#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Fighting Against Neo-Segregationists, Sen. Ted Cruz Donor Documents Leaked, LA's 10 Commandments Law

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

6.20.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Fighting Against Neo-Segregationists, Sen. Ted Cruz Donor Documents Leaked, LA's 10 Commandments Law Color of Change launches a campaign against Goldman Sachs and other groups funding neo-segregationists.  Rashad Robinson is here to explain why and who they are going after.  A reporter finds documents revealing some donors of Texas Senator Ted Cruz. That reporter will be here to explain how he came across them and what information he found about the folks donating to Cruz.  Louisiana becomes the only state requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school and college classroom. We'll talk to the Senior Director for Courts and Legal Policy at the Center for American Progress about whether this is the church crossing over too much into the state.  #BlackStarNetwork advertising partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase Poor People's Campaign 👉🏾 Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls 6.29.2024👉🏾 https://vist.ly/37jmv#PoorPeoplesCampaign #2024 #2024Election #MoralMarch #Vote2024 #SocialJustice #EmpowerThePeople Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. 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.

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

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Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Thank you. Hey, folks. Today's Thursday, June 20th, 2024. Coming up on Roller Marked Unfiltered, streaming live on the Blackstrike Network. I'm live here in Los Angeles where I'm participating in Netflix's Beverly Hills Cop Junkie. We'll tell you more about that later. Color Change is launching an initiative against Goldman Sachs and other groups that are funding what they call neo-segregationists.

We'll talk with their leader, Rashad Robinson, about this effort. Goldman Sachs and other groups that are funding what they call neo-segregationists. We'll talk with their leader, Rashad Robinson, about this effort. Also, a reporter finds a file regarding some revealing information regarding downloads of Senator Ted Cruz. He posted on Twitter, so why is Elon Musk blocking that information from going out to the public? We'll talk with that reporter. Also, Louisiana becomes the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be posted in all of its school classrooms. That likely is going to violate the United States Constitution. Also, folks on the show, we'll talk about the latest in the political campaign

as things get geared up for the November election. Lots to discuss. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Marcon Filchert of the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks

He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's rolling Martin Rolling with Roland now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's Roland Martin now. Martin! folks we look at the attacks against african-americans and others across the country uh you have uh these folks who are neo-segregationists the issue is how are they

being funded well today color change launched a campaign against goldman sachs foundation fidelity charitable swap charitable vanguard charitable and national philanthropic trust campaign against Goldman Sachs Foundation, Fidelity Charitable, Swap Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and National Philanthropic Trust. They say that they are funding groups, individuals like Christopher Rufo, Stephen Miller, Chris Kobach, and Ed Bloom. Color of Change says they've received some $24.5 million from these groups in the last several years. Joining us right now is Rashad Robinson,

who is the president of Color of Change. Rashad, glad to have you here. So, Rashad, walk us through this. And so, how are they funding these hardcore right-wing neo-segregationists who are attacking a number of programs that specifically benefit African Americans and others? Thanks for having me, Roland. So, basically, you know, we've been working with researchers and others for quite some time, really looking into how these folks, as well as other white nationalists and other white nationalist sympathizers, are getting their money. And what we've been able to identify is that, you know, at these institutions—

Goldman, which you named, Fidelity, Vanguard, National Philanthropic Trust—they host things called donor-advised funds, these funds where people put their money in, and they're able to move it without a lot of sort of fanfare behind the scenes, oftentimes getting 501 right-offs, tax benefits for giving this money, and not a lot of transparency. And so, money goes to these places. Goldman employees are sometimes given matches for putting money into these donor-advised funds, meaning they put money in, and then the company puts money behind their money, doubling or tripling those donations. And what we've watched over time as a result is now you have this well-organized, well-financed,

sort of secretive, you know, program of funding the very people who are attacking us. Meanwhile, when Goldman or these other companies say they're supporting us or supporting black-owned companies, they launch big press releases. And then, when they come under attack, they slowly and quietly pull back that money, all while giving money to the institutions funding us. It is the kind of ultimate trick bag that we're being put in. And I think it's really important that we hold these institutions accountable, that we highlight this, that we raise it with employees.

But most importantly, we raise it with people who are putting their money in, that we're not going to let them do this in silence. So, again, for people who don't quite understand, and I have been saying this on this show, trying to understand you have a well-connected, well-funded effort that is targeting black folks in all these different programs. This is not just happenstance. When you look at these lawsuits, you look at how they're raising their money. When you look at where the money is coming from, you have folks with significant positions who are doing this, and they are specifically attacking programs that help African Americans. None of these people are working for free, Roland. And so part of, you know, what I've always looked at—and you know this, because we've

come on and talked—we've talked about this stuff for years—is that you always do have to file the money, because the infrastructure is being supported. I mean, they're going after our money, right, in some ways. They're going after the supports and the infrastructure. The attack on the Fearless Fund is an attack on a piece of infrastructure that is trying to make it create economic opportunity for Black women, right? And so they're not doing this without resources and with support. And some of the same people in the institutions that say that they love us, that say that Black Lives Matter, that pledged all sorts of money and support, have now sort of turned around and are now moving money to our very opponents. And it may seem like they're playing both sides, but they're actually not.

It's been 24.5 million that we've been able to sort of identify that's gone to neo-segregationists and related groups, just from these sort of four sort of charitable trusts. When we get on the phone with, let's say, a Goldman Sachs, something they'll say to us is like, oh, we know that some of our money went to, you know, Ed Blum or Stephen Miller or Chris Kobach. We know that some of our money went there, but we also donated money to black women. As if donating money and supplying resources to black women organizations is the other

side of donating to white nationalists. It's also just an offensive affront that there's like two sides to the story of white nationalists. It's also just an offensive affront that there's, like, two sides to the story of white nationalists. There's two sides to the story of segregation. There's two sides to the story of closing the door to educational opportunities, closing the door to employment opportunities, closing the door to government contracts, because that is exactly the sort of world that these neo-segregationists are trying to promote. And they're promoting it with dollars and money from people who, you know, stand up during Black History Month and try to claim that they're supporting us.

Well, when you talk about Goldman Sachs, and so they announced this, you know, big fund helping black women. But that's the very type of programs that Ed Bloom is trying to get rid of by suing. Absolutely. So, you know, and this is actually the trick Goldman—I mean, this is actually the trick that Goldman is putting to us, right? Because it's almost like they announce these programs. They fund the people who are attacking the programs. They don't fully fund the programs, and they say they can't fully fund are attacking the programs. They don't fully fund the programs. And they say they can't fully fund them, because the programs are now illegal.

But they funded the whole sort of process to make them illegal in the first place, so that what they do is they sort of look like they are supporting us. They try to get credit from our community. And then, when the programs can't actually be implemented or fully funded, they say, oh, that's not us. We wanted the programs the whole time. We just can't actually do it because of new restrictions or new laws, but not telling us that they actually funded the process to get to those restrictions, to get to those laws, because they actually, at the end of the day, didn't really want a world of diversity. And you only have to look at sort of their senior-level management.

