venezuela in particular by trying to claim that Tren de Agua is invading the United States. And, you know, mentioning that same podcast I was talking about earlier, We the People, I was listening to it this morning, and they were talking about whether invasion has ever been construed in the way he is trying to const this morning. And they were talking about whether invasion has ever been construed in the way he is trying to construe it. And what's interesting about that is the legal scholars are trying to conceptualize and consider something that I don't think is really being considered from

the White House. I don't think they're looking at the legality of things. I think what they're doing is continuing to push the bounds and just throwing everything out that they want to, you know, that's along with their ideology and just saying, test us, take it to the courts and see what the courts do. But if I heard you correctly, this is about people who were granted parole during the Biden administration. Is that correct? Yep. Go back to 2022. Yep. Okay. So not only is it about advancing the deportation agenda, but it's the same thing we're seeing in lockstep with everything being about the alleged prior administration making you less safe, making this country less profitable and needing to undo a lot of the Biden era

policies, which we know were the right policies as it relates to immigration or human rights and in a lot of different respects. But this is just dovetailed with that. I mean, that's what you see this administration do. Everything that they put out, they couple with the Biden administration was wrong, they were making you less safe or whatever else they were allegedly doing. And that's why we're taking this unprecedented, unconstitutional action. So this doesn't surprise me. And look, they also lie, Michael. I mean, they deported folks to an El Salvador prison and said they were gang members.

One, they were like one guy who had a gang tat. It wasn't a gang tat. It was a soccer tat. The guy was persecuted under the Venezuelan president, Maduro, and deported them. Then they had to admit in court that most of these people were not criminals. They had no criminal record.

They're liars. They literally lied. They went on television and lied. They went on radio, online and lied. They are liars. I do not trust anything that comes from Donald Trump, Elon Musk, or J.D. liars. I do not trust anything that comes from Donald Trump, Elon Musk

or J.D. Vance. None of them. In fact, J.D. Vance is such an asshole he actually did an interview where he claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris was taking four shots of vodka every morning. I mean, these people are pathetic. Well, yeah.

This is what we wanted people about before the election, when J.D. Vance was lying, saying that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, were eating dogs and cats. And then he doubled down and tripled down on that lie, even though they were getting death threats and bomb threats and things of this nature. And Donald Trump spread that lie as well. And at the same time, if people remember correctly, Donald Trump ordered House Republicans to kill the strongest border bill in 30 years

so that he could run on immigration and cracking down on the border, things like this. OK, so these people are frauds. They're dangerous frauds. I'm looking at the piece here from The Guardian. Trump revokes the legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Now, going back to February 3rd, 2025, the Department of Homeland, I think it was Department of Homeland Security

announced that they were going to revoke the temporary protective status of 350,000 Venezuelans. The Venezuelans in Florida were furious because many of them voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election. And they said they felt betrayed. The Trump surrogates and things like that told them, you know, you're safe, things like that. We're going to deport the—it's going to be the bad people that get deported, OK? So this is this white nationalism that's all throughout Project 2025. This is what we're seeing taking place right here. And at the same time, he wants to invite white South Africans to immigrate to the U.S., OK? At the very same time, he wants to deport these people and strip the parole status from 240,000 Ukrainians.

He's inviting white South Africans to come to the U.S. I wonder why. Because they're being persecuted, right? He says they're being persecuted, right? He says they're being persecuted. They're being persecuted in South Africa. And they make it a point to beat the drum to show that white people that they think are the ones that are okay, right, are being persecuted. And South Africa, we're going to do all these bad things to you, right, unless you stop taking the land. They say it's a land grab in South Africa. They're victimized. And all this has to do with perpetuating white grievance.

And what they're doing with the various civil rights departments now is shifting the focus to focus on white discrimination and laws against white people. This is the whole game. Oh, yeah. That's what they're doing. All right, y'all. I'm going to go to a break. We come back. More to talk about. Don't forget to support the work we do. Join our Bring the Funk Fan Club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each

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This is Tamela Mann. And this is David Mann. And you're watching Rolling Mark. On Twitter. Getting Jelana Jones. One second. Wait.

So. Let's go. All right. I was in Austin a couple days ago, and I was chatting with State Representative Jelana Jones. And again, we talk about how elections have consequences. So yesterday, when Donald Trump signed that BS executive order shutting down the Department of Education, guess who was all there?

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and the thuggish Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Three of the, if you want to say those are the three students of Texas, three of the dumbest people in Texas, okay? So they have been attacking public education as well. So just as you have Trump trying to shut down the Department of Education, you have Republicans here in Texas who are desperately trying to shut down blue counties like Harris County. So one of the things they did was order the Texas Education Agency to take over the Houston Independent School District.