You only have to look at sort of the people in the most senior-level positions of power in these companies to say that they have done an awful job of diversity in their own house. So this funding or these claims of funding that are starting to dry up are not just a mistake. They're drying up because it's fully the intention of these companies to never have to fully make good on these commitments. So, this campaign, what are you trying to achieve? What do you want folks watching and listening to do? So, we want you to go to colorofchange.org. We

want you to sign the petition. What we are doing is we're now raising attention around these donor advised funds. Over the coming weeks, we're going to be sort of exposing more donor advised funds. We're in behind-the-scenes conversations with these companies. We will be also trying to unearth the donors that are, you know, putting money into these funds, but also putting folks on notice. Part of the challenge that we have, Roland, is that the only people that we see speaking right now and pushing back is the other side. They're going after our resources and our money.

And Color of Change is a national civil rights organization that doesn't raise money from these corporations. We're fully focused on what does it mean to hold them accountable. And so we will be pushing back. We will be exposing their donors. We'll be engaging with attorneys generals and states, because some of these companies made really big statements in 2020 about the money they were giving to black equity and black equality and didn't make good on some of those commitments. But when making those commitments, they got all sorts of stock bumps. They got all sorts of publicity.

And they didn't make good on their fiduciary responsibility to actually deliver on those commitments that they made public. So part of this strategy is really shining a light and shedding a light. It is making sure that there are a lot of people who have their money inside of donor-advised funds at Goldman and Fidelity and Vanguard. And we've seen this over the years. After it was exposed that a number of the people, the donor-advised funds at Fidelity, were funding groups that were involved in Charlottesville in 2017 and other sort of white nationalists.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. to funding things like guns and other things. So we know they can make changes when pressured and when pushed. And now is an opportunity because the world is changing. And the question is, is what side are they going to be on? And we cannot expect these companies to do the right thing if we don't demand it. But also, I think what has to happen is we as black folks have got to stop excusing people under the guise of, oh, let them secure the bag.

And I guarantee you, some people are going to say, oh, Rashad, you know, look, I hear what you're saying, but, you know, they're doing some good things with some brothers and sisters. They're funding some organizations. They're funding some organizations. They're cutting some checks. And so, you know what? You know, y'all really shouldn't go after these folks. That literally is a mindset that we see in our community a lot. Well, as black people, we have to see ourselves as powerful in these conversations. We have to demand what we deserve and be unafraid to demand what we deserve.

Right now, we are watching the Jewish community take no prisoners on the issues that they believe impacts their communities. We've watched LGBT communities hold companies accountable and take no prisoners when it comes to issues in investment. And we cannot actually have companies speak out of both sides of their mouth to us. You actually get treated the way you make—you demand people to treat you. And that has been part of the conversation, right?

They do need our communities. They do need to invest in our communities. We are here, and we have resources. But along the way, this is not about us sort of thanking them and appreciating them. This is about us consistently demanding more, because along the way, we deserve more. And that has actually been part of the conversation. And so we shouldn't think about this as like, what is the floor? But we actually have to really look at what is the ceiling and continue to sort of focus on the ceiling. And so I actually do hope that the campaign that we are running and we are pushing does

unlock more opportunities and more resources for Black women, for Black entrepreneurs, for Black men entrepreneurs, for Black young people, for the range of our community who deserves a fair shot at equity. And at the same time, we can say that you can't come for our money by day and take away our opportunity for advancement in education and jobs and equity by night. You can't say that you're investing in us one minute and get awards on our stages and then turn around and give money to the very people that are trying to turn us backwards, trying to close the doors to opportunity. And that, I think, is incredibly important, because these projects that they say they

fund have opportunities to bring us forward. But they are funding so many things right now that have so much potential to drag us in the past. And we can't turn a blind eye to it just because we think there's some sort of bag at the other end, because what we've known and what we've seen over the years is that black capitalism alone will not save us, that the rules are so often designed, are so often set up to put us in harm's way. And if we don't change the rules, and if we don't hold the rulemakers accountable,

and if we don't do the work to make sure that we are also the rulemakers over time, then that's not actually the work of civil rights and racial justice. That's the work of appeasement and really just trying to be in the room when there's so much opportunities for us to build our own rooms. All right, T.L. Fultz, where to go for more information? to be in the room when there's so much opportunities for us to build our own rooms. All right. Telfos, where to go for more information? Go to colorofchange.org.

You can sign up there. You can engage. You can go to Color of Change on Twitter, Color of Change on Instagram. There's information on the petition and the campaign. Please share and sign and elevate and amplify the work that we're doing here. You know, we are facing some of the biggest corporate institutions and biggest donors in the world. And we know that our voice is powerful in these conversations. They were—the only reason why we have to expose this right now is because they were

trying to keep it secret. And so the work to expose it is critical and by exposing it and getting more of us to expose it, I believe we have an opportunity to change the path forward. All right. Rashad Robinson, Color Change, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Always appreciate you, Roland. Thank you. Folks, going to break. We'll be right back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, support the work that we do here. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars will allow us to do the work that we do, traveling around this country, covering the stories that matter to our community. You can send your check and money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.

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This Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom. Freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry, and vote. We are one America. And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to face the future together. We can't stop now. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Barber II,

co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June 29th, at 10 o'clock a.m., in Washington, D.C., on Pennsylvania and 3rd, for the Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls,

and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons, along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often, poor and low-wage people are not talked about, even though in this country

today there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30 percent of the electorate. It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people be at the center of our politics. Living wages, health care, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country. We must let our voices be heard. Join us. Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org,

RSVP, get others to come. Get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin on Tilted. All right, folks, here's our Thursday panel. Reesey Colbert, host of The Reesey Colbert Show on Sirius XM Radio, joining us out of Washington, D.C.

Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University. Also, La Victoria Burt, Black Press USA, joining us out of Allentown, Virginia. I have said consistently, Recy, that we have got to be on the offensive as opposed to being on the defensive. When you look at these groups out here, what they are doing, how they're targeting African Americans, I have said that I think too many of our civil rights organizations are nice and comfortable because, frankly, a lot of them get corporate donations. This is an example, and I think one of the benefits of color change by them not accepting

corporate donations is that they can be a lot more aggressive in going after groups like this. And this is needed because these folks want to tear down nearly every program that has impacted black folks over the last 50 plus years. A lot of times Ed Blum is... We can't hear you. Oh. Okay, there you go.

Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Okay, I wasn't on mute, so you can hear me now? Okay. Yeah, we got... 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 Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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

Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz 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. Okay. So what I was saying is that this boils down to infrastructure. And the reality is that people have kind of been characterized as rogue agents like Ed Bloom and others are actually well-funded organizations that have been funded by the likes of Goldman Sachs and others, as Mr. Rashad has pointed out. And so we absolutely do

need people who can agitate without worrying about, you know, how they're going to continue to fund their organization and the big infrastructure that they have. Individuals alone cannot beat systems. We need to have organizations and infrastructures of our own. And the reality is also that this isn't a matter of both sides or different sides. One side is humanity and the other side is determined to strip us of that. And look, we have to recognize exactly what these billionaires are trying to do. These people who smile at our face, they might give a donation to the UNCF or to some other group, but the bottom line is they're funding this. We got to recognize, Lauren, even when we look in politics, you got Stephen Schwartzman, of course, who's over Black Rock. Well, guess what? Black Rock controls a lot of these pension funds, okay? The federal government pension fund. This guy's making billions of dollars, and he's using that money

he makes from Black Rock to literally fund Republican politics. And so there are people who are invested in taking us out, and we've got to be willing to put these people out, name them publicly, show their names, show their faces, and put them on blast and use the leverage of black folks, our leverage and influence, to try to change things. Yeah, I do think that what Rashad was talking about with regard to an informational campaign is very valuable. He was effectively talking about, in a way, email-less building with the petition. There's nothing wrong with that, because I think that does build awareness. But at the end of the day, I do think, when we're talking about money, conversations around boycott and pulling certain money out, I think, are a lot stronger than just awareness, because I think awareness can be lot stronger than just awareness, because I think awareness

can be a little bit overrated. We thought the same thing with regard to police brutality, that, of course, things being on video would make people more aware about police brutality. And it turns out that we're just seeing it on video now, and it continues, right? So, I do think that we could learn a little bit from AIPAC and some of these other groups that are very effective at the money game, which is that they don't let the dollar bounce outside of their community, and they really fund other people in their community. And when you do that, you build wealth and you build power and you build the fear needed, because, quite frankly, fear works.

You build the fear needed to relay the message to others that you have the money to control the political game. So, there is a huge lack of leadership right now. I actually think we have enough dollars in our community to create enough energy monetarily to do some of the things we want to do, but we just have to be more organized and more strategic. Well, but that's what they're trying to do here, Greg. They're trying to be organized. But here's why the information is important. I'm going to go back to Operation Breadbasket. The mistake that people make today is they immediately jump to boycotts, not realizing that actually boycotts

was the last piece of it, what Operation Breadbasket did, first of all, it was created by Reverend Leon Sullivan in Philadelphia. He told Dr. King about it. King said, hey, come to Atlanta, present to SCLC. He did. They said, we're going to take this up. They renamed it Operation Breadbasket.

He put Reverend Jackson over it in Chicago, and it went from there. But here's what they did. They started with information. They would go to the companies and make demands and say, okay, we want this information. The companies said, no, we're not going to give it to you. Then what they then did was they educated their congregations about the actions they were taking. Now, those companies that then listened to them and said, hey, you know what, we're going to do a deal,

they signed a memorandum of understanding, they went forward. Now, the companies that resisted that, then they put up picket lines in select locations, ramped that up to bring them back to the table. But so you can't start a boycott unless you organize people first. So you must provide

education and information, then organize and mobilize them to get to that piece. The problem, I think, for so long is that you don't have the information. And folk just immediately jump off to it. And so now the question and then also you begin to now build from that.

OK, so color change launches this. OK, so now the next piece is how do they now build from through other organizations, bringing them on board, leveraging them, them sending information to the companies like, yo, we're going to move on to you. To me, that's how we have to do it. Frankly, what we've done in the past, most recently, has failed because it wasn't organized. It has failed because it wasn't organized. Absolutely. Times have changed. You know, when we were behind the iron curtain of apartheid, it was easier to have a common enemy. We don't want to call a spade a spade now. 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 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 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.

When we talk about, as you lay it out, education, information, what Reesey and what Lauren just, are brought to bear immediately. You're going to go to the black church? No, the black church exists, but not in the formations that it did in the 1940s, 50s, 60s. You know, what entities are there? We have several, a couple of generations now, and it's getting worse, who have been fed this absurd lie that somehow power resides in an individual's ability to take their talents and ply their trade for

profit. We saw two minstrels, Swiss Beat and Timberland, as you walked us through the other day, get in bed with an Africana and celebrate that as black empowerment. It is so patently absurd that it shouldn't even rise to the level of commentary. However, we live in a society where our institutions have been eroded and assailed, and what they've been replaced with is the politics of imagery. So at first glance, a petition might seem harmless, but really what we're fighting now in a society that is so unmoored and loosed from institutional affiliations, we're fighting a war of images. We're fighting a war of imagery. We're fighting a war of reputation and word of mouth.

Kendrick versus Drake, for example, is not a versus. It is a profit engine for the companies that own both of those employees. But if you can get the bad mouth out there, you might be able to use that as a proxy. So finally, as you walk us through with Breadbasket and with Leon Sullivan, the Lion of Zion from Philadelphia, and of course then Reverend King and Reverend Jackson, what we've marked over the last 50 years is a steady implosion of the politics of organization to the point where organization these days is often, I don't know, almost like performance and a proxy. But in that kind of fight, you ironically might be able to get some traction if you can capture the imagination of enough people to act. Beyond that, I'm not sure how we organize it in the 21st century to be as effective as we were in the 20th.

And this is where, Recy, where, one, media comes to play, specifically black-owned media, because you have to be able to explain the message. So, Rashad, they announced this today. Oh, we could go ahead and just say it. They didn't get called. I guarantee you he wasn't. I'll send him a text, but I'll put the money on it. He wasn't on CNN today.

Wasn't on MSNBC. Not Fox News. Not ABC. Not NBC. Not CBS. Damn sure not OWN. Not OAN. Not Newsmax. any of those folks.

And so what happens is part of the problem is that we used to have a thriving black-owned media where you had black newspapers, you had Ebony magazine, you had Jet magazine, you had black radio where you're able to drive information. And so this is also how we build it. See, what people don't understand about about Reverend Jackson. How did Reverend Jackson get to be who he was? It wasn't just because of him and his oratory. It was because John H. Johnson made it clear whatever Jesse did, you put him in jet every week. So there was a platform that was elevating the movements of Reverend Jackson.

And so all of a sudden he's here, he's there, he's being covered. And so this is the thing that is important. You know, Rashad mentioned these companies that made all these promises, uppers of 60, 70, 100 billion dollars in commitments. And since the death of George Floyd four years ago, you have not had a single civil rights group say we're going to make a concerted effort to hold these companies accountable. Okay, sure, a letter was sent with the CBC several months ago.

That was it. It was a letter that was sent. I'm'm sorry a press release ain't gonna cut it yeah it's not i mean it's not but who gonna check them you know what i'm saying at the end of the day the the the organizations and the infrastructure to move the needle forward is few and far between we do have black media and that's why this is, you know, the staple of Black media in terms of coming to this show for a variety of causes, not just for organizations, but for individuals who are seeking some sort of redress and some sort of awareness beyond maybe what their local newspapers are.

So I completely agree with you on that. But I also think that even as kneecapped as our Black media is, we still move the needle in our communities more than any other mainstream outlet does. I mean, there was a report that came out a couple weeks ago or a week or so ago that said that Black folks have a mistrust of the government. They have a mistrust of the media and a number of things. And so it still boils down to credibility. And as long as you're here, as long as we have Black media, that's going to be the people that can do the most good in terms of moving the needle in our communities and giving people a place to land when they want to get the message out and really actually reach people.

And the organizing, mobilizing part, Lauren, is crucial. Look, what Reverend Barber is doing with the Poor People's Campaign, we'll be broadcasting for Washington, D.C. on June 29th. They are all about the data. That is collecting data, driving people, driving numbers, and building that way. All too often when these campaigns are announced, they pretty much amount to a press release. And I remember during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC, that was sort of this emergency meeting that was called to deal with the issue of wealth creation in black America and what happened with Ed Blum and stuff. And so, you know, Congressman Stephen Horst and others Bloom and stuff. And so, you know, we, you know, you know, Congressman Stephen Horst and others called

this meeting. And so, you know, all of a sudden it's, you know, it's a private, it's a private meeting. But when you walk in, it's like 70 plus people in this room. That was, that was what CBCF was in September. Yeah. I remember I was there. It's June. I was in that.

It's June. Here's the deal. It's June. Has there been that meeting. Here's the deal. It's June. Has there been any follow-up? Nope. In fact, several of the key people who presented in that room, including the Black Economic Alliance, I've been trying to get them on the show since then. Nothing. And I'm like, so for me, I'm tired of people making announcements and they don't follow up. So I appreciate that what Rashad just said is how they're going to

build this because really black America has been failed by meetings and gatherings that result in another meeting or gathering being planned and nothing following up after that. Yeah, I remember that meeting you're talking about, Roland. I was in the room for that. But back to what Dr. Carr said, activism has been replaced by optics and minstrelsy. I am not convinced that a bunch of strategic conversation is needed to make an impact with the level of influence that Black people have on social media and with the media that we do have. I mean, when you see something like, I think the group was called Michigan for All in Michigan, where they said, okay, everybody, let's just vote uncommitted in the primary. And then they got 100,000 people that voted uncommitted. I mean,

they were willing to stand on that moment of protest that got a ton of media. And of course, it scares. But Lauren, you're making a mistake. Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, that was organized. That was organized. That wasn't just, Hey, that actually, no, no, that's not true. That's not true. That no, no, no. Lauren, Lauren, that's not true. Remember how long did they organize that? No, no, no. Lauren, Lauren, Lauren, Lauren. When when was the Michigan primary? How long did they take to organize that rolling? What? No, what I'm telling you is there were that was being organized over a period of three to four months.

Remember, that same effort was happening in other states. And when it got to Michigan, you had local groups. You had Muslims, local organizations. That was actually being organized. That wasn't by happenstance, which is my point here. The only way we're going to move the needle is you have to have data. You have to have information because you must empower the people to even know what the hell they're protesting.

I think too often we've had protests, and folks like, don't even know what they're doing. So a 90-day—OK, so it took them three months to get 100,000 people to vote uncommitted, which is really kind of unprecedented in a primary. That's a pretty short period a primary. That's a pretty short period of organization. That's pretty impressive. I'm just saying that we as African Americans have more power and influence than I think we give ourselves credit for. We do show up. We do participate. And we do have a history of being involved. And when we strategically become involved, even with a short amount of time of strategic conversation,

we get a lot of attention when we do that. And so, but I do think what Greg said— Right, but you just used the key word, strategically. Yeah. Strategically, strategically, the root word of strategically is strategy. It can't be enough. I'm just going to use a perfect example. Why did the Colin Kaepernick protest, or whatever you want to call it, why was it an abysmal failure?

It wasn't organized. It was an idea. It wasn't organized. It was just kind of like, okay, well, in this city, we're going to do something. In this city, we're going to do something. And then it was kind of like, well, it kind of fizzled out because it wasn't organized. There was no strategy. It wasn't strategic. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price

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

the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

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

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

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. 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. And so I think that that is what is needed. There has to be a strategy behind an effort in order for it to actually be effective.

If you come in with no strategy, this is what Goldman Sachs is going to be. Yeah, okay, all right, we'll give you a meeting, but we know this ain't going nowhere. But trust me, if they realize there's a strategy, that's a different conversation, Lauren. So the strategy is to list build off of a petition? No, the strategy, first of all, is you have to, one, the first thing you got to do is you have to make people aware of the issue. That's first. Two, provide them with the information of who the target is. Three, gather additional information and then begin to build your coalition to move against the individual. Now, this is no comparison to what they did.

So when I was on the board of NABJ, and when Jeff Zucker had no black senior executives and no black direct reports, okay? So NABJ, fine, we sitting here, okay, want to meet with them. And then CNN's like, yeah, we'll meet with the board. We're not going to meet with Roland is included. Okay, we knew what the hell that was all about, and so we get to put the thing together. Now, this is what I told the folks at NABJ. Oh, sure, we're the nation's, the world's largest minority media organization, but Jeff Zucker had previously blown NABJ off. So what we

then did was, I said, okay, fine, so we're going to issue our statement. I said, but we need to actually have, Reese is going to love this here. We need to actually have memes, graphics and information that we can now distribute across social media platforms and folks can actually share. So people on the board was kind of like, what really needs that? I'm like, yeah, it's called a campaign, y'all, because we're trying to get a net result. What I then did was I then said, all right, I call the office. I need a letter in 24 hours. President Ward, not a problem. Now, all of a sudden, that became another news story. Then the Deltas dropped the letter. Then the Omegas dropped the letter. And so I was building that. So what did they then do? They named one such that you need to do, who's a lawyer, to a diversity position. I said, mm-mm, Wayne's satisfied.

That's not a news position. Then they named a digital person. I said, not satisfied. That's not a linear position. In two months, they had to name five black senior executives because we kept dropping new letters because I was building a coalition. But you got to start with the information.

Otherwise, people are kind of like, why in the hell are you protesting? So I think what they're doing is right. Now the question, Greg, from this point forward, how do you build upon this to now be able to impact change? And what I'm laying out is literally Operation Breadbasket, the entire strategy that Martin Depp laid out in their book, Operation Breadbasket, 1966-1971? Yes. I think Reverend Barber probably comes as close as anyone. And by Reverend Barber, of course, I mean the organization and the movement that he and his comrades, his closest comrades, are in.

I agree. And because we can take—we have to have the momentum of our memory. We have to remember what we've done that's worked in the past. We have to adapt it in the current moment. Of course, you know, this new book that everybody's talking about, Apprentice in Wonderland, how Donald Trump and Mark Burnett took America through the looking glass. Donald Trump is Mark Burnett took America through the looking glass. Donald Trump is a joke. But he is a reality show star at a moment of national idiocracy.

And anytime you've got an idiocracy like the United States of America, a reality star can be president. Stephen A. Smith could be president. Hell, anyone could be president. Kendrick Lamar could be president. I mean, because it's about image, it's about manipulation, it's about visibility. And when you see Reverend Barber putting those deep roots in, roots that you, as you're walking us through right now, remind us, have to be at the heart of any successful organizing

work. He also, because he's very, very good at capturing imagery, that by data. He's here, to Recy's point, on the importance of the black media. And then he shows up, as he did a couple of days ago, on Comedy Central with Jon Stewart, walking him through his newest book, White Poverty. That, it has to be...

Which, by the way, he sent me a text and he said, he said, Roland, by you continually putting us on the air, the other networks watch, he said, and that plays a role in how we get booked other places as well, which explains why you gotta have black media doing its job. Greg, go ahead and finish. And what you have just done is do exactly where I was going, except you put it more succinctly.