Well, a lot of parents have been upset by that, and so I caught up with Representative Jones about the takeover of the largest school district in the country by state government, and here's our conversation. All right, folks, Roland Martin here, Roland Martin Unfiltered. I'm here as State Representative Jelanda Jones at Texas State Capitol. What? OK, so what's the latest? What the hell is going on with the TEA taking over HISD? I got people who are teachers who are hitting me, all these principals who are leaving, getting transferred. What the hell is happening in my hometown of Houston?

So the mafia, which is T.A., Greg Abbott, Mike Miles, the appointed superintendent, and he's got a kangaroo court full of appointed board members, they are making H.I.'s ego broke. He is spending money without authorization. They are not making him be accountable. I saw a story and I'm confused as hell. I'm like, so

how he's spending money, didn't get approval, and then when y'all find out y'all sit here and backdate it? Well, why? No, no, no, no, no, no. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

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

signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care

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the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm like, well, why in the hell y'all there? Because they're there because Abbott appointed them. But my point is, if you and the Ad Council. I didn't get it twisted, but my point is, if you're on a board, you don't do stuff, you don't approve something after the fact. Exactly. And then it's like, oh, my bad. No, no, no, no.

You know whether, look, I own my company, so I ain't got to ask nobody to spend money. But if I was not owning the company, I would have to get approval before I would spend some money. He spent almost a half a million dollars on a play where he was a star, serious business. A play? A play. They did a play, and I guess he likes to act, and they spent over $500,000 for him to do a play, and he was acting. I swear on my daddy's line. Okay, all right.

And the board approved that. Now, the board approved it. A play, you know, you go to a play and people act like something. Yes, a play. And he was in it? He was a star of it. Okay.

So they're there to play games. They're there to act. They're not there to teach kids. And all the teachers, they've gotten rid of certified teachers and they're not paying them they brought in people I got a friend who says I'm Lisa's working at HSD used to work in McDonald's they had her as a teacher she's not certified so they got uncertified people teaching kids and they're manipulating data they're

literally only testing the smart kids. So it appears that their test scores are high. They're doing all these things. They spent, I can't remember how much. I want to say $4 million on a failed bond so that they could replenish their piggy bank. Now, we fought against it. So here's what people need to understand. Bond elections rarely ever fail.

Oh, now, that's true. Especially for school. You've got to really screw up bad for the voters to say hell no to a school bond election. With schools that are falling apart. That was an absolute protest vote where the public said, no, we are not about to hand you several billion dollars. That's what that was about. And again, I want people to understand across the country, bond votes for schools rarely fail. Right, but they always pass mostly because most people want to spend money.

They're willing to pay back bonds in order to give children good facilities and great environments to learn. So that says a lot about how Houston voters feel about what's happening with the school district. And let me tell you something. They have employment fairs at HISD all the time. They cannot get people to want to come in. Even people that he's brought in that were on his side, they realize that the systems that he has in place aren't educating kids. They leave. So you could have had a girl who worked at some fast food restaurant teaching your kid if you had HISD. And I hate to say this, Roland, if I had a school-age child, I would not send my child to HISD.

But this is where we also have connected dots here that people need to understand. The law allowed for the governor to do this. The governor is elected. When Beto ran against Abbott, 75% of voters in Texas, 30 and under, did not vote. So the problem that I keep saying, even in our communities, in many of our communities, we're not voting in our capacity. I've been saying that I need black folk

to be voting at 70% of our capacity. And what's happening is, it's all like, well, they're going to win anyway, so it's 38, it's all like, well, they're going to win anyway. So it's 38. It's 42. Right now in Louisiana, folk are all upset. MAGA Jeff Landry. And I'm like, he was MAGA Attorney General. He wanted to essentially open up the juvenile records of largely black folks

only in two parishes in the entire state. Where the black people were living. But folks sat at home. So I need people to understand, when you do not vote, you are allowing an abbot to stay in power, to make this move. That is a political move to allot this takeover. And is there a limit of the takeover? How many years?

No, they can be there as long as they're not performing. They can be there. And here's what's crazy. You appoint a board of managers and you put miles in place because you say the schools are failing, which they weren't, by the way. But you're failing the schools, but they get to stay there as long as the schools are failing.

So I actually think it is in their best interest to make sure that the schools fail so that they can stay there under the illusion that they're actually trying to help. Because what people need to understand is that the Republican Party in Texas despises Harris County. Oh, they hate us. And people need to understand that was a time when Republicans were winning countywide. They were. That was a time when I was in Dallas County, working in Dallas County, where Democrats won Dallas County.

All of a sudden, Dallas County flipped. You had people like John Cruz, at the time, who was a judge, who ran as a Republican because he knew he could not win as a Democrat. Then that county then flipped back to blue. So the reality is Republicans in Texas, they can't stay in Harris County. They can't stay in Dallas County. And you know why they can't stay in Harris County. Well, they can't stay in Harris and Dallas, but they really can't stay in Harris County. For sure. There are so many only Harris County bills that are bad. So every other city in the state of Texas, the elected officials are living in their constituencies and they

know us best. They're being allowed local control. That's what it's called, local control. Which Republicans say they love. They say they love, oh no, not big government, local control. But not in Harris County. And they lost their minds. They woke up and there was a whole

bunch of black people judges. And they lost their minds. They woke up and there was a whole bunch of black people judges. They have lost their minds. So people understand in 2017, 18, well, that was the last one. They took office in 19. They passed. No, no. But they they they got rid of straight ticket voting. Yeah. In 17. But it was an 18 election was the last one. Because what happened was. And remember, Republicans, you should always take advantage of straight ticket voting in 17, but the 18th election was the last one because what happened was, and remember, Republicans used to always take advantage of straight ticket voting. But then Democrats in Harris County got organized, started winning, and Republicans in the state capital said, oh, hell no, we got to get rid of this. We don't want people to know if you're a Democrat or a Republican. So people just need to understand, no, we need to want the voters to think about their choices.

People just need to understand, people need to understand when you see these moves, withholding of a hurricane relief fund to Harris County, when you look at them changing the voting laws specifically for Harris County, people need to understand these are very specific, direct actions to penalize Harris County because they dare vote Democrat and not Republican. But let's also talk about the big elephant in the room. A whole bunch of black people got elected judge. So now, listen, they literally have not tried to change judicial requirements until a whole bunch of black people got elected. And now they were saying the judges are not qualified. A dude came and testified yesterday before the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee and talked about how the problem with the judges, for the most part in Harris County,

is that they are basically not smart enough, which is what they say about black people. They're not qualified, and they're the only ones who will take these low-paying jobs. Therefore, we need to increase the salary of the judges so that we can get better quality of people who actually know the law. So for the most part, they're saying black people, we dumb, we stupid, and we cheap, and we need to do better so that we can attract non-black, more qualified, smart white people. You need to send me that name so we can pull that video because I want to run that video on my show. But again, I just want,

I just need people to understand who are watching and who are listening to this. This is what we mean when we say elections matter. And there are results of elections. And if you win, winners get to control what's going on. So if you're upset right now with TEA taking over HHSD,

if you're upset with the cost of tax in Harris County, do understand it's also because folks choose to sit at home and allow these individuals to be elected. So I just want our folk to understand that if you don't mobilize and organize, this is how they stay in power. The reality is Abbott can be voted out. Dan Patrick can be voted out. These people can be voted out. But we have to have folk who are not so complacent where we say, well, you know what?

They're going to win anyway, so I don't have any power. Right. And true story, Roland, people stand in long lines, spend money they don't have to go see Beyonce. And I love Beyonce. She's from Houston. But my point is, my grandmother told me that you can tell what's important to people by how they spend their time and how they spend their money. It's that true. And so I'm telling you, we need to be terrified as black people about what's going on in Austin because all of the attacks are against us.

It is an attack on blackness. It is an attack on us. We are not funding HBCUs. We literally gave billions of dollars to PWIs and did not give money to HBCUs. They want us to have inadequate resources so that we cannot compete. Yep. See, what I need people to understand that this goes way beyond Washington, D.C. What people need to realize, and Matt, you're there in Corpus Christi. You're seeing this every single day. What the right wing is doing by having super majorities, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, they are looking to unleash their agenda, federal level, state level, local level. Black folks need to understand is that when you look at the population increases,

people are actually leaving the Midwest, the South, the Northeast, and the West for the South. There are people who literally, look, who are returning home. There are individuals who've left Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas. You have a reverse migration that's going on. As people are getting older, they want to return back, spend time with their families, and live their lives out this way. So what we need to understand, and Terrence Whitbury was discussing this yesterday, you've got massive voting power.

Texas has the largest group of eligible black voters in any state in the country. You look at Louisiana, you look at other places. But as long as we are not showing up using our power, these thugs, Matt, will get to make the decisions because too many of us are complaining about that, they know that the tide is turning. They know that Texas is going to be blue soon, which is part of the reason they're getting their tentacles into everything. I mean, I told you last time I was on the show that there's been a big fight here in Corpus Christi about the library board. There's literally a group of MAGA types who have infiltrated the library board. And if you read the local newspaper, a lot of the stuff that they're talking about is the books in the library. I mean, every aspect of government and every aspect of society, they're targeting. And part of it is because they know here in Texas, to your point,

that Texas is going to turn blue sooner than later. So they're trying to do everything they can to keep those little silos of power. Now, it's interesting that you and Jolanda were talking about Harris County, because you're exactly right. But my home county, Travis County, I would say would be second to Harris County in terms of their desire to not let them have local control. I mean, look at how they've attacked the DA there, how they've attacked the Austin City Council, how they've attacked the people in Austin, because Austin is a blue pocket in the state of Texas, right? And Greg Abbott is there, as you know. And they don't want local control there because that local control does not ideologically jive with what they think the rest of Texas should be out in West Texas and East Texas and other parts of the state. So you're exactly right. But what we as Texas Democrats have not done effectively, in my opinion,