That is exactly right. Again, this space, they're all watching this space. And those who will choose on the side of our common humanity, as Recy has said, will feed from this space, which is all, well, not all we want, because this is the other piece of it. You can't just source from black media. You must support black media materially. You see, these billionaires may or may not be racist. The Bill Admonds, you know, who clearly have a B in their body around race, as Claudine Gay at Harvard. Yep. Harvard. But when you have someone with a vile, miserable, racist policy making a portfolio like

Stephen Miller, Stephen Miller goes nowhere without the billions. But these billionaires are protecting their interests and their moneyed interests, their wealth interests, and they are willing to cater to the lowest common denominator. So finally, if the John Stuarts of the world or wherever are going to source from black media because they are now scared and are willing to come out and draw the bright line, they must also back that with their dollars. And that, I think, is what you've been saying to us since the beginning, since before the beginning, but certainly since the Black Star Network has come into existence. Well, since you spoke of donors, we're going to have a guest next who found a file of Senator

Ted Cruz filled with lots of donor information. He posted a lot of this on Twitter. Guess who blocked it from going out? Elon Musk. I wonder why. We'll talk to that reporter next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we meet Ricky Fairley. She was given a death sentence by her doctor 11 years ago. But for Ricky, giving up was not an option. She declared war on her disease, turned her entire life upside down,

and won the battle. I know that God left me here to do this work. And when you talk about faith, faith is what got me through. I mean, I had to relinquish my faith and give my life to God and say, okay, God, what have you got for me? And he gave me my purpose. And that's why I'm here. Her amazing story of strength, balance, and survival here on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Blackstar Network. Me, Sherri Shebra, and you know what you're watching, Roland Martin unfiltered. So imagine you are a reporter and you're in the United States Capitol and you just happen to come across a booklet that contains information between Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz and a bunch of his donors.

Well, Pablo Manriquez, I hope I pronounced that correct, found those papers and he posted them on Elon Musk X, used to be known as Twitter. But guess what? Elon's folks deleted his thread. No explanation as to why. Now, they'll let these white supremacists run their mouths with all kinds of different stuff, but they deleted his information. So what did he discover? Pablo Jones is right now from D.C.

Pablo, glad to have you here. First of all, how to pronounce your last name? Did I get it correct? You got it, Roy. It's Manriquez. Manriquez, you know, it depends on kind of like where you're from, but basically the consonants are the same. All right, Manriquez.

We'll go with that. All right, Pablo. So what did you discover? First of all, before we get to that, what happened? How did you find it? Because folks tried to, oh, it was something nefarious. No, that's not what happened. No, no, not at all.

So what happened was I went to the Capitol on Tuesday, and there was a vote. The last votes of the day typically involved the senators coming from their offices in the exterior office buildings to the Capitol building itself, vote, and then leave, right? But we still had a little bit of time before the vote, so I go down to the Senate refectory, which is sort of like an unmanned bodega where you can get a snack, where you can get sodas, where you get, like, you know, that kind of thing. But, you know, they have security cameras in the refectory. um i'm going around looking for this soda that doesn't that they didn't have it was like a sugar free orange soda that i like uh and when i look down what do i see but um this folder right here and this folder which as you can see says united states senate on it now i'm an artist i'm in my art studio right now i was thinking to myself man i might be able to use this so i pick up the folder you know free folder free folder, and I open it up. And what do I find? But 16 pages of briefing documents to Senator Ted Cruz the senator, something he can quickly read before meeting with political donors, right? So we're talking 16 pages across seven briefings.

So the first briefing is Tuesday night at the Capitol Grill, which is right down the street from the United States Senate, where he's going to meet with eight donors who haven't paid up yet. They've pledged $19,000, a combined total of $19,500 to Senator Cruz, but they have not paid up yet. So Ted Cruz is going to say, you know, to politely say, pay up, right? But the really interesting documents, in my opinion, which is scrolling right now, are the ones in New York, right? So the next day, the senator, the junior senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, fights to New York to meet with a bunch of non-Texans. As far as I can tell, people have nothing to do with Texas, right, to ask them for insane amounts of money, right? Like, they're individual contributions that

people can donate to, you know, a politician. But, you know, they're around $3,000. In some cases here, he's asking for $119,000 to people like the Estee Lauder heir, Ambassador Ron Lauder, or Ambassador John Loeb, another, like, really kind of big billionaire guy, a handler to Len Blatavnik, a close associate to like Russian oligarchs connected to Vladimir Putin, a Ukrainian born Russian educated guy. Right. And these are the donor meetings that he's going to throughout the day in, you know, in New York City. So one at a time, it goes, you know, 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. rather to 9 p.m., six meetings across New York City. So I take the—I knew immediately what I had.

You know, these are briefing documents. I've been around the Beltway. I've been around the swamp for a long time. I know what a briefing document looks like. So I take them upstairs to the press gallery where Steve Dennis from Bloomberg, Daniela Diaz from Politico, and Jordan Carnes are sitting. And I tell them what I have. I'm like, oh, my God, I think this is a big deal. This has the entire itinerary for the next couple of days of Ted Cruz donor meetings. So I took them out one at a time, one page at a time. I placed them on the floor. I took my cell phone. I took pictures

of each one. And I started tweeting them in a thread, right, in a single thread. I said, you know, I found these in the Senate refectory, you know, a thread. And so one at a time, I post these donor documents. And they are up for approximately four hours, maybe five hours. And if I remember correctly, they were hovering around three and a half million views at that point. So these were out of the bag. The Internet was not giving these back. And that's when they were stricken from X.

They were taken down off the platform that I put on X. And they said that they were a violation of X rules. In my humble opinion, that is actually a correct assessment. They were actually a violation of X's rules. In my humble opinion, that is actually a correct assessment. They were actually a violation of X's rules. You're not supposed to put addresses, personally identifying addresses and phone numbers of people on X. I have since reposted them without that information. I took a little bit of black paint and a paintbrush, and I redacted them last night. I've never redacted anything before, so this was something new. And I posted them, and they are now on X. You can find them at Capital.Press if you want to see them. But what was interesting is that the removal of

these documents created what a colleague has called the Streisand effect, which by removing them, they only made them more famous. So as soon as he removed them, it was like, oh, my God, why is this being censored? It piqued everyone's interest who wasn't already like actively engaged with these documents, which are fascinating, fascinating, a fascinating glimpse, a pull back the curtain on the swamp. Right. So over the next 24 hours or so, people from Ted Cruz's universe start reaching out to me because I'm the reporter who posted these on X and they've been taken off X and what the heck is going on? And they start trending on the front page of Reddit. And if you really want to see an interesting discussion about these documents, our politics discussion on Reddit, fascinating, like how Reddit is. They'll get a lot of information there quickly and obviously needs to be verified. It's not always trustworthy, but like, for the

most part, the information that they've got about the names and places on these documents is a really interesting look into like, you know, briefing documents that probably are not unique to Ted Cruz that most lawmakers probably get, you know, but it was Cruz or a staffer that left them or, you know, presumably a staffer that left them in the refectory. And I mentioned the security cameras in the refectory because I think that's important. If I had tweeted that I'd found these in the bathroom or something like that, you know, it could have been plausibly, who knows who left them there, right? And Ted Cruz is, you know, kind of good at getting out of a corner. Right. He will fight his way out of a cul-de-sac, as they say. Right.