is we have not countered on some of those things that we don't think of as being big-ticket items, where you're seeing the infiltration of these boards and usurpations of power, and then the governor appointing things. I'm glad you and Jolanda were talking about that, because that's one of the most insidious parts of this, that Abbott and his team are consistently finding things for him to appoint people to. And then, just like Trump, he's just telling those boards what to do. A good example of that is that Daniel Perry murder trial in Austin a couple of years ago, the guy who killed the veteran who killed the other veteran during a George Floyd protest. And remember Abbott came out on TV and said Daniel Perry never should have been

convicted. And then all of the people on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, whom he appointed, went along and rubber-stamped him pardoning a case where 12 people sat in a box, listened to all the evidence in super-liberal Austin, and decided this guy was guilty of murder. That's a perfect example of exactly what the Republicans are doing here. But I think they're running scared, because I think they know the numbers will very soon be in our favor, to your exact point. Look at how Houston's population has exploded over the last, what, 10 years? And a lot of those people that are coming in are not the archetypal Texas Republican. They're Black and non-white people from around the country who have moved to Houston and who have changed that demographic and made it where they're so

terrified of that county. So we need to keep our foot on the gas and really stay on their necks because the tide is going to turn very soon. But here's the problem with that, Michael. There's a difference between folks seeing the tide turning and then the tide actually turning. I'm going to go back to 2008, the election of Obama. Democrats, oh, we might see 20 years we control the presidency. The coalition, not realizing that you still have to,

you have to continue to build that coalition. What I see is I see too many people who give up. I also see people who are not mobilizing and organizing. I've said this numerous times and Beto O'Rourke ran against Greg Abbott for governor. 75% of voters in Texas, 30 and under, did not vote. They just didn't even show up. So it's a massive state, 254 counties. Democrats only have 81 to 83 counties where they have a county party. So the bottom line is, you're just sort of saying,

sure, dominate us in West Texas. Dominate us. Look, look, they're losing serious ground to Republicans and Latinos in South Texas. So what I keep telling people is I don't want to hear about demographics. I mean, this is what I mean. I don't want to hear about numbers because numbers mean nothing to me unless folks are turning out. Look, same thing there in Detroit.

Same thing there in Michigan. You've got places in Michigan, significant black population. Are they turning out? And they're not turning out in the numbers to offset the white turnout. Right, right. You know, part of this conversation, Roland, we had last night, I was on the panel discussion for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. They're having a 93rd Midwest Regional Conference here at the Renaissance Center here in Detroit. And I was on the panel discussion. And one of the things I was talking about is dealing with an attack on Black political power. OK. And we've had this conversation here before.

You've had Gary Chambers on here before. He's from Louisiana. And when we see historically the rewriting of those state constitutions during the Jim Crow era, Louisiana 1898, Mississippi 1890, that we talk about here, the Mississippi State Convention, they feared black people voting, specifically black men. OK, and we were voting in high numbers. And some of those laws, the felony disenfranchisement laws, and it's really people to understand how what we're dealing with here in the present is related to the collapse

of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era, because any time there are periods of perceived gains that African-Americans make, there's always a white backlash to that. And we should have seen this white backlash coming, because they put it in a book. It's called Project 2025, 922 pages. They spell out everything. But when we look at the felony disenfranchisement law that they passed in 1890 in Mississippi, if you were convicted of a felony, you lost your right to vote for life. It was specifically targeting the black political power there in Mississippi. That felony disenfranchisement law still exists. But here's the thing, though. They were not targeting, and this is the distinction I want people to understand. They were not targeting black voters. They were targeting black people who voted.

Now, why is that distinction important? Because, again, numbers mean nothing if you don't show up. Huge black population in Louisiana don't show up. So we are actually, and I need everybody to listen to what I'm saying right now. We are doing the job for them. We are making their job easy. They're like Donald Trump literally stood behind numerous podiums and microphones and said, black people, thank you for not voting. That was the greatest insult to black America, I'll say, in the last 40 years for somebody to say, Negroes, I appreciate your decision to sit your ass at home.

That's what he was saying. That should have pissed off more people. And that's the thing. They are happy when we are fixated on reality shows and other things and we're not showing up to the ballot box. Absolutely. And these are distractions. And they throw these distractions out here because they

fear black political power. They fear us voting in masses. Okay? And to show you that fear, Shelby County v. Holder, U.S. Supreme Court case 2013, which gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, that came after the after the reelection of President Barack Obama when we voted at historic numbers. That was

the first presidential election. I think we voted at 66.7 percent, I think it was, for African Americans. That was the first presidential election where the percentage of African American registered voters was greater than the percentage of white registered voters who voted. That scared the hell out of a lot of white people, a lot of white conservatives. They came back and attacked us in the courts. So what has to happen is, there has to be a direct connection between the conditions that we deal with and how policies that we vote for change those conditions for the better. A lot of times voting becomes an action that we're told to do, but sometimes we're not told what the benefit of voting is, the policies that get put in place, but also how to stop

and block what the adversaries are trying to do to you. You have to stop them and block them out at the ballot box. And you also have to understand that you have to fire and vote out the obstructionists who are trying to block you from getting what you want. And the last thing that I think a missing piece of this, and we talked about this in the previous election, you have to speak directly to low-wealth people or poor people, et cetera. Speak directly to them. talk to their issues, talk to their concerns.

In the 2025 election, and we supported VP Kamala Harris, they didn't mention poor people. They didn't talk about low wealth people, okay? And you're missing millions of people who don't hear their issues. 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.

With guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull, we'll 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. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir, we are back. In a big way.

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

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

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive.

But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council.

Issues spoken to directly. When you speak to their issues directly, this is what Reverend William Barber has been talking about. But here's the deal, though. We know Trump never spoke to those people as well. And it's two things. I absolutely believe you speak to the issues, but you also, people need to also be aware of what's actually being done as well. And guess what?

All I'm simply saying is if you are black and you believe voting is an option, then I don't want to hear anything from you. I don't want to hear you complaining about city services and school board and county and the state, whatever, because you chose to sit out. That's why I said it. Voters shut the hell up. And I'm sorry. We got people who love to complain. But if you choose to sit out of the process, you are part of the problem. Going to go to a quick break when I come back. John Leguizamo was on The View today. And man, he laid it out that, frankly, it ain't nothing but a Klan gathering in the Trump administration. We're going to show you what he had to say. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network.

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artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered though. I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered.

Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Well, actor John Leguizamo was never one to hold his tongue while he went on The View today. Had some choice words for the white supremacists who are running our federal government. Check this out.

According to you, DEI, which is what you say you are, stands for diligence, excellence, and imagination. That's right. So tell me what your reaction is to Trump's executive order to terminate all the DEI mandates, policies, and programs in the federal government. It's terrible. I mean, removing plaques of black and Latino and women heroes. Just, I mean, what kind of action is that? It's like a white-only club. DEI was supposed to be to help give us equity for black and Latinos

because we've been here for 500 years, 400 years, and, you know, there was segregation, lynching, redlining. We were experimented on. You know, we were kept from jobs, from, you know, going to the best places, churches, parks. This was to undo 500 years of being oppressed. Right. To give us equity, give us a chance to get to the same level as everybody else. Yes.

And I think Americans do want inclusion. I think Americans do want diversity. They grew up with Latino, black people, Asian and then they know that we have value their neighbors. They're in love with us You know, we're lovely people. We're very White people have been in control. They don't like it now that person to people who have Not right experience on white people. I don have not experienced. Some white people. I don't think it's all white people.

Of course not. Yeah, but some white people don't want that diversity. And that's why he has to demonize DEI. He has to make us feel like we're getting a leg up and we don't deserve it. But all the black and Latin people that I know who are in positions of power have to be five times better than their white brothers and sisters. Let's talk about our people. Let's talk about our people. Let's talk about the Latinos. You were very vocal, very active during the elections

into the Latino community. 46% voted in this country, Latinos in this country, ended up voting for Trump, despite the fact that he demonized Latinos, demonized immigrants every single day. And since becoming president, he's targeted, hunted them down. Yes. It's like basically pogroms.

They're coming after all these people that they said that were criminals. They're not criminals. There's no due process. You can say anybody's a gang member. And you saw that Fox clip where they said this kid is a gang member, but then they had shaved his head and the hair was still on the floor? To make them look like they're gang members. Because there's no due process.

Then you can call anybody a criminal. And you know these people are all, you meet immigrants, they're hardworking, lovely, decent, wonderful people. Yes, sir. Always welcome. Doing the jobs in this country that nobody else wants to do. We feed America, we serve America,

we build America, we give America everything, and they get nothing back. They're not taking from our services. They're not getting anything from us. But that's why they haven't released the identities of those Venezuelans that they have sent to the worst hellhole in the Western Hemisphere. Right, yeah.

Because they don't want us to know who they are because this is a made-for-TV farce. But they spoke in Venezuelan television in Spanish and said... I love what he said there, Matt, when he said, look, they want this to be a white-only club. That is the deal. When you see the attacks, when you see the attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion,

when you see the attacks on black history, when you see, oh, we made a mistake removing the dedications to Colin Powell and Medgar Evers and Jackie Robinson. It's okay. It was just a mistake. No, it was by design. It is by design. We keep saying this. The goal is erasure. The goal is to establish white supremacy. And that's what this whole focus is. And I need people also to understand these black people who call themselves MAGA, these black

conservatives, they're silent. They're saying nothing. They are proving of this. If you are Wesley Hunt, Burgess Owens, Byron Donalds, Tim Scott, you are silent. You are complicit.