In his political instincts. But now in the refectory, whoever left them there, there is footage of them leaving them there. And if this does become an issue for the ethics committee, which would have direct jurisdiction, the Senate Ethics Committee would have direct jurisdiction over the illegal use or you're not. It's illegal to do campaign work in your official capacity as a senator. And when you are on the physical grounds of the United States Senate in our United States Capitol, it is completely definitely inappropriate, but illegal. Right. To be doing that work. So to find these documents in the refectory of the Senate, in the first floor of the Senate, where there are two security cameras, one over the cash register and one on the broader room,

right, it does create a really interesting scenario. It does create a really interesting set of questions, questions that I will be pursuing aggressively henceforth. Now, the Senate left today, and they're not back until August 8th, which sucks because I finally got Ted Cruz at the last vote of today. I tracked him down. I was waiting in the tunnels. My colleagues text me, he's upstairs on the second floor. I go bombing up the steps, right? And as soon as I get up the steps, I get to the steps. They're just like, he just went out the door. He went down the Senate steps. But as a report, only senators and their aides can go down the Senate steps. So I have to go all the way around through the building. And when I get out into the parking lot, he is getting into his car. There's a reporter

from ABC News who's asking him a final question. I finally got to him. I'm like, Senator, Senator, Senator, any comments on the secret camp? 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 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 the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

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

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

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what

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

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

Paying the secret campaign fundraising documents that I posted, you know, and he just looks at me with a big Ted Cruz smile like, nah. N-A-H, nah. And drove away. So more to follow. This is going to be a slow-moving story. First of all, but here's the deal, though. By finding the documents, what it does is it gives people an inside peek to how nefarious these folks are, how they are controlled by donors, how much time they spend, and how they cater to folks.

And here's why I love what you said when you said, oh, he's running around trying to get these people who know nothing, who are not from Texas, don't have interest in Texas. Look, I'm born and raised in Texas. I'm still registered to vote in Texas. And so this is how the politics works. And as you said, they're not supposed to be doing this on the grounds. But the fact of the matter is, they do. And so I'm sure that whoever that staffer was,

they probably don't have a job by now by this getting out. The camera would know. Cruz liked the tweet a couple years ago that was a porn tweet, right? Like, and he blamed it on a staffer. He was like, oh, that was just a staffer using my Twitter account, right?

Now, the rumor is that that staffer made it because, you know, Ted Cruz is a political animal. And the smartest thing you can do in this situation is to go tell the donors when you meet with them in New York, yeah, this staffer has been fired, right? I apologize that your information was put on the internet, right? But then you go to that staffer behind the scenes and say, listen, I'm keeping you, obviously, right? But now you owe me your career, you know? Because he didn't put the staffer out to the wolves who allegedly liked the tweet, right? And again, this is just my hypothesis. This is not confirmed reporting, but we're not going to be able to confirm any reporting until they get back on July 18th, right? Or sorry, July 8th, after the 4th of July break. But yeah, that, you know, I don't think that the staffer got fired. A lot of people, to answer your question, I think your question, I don't think the staffer got fired. That would not be Ted Cruz's style. Well, the thing here, again, I hope people understand that donors run politics, not voters. They pay attention to donors. Questions from the panel or comments.

Lauren, you're first. Pablo, you're a painter. Yes, ma'am. Your paintings are up in the press gallery on the third floor, correct? In the radio TV gallery. Oh, my God. They totally are. Yes. They're quite good. I've seen them. I've seen them. Thank you so much. So as a staffer, as a staffer on a few political campaigns, those documents are really familiar to me. And it actually is not that uncommon that people leave things like this around and they get found by somebody in this way. But it is an interesting inside look. Typically, donor lists are shared by the same party. The donors are shared by the same

party. And, of course, the meetings and the staffing and the briefing are kind of a familiar thing. I used to work—I worked in the U.S. Senate in another life. And so, has anybody approached you? It's really not in any way theft, of course, but none of the police or anything like that have bothered you, correct? Correct. No, I have gotten no reprimand from anybody, including Ted Cruz and his staff. Everyone, except for a couple of randos on the internet, have said, yeah, this guy just did. You know, there is a question as to whether or not I should have shared the addresses and the phone numbers to avoid getting them stricken again on X. If I find another folder full of gold, then I will – I brought a tube of paint and a paintbrush to the Senate that's at my desk above the Senate in the radio TV gallery actually where the paintings are.

So next time I find them, I'll just run up there real quick. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. But they're going back on Twitter. So the staffers should know, right? They should keep track of these folders, you know, or whoever has them. But honestly, the building should know and America should know that they should not be fundraising in the building. That's not acceptable under any – no founding father or anybody else thought that was what that building was going to be for. It's unacceptable.

It's illegal. And frankly, I want to see who left it there. I want the Senate Rules Committee chair, Amy Klobuchar, and the Senate Rules Committee ranking member, Mike Lee, to get the tape and refer it to the ethics committee. What you found, though, did not—I just looked really quick at your substack, at the documents. Did one of the briefings indicate that a meeting, a fundraising meeting, was going to be in the U.S. Capitol? Or was it just that you found the documents that makes you think that—because, in fact, a staffer can carry the documents in, but you're correct, they cannot fundraise in the U.S. Capitol. So did one of the briefings, was a briefing to take place in the U.S. Capitol? No, no, no briefing in the Capitol at all.

Okay. So it could be the case that like a staffer, you know, I guess if I was making a plausibly deniable scenario for myself, if I was that staffer, I'd say something to the effect of, well, I came in with the notebook and then I left it there, but I really had grabbed the wrong notebook. This policy notebook about the latest law Senator Ted Cruz has been put in was in the car, right? But it's tainting. There's a funk to it. And I think that people get that, you know, and no one is going to believe that it's not happening in the building when a folder that says United States Senate, not Ted Cruz for Texas, but United States Senate on it is full of these documents. Right. You know what I mean? That's my thought. Hold on one second. I need to go. I don't I'm running out of time.

Let me quickly go to my other two panelists. Recy, go. I just want to know. Hold on, guys. Kill the music. I just I just want to know, is there any indication that Senator Cruz actually took these meetings that were scheduled for yesterday or if he took any number of them? I was not able to ask that question today because I got him getting into the car. But I am looking forward to asking those questions when he returns on July 8th. No. To answer your question, not yet. He has not admitted to the meetings, and the people who he was supposed to have met with have not confirmed them. Greg Carr? Thank you. Thank you, Roland, and thank you, Mr. Rodriguez. We know that dialing

for dollars is how everybody gets elected these days. It's been very insightful to hear reporters talk about this. So what impact do you think something like this might have on, say, for example, the Cruz- Colin Allred, given that a lot of these donors were former Hillary donors, you know, that to me is something that's really interesting. And it kind of tears at Ted the pariah of the far right. So there are so many contradictions in here that I think that, like, if there's a small impact, at least the messaging that can happen is Colin Allred could capitalize on that. But overall, it's also just sort of like, you know, when you break a story like this, people come out of the woodwork from the orbit of someone who I've found over the last 36 hours since this happened is one of the most loathed people in politics. So if anything, it's more like the reporting to come that I think that Colin Allred's campaign, like, you know, I don't know if they're going to participate in it or not.