You are literally participants in the erasure of your own people. That's if you consider black people to be your people. Matt? And because it's about white supremacy and it's about erasure, it's not even about having any kind of nuance in the conversation about programs that are actually intended to promote diversity. What it's about is making anything that is non-white be equivalent to this devil that you've called DEI. So what I mean is, you know, like Michael mentioned earlier about C.Q. Brown, I mean, from my understanding, this brother could not have been better credentialed, right? Better qualified for the job. But because he's black, it becomes he's unqualified. Everything's about

merit. And you create this dichotomy where you say there's a group of people who inherently have merit, and then there's a group of people who have no merit. The group of people who have merit are white people. The group of people who do not have merit are non-white people. And that binary conversation is what we're hearing with DEI. It's just a euphemism for black or non-white. And I think more often it's black than any other non-white group, but that's what it is. And that's what's insidious about it because it's crazy, right? Like what we were talking about earlier with the veterans, this shows you how all of this is amorphous and none of it is real. It's all just rhetoric as a means to an end. But if it's about veterans, you support veterans, you support heroes, then you don't inadvertently tell the people in

an Air Force training class or not teach them about the Tuskegee Airmen. I mean, it just doesn't make sense because objectively, those are heroes, right? Objectively, Jackie Robinson is a hero, as is Colin Powell. So to say, oh, we inadvertently removed it, no. That's one of those fake mea culpa's when you want to see how far you can get. And ultimately what you want to get to here, they want to get to, is erasing the contributions of black and other non-white people. And that's what it comes down to. But DEI is this dog whistle that has been made tantamount to black. It's not even a question about whether there's an actual program where the actual intention is

promoting black or brown or non-white people at the expense of white people. It's any black person who's in any role is inherently not qualified for that role. And that's the distinction we're seeing. And that's the rhetoric that they're running with. And that's why everything can be pointed to as DEI when there's no conversation whatsoever about an individual's merit and whether they're actually qualified for whatever position they have.

You know, people just need to understand it's a numbers game. It's a numbers game, Michael, when you look at voters, when you look at how white voters voted, when you look at their perspectives. And I mean, I hate to say I called it, but I did ever since 2009. I kept saying, y'all, we're living in this age of white minority resistance. And whether these white folks want to be overt or covert, they are saying exactly how they feel. They're saying exactly where they stand. And folks just need to understand that white fear is running rampant and it is driving American policy. Yeah. And a lot of this has to do with the fear of the browning of America and that by 2043, white people will

no longer be the majority population in this country. When you look at the U.S. census from 2020, the white population from the 2020 census was at 57 percent. That's the first time that the white population in this country has dropped below 60 percent since 1790, when the first census was taken. That scared a lot of people. And the attack that you see on DEI right now, there's this whole backlash to the racial reckoning that took place in this country after the death of George Floyd. And the ascent of diversity, equity and inclusion is something that was part of that racial

reckoning. So we're seeing this whole wiping out of basically 60 years of progress from the civil rights movement. We're seeing this all-out attack on it right now. And, you know, John Leguizamo is good that he was on The View today talking about this. Now, what gets left out of the conversation a lot of times is how DEI helps white women, okay? And white women need to be more vocal about protecting and saving DEI, because they've been benefiting a lot from it as well. DEI has become the new N-word in some respects, and it's used as a slur to say that people are unqualified. But at the same time, you've had white women who've gotten jobs, contracts, positions, things like this from this.

So this is this is part of this is part of the fight. And we see the attack on universities. And when you when you look at this mantle of the Department of Education, you know, one of the things they talk about is sending all this back to the states. And they talk about, you know, a woke ideology being taught in schools, et cetera. This is an all out attack right now that we're under. Well, and y'all have heard me say this before. We've talked about how when opioids first hit, how frankly, racism actually helped out black people. Y'all may say, what do you mean? White doctors were not prescribing opioids to African Americans

because they felt that black people were coming there trying to get high. Well, that began to change, and we have now seen the impact of African Americans dying due to opioids. Now, the Department of Health and Human Services says overall opioid deaths are starting to decline, but black families, again, are losing loved ones to overdoses at alarming rates. Advocates say resources and life-saving tools aren't reaching black communities. Hmm, sounds very similar to other health crises.

Joining us right now is Tracy Gardner, Executive Director of the National Black Harm Reduction Network. Tracy, glad to have you here. And, you know, the point I was just making there is that, and I said for years that, man, that was one of the examples where racism actually helped black people. I mean, racist white doctors were turning black people away. Well, that then began to change. So when you talk about a lot of Well, that then began to change.

So when you talk about a lot of these, and then what then happened was, Tracy, we saw during the 2016-2020 election, all of a sudden white people were asking for compassion for people who had drug problems. They were demanding intervention. They were demanding counseling, demanding rehabilitation. I remember a lot of black people said, man, I wish we had that sort of empathy when black folks were dealing with crack cocaine. So we're still seeing when you talk about the delivery of services to combat this, just like when it came to AIDS, when it came to other things, they're not reaching the black community in the same way.

And that's exactly the point. That's what we're talking about. These disparities continue and get especially noticeable or after health emergencies land, right? So National Black Harm Reduction Network, we're a fairly new organization, but the idea of black people needing to protect ourselves from systems is not a new idea, obviously. So we are joining Vital Strategies in a campaign that kicks off next week that's going to be called YouCanSaveLives.org.

That's the website. And it's basically about getting more naloxone into our communities in a way that simply hasn't been done. It's going to be kicked off, focusing on the seven cities where the highest rates of overdose among Black communities is happening, Louisville, Durham, Milwaukee, Albuquerque, Newark, and Detroit. And we are going to go all out making sure that naloxone is just as available as an EpiPen. It's 40% of people who die of an overdose. There's usually someone around. And so this is a tool that has not been made available in our communities, and we are going to kick this off to make sure it is.

It's a simple tool to save our own lives. So what are you looking at? So are you trying to get policy makers to make changes so that resources are coming to black communities? What are you asking of the community? What are you asking people to do? We are asking people to embrace this way that community can take care of itself. Again, what we talked about earlier, whether it was HIV or crack.

But when we are armed with the tools, we can keep ourselves healthy. So this, again, is something that you just don't find in our communities in the way that it is in other communities. The overdose mortality rate, the overdose death rate has gone down in white communities and continues to either hold steady or increase in black communities. And yet and still, we don't have these tools. Now, some of the issue is about the infrastructure that we don't have in our communities because of the war on drugs. And that is not that long ago when you think about investments into our community. But this is something that doesn't have to be about the... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news

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

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

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, 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 man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

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

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. Infrastructure. This is about a commitment to each other, that all of our lives are valuable, and that there's something we can do to save our loved ones with this simple tool. Questions from the panel. Matt, you go first. Okay, Tracy, I was reading in preparation for today that the number of overdoses has gone down, I think, in the last couple of years.

But what I didn't see represented in that article was what percentage of overdoses in the last, let's say, five years have been black people and opioids, and how specifically this is affecting our community in those seven cities that you mentioned. What are the numbers look like, number one, and what do they look like comparatively to the white numbers? And the reason I ask that is because one of the things that makes a lot of us bellyache, obviously, is that there was never any empathy or compassion for Black people during, you know, the height of the war on drugs, right? But now we're seeing this characterized in a different way. And I'd love to get your insight on how the numbers bear out and also what you're seeing from a policy perspective

as it relates to the black group of people who are affected in this way. Okay, so it is true that the deaths, the opioid overdose deaths have declined up to 24 percent. But that obscures what is going on in just about any black community in this country, from New York to Detroit. And we chose Vital Strategies and the network chose these cities because it's a disproportionate rate of deaths happening relative to the population of Black folks in these communities. And so we have always borne the brunt of emergencies, primarily because we have made emergency responses.

We need to be alerting, right? When fentanyl came into the system, this was starting to take out so many black folks in ways that folks didn't even know. Older black men wiped out from the introduction of fentanyl to the system, but there was no response when, there wasn't any response when it started happening to our elders, but then when it went into the white communities,

there was a marshalling of efforts and a quick availability of these tools, whether it's naloxone, which a lot of people know as Narcan, test strips, treatment, all these ways that became from the empathy that was being felt for and by Black people or by white people, that did not happen for us, right? And there's been a lot of stigma. And the stigma in some parts is a little bit self-imposed, but it's also part of the whole campaign to make us be less than, to dehumanize, and to be absolutely unmindful of the challenges that we were looking at in a particular study from Georgetown. The rate of overdose death was higher for Black individuals than white through 2022 and 2023. Black men, 54 to 73, are four times more likely to die of overdose. Our young people are taking pills, drinking lean, and don't know that these are opiates, and they are at risk. And we need to be able to identify when someone's in an overdose and then be able to have those tools available. Next week, when we have our press conference,

we're going to hear from a black mom from Bowie, Maryland. Her name is Kimberly. And her son overdosed in the bedroom next to her home office. And she looked everywhere for the Narcan and couldn't find it. And it turned out, tragically, that it was in his pocket. We need to make sure that it's everywhere. It doesn't matter if you use drugs or not. It is about having a tool just like an EpiPen, just like an AED available to be able

to stop a death. Michael. Tracy, in the article that you wrote, you just you talked about something that you just hit on, how some of these drugs aren't cast as opioids. And you talked about drugs popularized in hip-hop culture, like Percocet and lean, aren't cast as opioids. Can you talk about how that makes it really challenging for what it is that you do, trying to make more people aware of these life-saving medication and access to it? And also, are you getting any support from African-American celebrities, any support from the hip-hop community, et cetera? Right. Okay. So let's be clear. Percocets, lean, those are opioids. And that is why we are seeing