I haven't really, like, you know, I've spoken with them. They reached out to me about this. But, you know, I don't have anything in particular related to that because I'm a Hill reporter. I'm very hermetical in my beat. I'm not going to Texas to cover this or anything like that. I'm going to stay on Capitol Hill and keep finding more folders full of things so I can post them on the internet and come on the legendary

Roland Martin show. Yes. Well, again, as a Texas voter, I am very interested in this. The latest poll out shows Colin Allred is having trouble with name recognition. He's down 11 points to Senator Ted Cruz. And so he's got a lot of work to do over the next five months to make that ground up. Pablo, great work.

We certainly appreciate it. And let's see what happens next. Thank you for having me on, Roland. Thanks a bunch. All right, folks. Appreciate it. I appreciate it i appreciate it thanks a lot folks i'll be right back rolling mark unfiltered on the blackstone network

we are the culture we blaze trails we define our future we are the heart and soul of america this juneteenth we celebrate freedom freedom. Freedom to live, breathe, play, choose, marry, and vote. We are one America. And with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we're ready to face the future together. We can't stop now. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly

and Moral March on Washington and to the polls, and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons,

along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often, poor and low-wage people are not talked about, even though in this country today, there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30% of the electorate. It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people

be at the center of our politics. Living wages, healthcare, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country. We must let our voices be heard. Join us.

Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org, RSVP, get others to come. Get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody writes. And we won't be silent. And we won't be silent anymore. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Well, when you elect a MAGA governor, this is what you get.

Jeff Landry signed into law, making Louisiana the first state to mandate the Ten Commandments to be placed in all classrooms in the state of Louisiana. So he is so proud of this. They say that it needs to be in clear, legible fonts. Now, keep in mind, you do have a separation of church and state. You've had these sort of things happen before. But this is exactly what you see. Now, mind you, this is the same folks in Louisiana that refuse funding from the federal government when it comes to meals for students. And so it's amazing how they put the Ten Commandments up. But the question is, are you going to follow the Ten Commandments?

Several groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, say the law violates separation of church and state in public buildings and what impacts students' education and safety. Devon Umbris, the senior director of courts and legal policy at the Center for American Progress, joins us right now. You know, Devon, I think about this reminds me of when Roy Moore elected this massive monument, this Ten Commandments monument. 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 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 one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. 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. In the courthouse in Alabama, and he was ordered by federal judges to remove it. He lost. What's the difference between that and what Jeff Landry is trying to do here? There's a lot more different judges on the Supreme Court these days. And Justice Alito is not afraid to let his ties to Christian nationalism fly just wide out in the open like his flags.

And so the point there, what you have is by having these six conservative Supreme Court justices, what folks like Jeff Landry are banking on, that these individuals who they believe that Christians are being persecuted, They believe in religious liberty. They are making rulings that are allowing religious institutions to be able to do things in the public space that up until the last few years has never been allowed. Absolutely. The 2022 Kennedy ruling about the football coach who was having prayer services on the 50-yard line changed the game in amending how the lemon test, Stone versus Graham about—it was the state of Kentucky putting up the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

And it was a 5-4 decision. And the four dissenting justices said that there was a little sentence at the bottom that said this is part of a secular teaching about how the Ten Commandments have been used throughout American history. If you look at the actual bill language here, they put a couple of paragraphs that go up right alongside the Ten Commandments and discuss how the Ten Commandments have been used in public education throughout history. And I bet you dollars to donuts that this Supreme Court is

willing to uphold that secular basis as a reason to allow these Ten Commandments to stay up in classrooms. But anybody with two functioning brain cells to rub together can tell you 100% that this is the state endorsing religion, violating the wall between church and state. And I watched the legislative debate this morning about this bill. They went through the whole rigmarole saying this is a secular purpose. And then the authors about it went on and on and on about how we need to bring God's law back into the classroom. And this is honoring God's law. And you hear Justice Alito less than two weeks ago talking about how we need to bring America back to a state of godliness, Alito's already one vote in favor.

This is what we always talk about. Elections have consequences. And those 237 Trump judges he put in place, remember, 100 of those were supposed to come under Obama. Mitch McConnell blocked them, including those critical Supreme Court positions. Go to my panel. Thoughts on this. Greg Carlin, we'll start with you. Thank you, Roland.

And thank you, Mr. Holmes. You really kind of hit at the heart of the question I have for you, given that the Christian soldier Alito is clearly willing to earmark everything as secular for his kind of fascist Christian purposes. My question is, do you see him and those who are thinking like him now in the court wielding this cudgel of, it's a tradition? We saw it in Brewer with the guns. We saw it with abortion.

And we certainly see in some of the political and some of the statements that Landry has made the idea that not only is it secular, but it's an American value being used as an argument to give them some support for doing what's properly. Absolutely. And do you find it at all intriguing that every time history and tradition and textualism is used by these justices, it seems to be whatever the founders were thinking or whatever the words used at the time that they were written seemed to comport exactly with what right-wing people are saying in 2024. Could have happened in 1789, could have happened in 1866 with the Reconstruction Amendments. Whatever they said comports with what Justice Sam Alito and what

Justice Clarence Thomas seem to think. And I'll even go you with a 2024 because of what happened in Alexander, where the court basically legalized racial gerrymandering, they're giving the benefit of the doubt to these right-wing state legislatures saying they act in good faith. All they have to do at this point is say, we're acting in good faith. We mean it. We cross our hearts and hope to die. And the justices will say, that's good enough for me. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Recy. Yeah, can you talk a little bit about the white Christian nationalist agenda beyond just the religious aspect of things like this, the Ten Commandments?

Because I do know that there are a lot of conservative, religious conservatives that are even black that might look at this on its face and not believe that this is something that's problematic. But my belief is that this empowers, you know, a group of people that are very much ideologically opposed to even the idea of Black people and women having humanity and equal citizenship in this country. So can you just talk a little bit about beyond this particular law, the agenda of groups behind this law? Yeah, absolutely. If you if you want to have some nightmare fuel, read Project 2025. These are the folks that are driving it. And they're they're unapologetically white Christian nationalists. We had, back when I was on the Hill, we hosted the first hearing on the book bans

about how this was driven by a white Christian nationalist agenda that are trying to get our multi-ethnic, our democracy down to the rule of white people again, like it was in 1789 when the Constitution was enacted. This is a rollback of rights of people of color, of immigrants, of LGBTQIA people, of everybody that does not prescribe to this white Christian nationalist theme. And it's a gospel of power. It's not a gospel of compassion. I grew up in a Catholic household and believe that, you know, works lead to salvation. And they believe that power and saying a few words and holding something in your heart leads to salvation. They can do whatever they want. And if you oppose them, you need to be

put down. It's scary as hell, quite frankly. Lauren? What was the case that you referred to, the 5-4 case that might be the setup to flip the establishment cause, which is pretty clear? Yeah, it was Stone v. Graham. It was a per curiam case that overturned the Kentucky rule. I think it was 1980 or 1984. The year is leaving me. But Rehnquist wrote a dissent saying that because they put a sentence saying that the Ten Commandments are the basis of various aspects of American law and the founding, that it passes the smell test, and they needed to hold a whole hearing and debate whether that argument was meritorious.