young people, older people mixing it with alcohol. People are dying of overdose deaths, and sometimes people will be right around them and not know that they are dying from their overdose. They may think they're asleep or just, you know, passed out. And so, you know, to your question, there hasn't been a lot of engagement by Black leaders, Black electeds, Black celebrities. And, you know, it would go a long way to helping dispel that the initial awareness of the overdose epidemic was portrayed as affecting white folks. This has not been the case all along. So the narrative of white overdose has obscured what has been going on in our Black communities. And the shame and the stigma make it difficult for folks to come

forward and talk about it. That makes it difficult. We still have challenges getting connected to treatment, Medicaid, insurance, all of these things that are barriers to us getting care are happening while the numbers are going down in white communities. And so part of it is we don't have a champion, right? That's in part why the network got started, so we can elevate the folks who've been doing work, fighting HIV, fighting health epidemics in our community, but also to be able to try to identify a champion to take away the stigma of this. Look what magic did with HIV. We do not have one single celebrity that you can mention that is associated.

And there is no question in my mind that the viewers, people have lost folks to overdose. People have had family members and friends struggle with substance use, with addiction, and we can't pretend it doesn't happen to us. We have to take charge of it because we're not going to get any help from you know where. This is about organizing and mutual aid, and we have a simple way to do it. Okay, thank you. All right. Well, Tracy, if folks want to reach out to your organization, where do they go? If they want to, they're going to go to youcansavelives.org.

The press conference is on March 26th, but all the information is at that website. And, you know, again, we'd love the support for the National Black Harm Reduction Network. We're new, and we want to do for our folks what we know is needed. All right. Well, Shirley, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland.

Folks, the white West Virginia couple convicted for using their black adopted children as slaves, well, they're going to spend a long time in prison. They got sentenced to a combined 375 years. Donald Ray Lance received a sentence of 160 years after being found guilty of forced labor, human trafficking, child abuse, and neglect. Jean Kay Whitefeather was sentenced to 215 years

for the same charges in addition to violating her children's civil rights. The couple was arrested in 2023 following a wellness check during which authorities discovered two of their five adopted children locked in a shed on their property. The shed contained only a small porta potty and lacked running water. A 14-year-old boy was reportedly found with open sores on his bare feet. The children told authorities that they were forced to sleep on the concrete floor without a mattress or any padding. Well, I'm sure there are going to be some people waiting in prison to make them their slaves, Matt. Oh, yeah, and they deserve every bit of what they're about to get.

And I'm glad they got that many years. I was very glad to see they got in the hundreds of years because this is abhorrent. One thing I did wonder, though, is how long did this go on before that person saw it and made that welfare check? Because if they had these teenagers out there working on this farm in that land, surely people saw it and didn't question it. I don't know how it persisted as long as it did, whatever period of time that was. But I'm glad that she threw the book at him. And the judge's comments on this were very strong. So I'm glad to see that this outcome happened.

Indeed, indeed, indeed. Michael? Yeah, this is a tragic story. I'm glad they're caught. I'm glad they're going to prison. One was sentenced to 160 years in prison. But, you know, this is horrible. But this also speaks to the crisis when it comes to black adoption and the need for more African-Americans to adopt, you know, African-American children as well.

So, yeah, this is a tragic story. Hopefully these children get the help that they need to repair the psychological damage over time that they suffered. Absolutely. Folks, last weekend, first of all, remember on our March 4th broadcast, Tiffany Lofton told us about the Student Association having their legislative conference in D.C. and how they need to raise about $39,000 for some students at Florida A&M to attend. Well, folks, because of y'all largesse, we raised way more than that. And those students are actually going to be meeting this weekend at LedgeCon, the conferences course, where students can learn the basics of advocacy. And I'm going to be speaking to them tomorrow.

So, yeah, it's taking place this weekend. And so, the students from FAMU put this video thanking those of us for helping to raise the money to get them to D.C. From FAMU to you, thank you! Thank you, Roland Martin and supporters for helping us Rattlers get all the way to D.C. to continue our advocacy efforts. We appreciate you.

Enjoy the show! Alright, so I look forward to seeing them tomorrow there at Florida A&M. Michael, Matt, thank you very much for joining us on today's show. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, don't forget, support the work that we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. If you want to support our efforts, please do so.

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colonoscopy on monday uh don't forget brothers 50 and over actually i think they changed the rough i think they say that even even earlier so just check with your doctor but we need to make sure that we are getting our colon check uh so get your colonoscopy so i'm doing mine on monday so i won't be on the show monday i'll be back on tuesday so i will have a guest host on monday until then i'll see y'all y'all be sure to take care I won't be on the show Monday. I'll be back on Tuesday. So we'll have a guest host on Monday. Until then, I'll see y'all. Y'all be sure to take care. Howl! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm out. Thank you. 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 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? 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 Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

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

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