Because in the past, they used a bunch of—they basically said, no, this is a violation of the separation of church and state and is a governmental endorsement of Judeo-Christian tradition that you're enforcing upon people. One sentence does not negate that. And it was five to four, and they wanted to hold a whole hearing and debated on the merits. Now we have a much different makeup of the court, and they have two paragraphs expressing how the Ten Commandments were used throughout American public schooling history. But the difference that they cite to is the fact that the Ten Commandments were ensconced in textbooks, where they were given a type of, you know, actual substance to it, as opposed to just slapping Ten Commandments. Because there was one Louisiana school teacher who said, well, it said, thou shalt not engage in adultery, but we're prohibited by law from talking about

any type of sexual activity with anybody under eighth grade. What if a student asks me about what adultery is? Will I get fired for explaining the Ten Commandments to them? Because that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. And the fact of the matter is this is just—this is—it's rage bait from the right. They want lawsuits. They want a big mess. That's how they gain power and gin up their base.

And when you have Leonard Leo sitting here with a billion dollars to lead all of this, this is exactly what you get. Well, appreciate it exactly what you get. We appreciate it. Thanks so much. Keep up the good work. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

All right, folks, going to a break. We'll be right back. Roland Martin, unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. If you look at all the best men, the movies, and then, of course, Sears on Peacock, why do you think it resonated so well? Well, I think it's a reflection of us, you know? I think it's a reflection of

authentic black people, the way they see themselves. And in some instances, aspirationally so. Next on The Black Table, a man Cornel West calls the greatest democratic theorist of his generation. Adolph Reid joins us to talk about his eventful life and his book, The South, Jim Crow and its afterlives. Somewhere between an electoral sweep or an out-and-out coup or a putsch, I think the danger is quite real. Join us for The Black Table, only on The Black Star Network. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Franklin.

I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you to Roller Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. A federal judge in Louisiana is considering whether or not to stop the farm line at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola during the summer due to the high heat. Federal Judge Brian Jackson heard arguments during an emergency hearing requested by Rights Behind Bars, voice of the experienced, and eight men in prison in Angola, have asked the federal court to stop outdoor farm work once temperatures exceed 88 degrees Fahrenheit. The group says that the farm line is meant to be punitive and violates the American with Disabilities Act. In the federal lawsuit first filed in September, the plaintiffs argued the work detail, especially during the extreme heat, violates prisoners' Eighth Amendment right to protection against cruelty. Now, here's the crazy thing. They're paid very little for this.

And if they fall ill, they have to pay a copay of about six bucks. The pay is something along the lines of a couple of cents. Now keep in mind, you have Republicans in Florida and Texas that also pass laws that governors

have to sign, idiots, that stop cities from passing laws mandating water breaks and things along those lines. I mean, these people, the fact of the matter is, Reesey, these folks, they want to see people die. These people are so shameful, despicable, and they're so anti-life that they don't

care about inmates or workers out there who are in the heat. I mean, how do you pass a law saying, oh, y'all can't be mandating water breaks? It's water! Right. Well, because people, they're cruel. They're pieces of shit. It's really that simple.

Also keep in mind that Louisiana is the same place where they're trying to end parole and probation. So they want to keep slave labor in these prisons for as long as possible. They don't view these people who are incarcerated as human beings worthy of basic protections that you would of any other worker. But then again, they don't believe people who are workers outside of prison deserve any protections either. So it all kind of makes sense when you think about the agenda of these

folks. They want to have cheap labor. They want to keep people subjugated and in bondage. And this is just slavery by another name. JOHN YANG, The Washington Post, Lauren? LAUREN LICATA, The Washington Post Yeah, that was—those images there were like something out of, obviously, the era of slavery, which Louisiana, of course, keeps coming up in conversation for things like this. They're unashamed. They're unabashed. They're in your face. They want people working for free, so some sheriff someplace can make money. And whether it's the phone rates in some prison or this type of thing that nobody even wants to talk about. It's ridiculous.

This is the type of thing that's not even on the agenda of our elected officials, which is actually pretty shocking, because it is slavery by another name, and it's obvious that it is. We have a major problem in this country when it comes to leading the world in the rate of incarceration and pretending that that somehow is normal. And so that right there is embarrassing. If it was another country, somebody would be contacting The Hague. But, you know, when it's us, everybody pretends that they don't see it.

These folks do not care about people. They are shameful, Greg, and they are who they are. They are evil. And for the people who stayed home in Louisiana, this is what you get. That is exactly right, Roland. Angola, of course, is infamous, even among the institutions in the United States of America. It is named literally for West Central Africa, the region where the plurality of Africans were taken that ended up in Brazil and also pumped into the Gulf of Mexico, including the outer edge of the Gulf, including Louisiana. They have treated African people as non-human since they touched those shores. And that particular work requirement has been in place since 1893.

It'll be interesting, at least at the district court level, because the judge here in this case, as you said, Brian A. Jackson, is an Obama appointee. 2009, he was appointed. A graduate actually of Xavier for undergrad, and Southern University Law School. Yeah, this is an open and shut case for a human being underneath black robes. This is clearly a violation of the Eighth Amendment. The question will be, as you pointed out many times, given that Louisiana is in that infamous Fifth Circuit, will be what happens on appeal. The cruelty, as Adam Serr has written, is the point.

At some point, frankly, we're just going to have to fight these people. And that means fight with the vote. That means fighting the street. It means whatever tactic, and as Malcolm would say, by any means necessary to liberate ourselves because they are very clear. They've been clear in Angola since they opened that prison.

Since it was literally a plantation on that prison site. They are against us. And so if we're not going to be against them, I don't know what the hell we're doing besides entertaining ourselves until they stuff us in one of those places. And for the people out there, again, who don't understand voting, I remember Louisiana also sent juveniles to Angola, and it was a democratically appointed federal judge who said, y'all got a week to get those kids out of Angola because it was cruel and unusual punishment. This is why voting also matters, because that impacts who the federal judges are.

And so I love these people who go, oh, you keep bringing this stuff up. But I'm telling y'all, there is a difference between a hardcore right-wing judge appointed by a Republican and a more progressive judge appointed by a Democrat. It's just it's there. So it's not like, oh, you just make I'm just making this up. It's there. But too many people choose to come up with nonsensical reason to sit on their asses, Reesey. And we're talking about in this election here, and I'm hearing people say some of the dumbest, most ridiculous stuff. And I'm sitting there going, y'all better pay attention because trust me, if they get, if they're able to gain the White House and control the United States Senate. Oh, you're going to see a lot of hardcore right wing, mostly white male.

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

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

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

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 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 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

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

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

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz 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. Judges on a federal bench who are going to be in their early 30s to 40s, and they want them there for the next 40 to 50 years. Right. I mean, I've said it many times. Citizenship is on the ballot. But I think we have to come to the realization that, for many, I won't say all, people that don't vote don't vote because they don't give a damn. They don't give a damn about anything happening outside of their four walls of their home. And so injustice anywhere doesn't impact them until it meets them at their front door.

Then, all of a sudden, we have got to have have hashtags. We got to be out on the streets and everything that happens to them is a civil rights issue. Even though all of this shit has been well-known, well-publicized, and we could have all gotten involved in the way that we need to, to put a stop to this. There's no mystery to how to put a stop to this. We actually don't have to, we physically don't have to organize in the way that our ancestors did and many people who are still with us during the Civil Rights Movement. It's as simple as going to vote. And yes, we get gerrymandered. Yes,

we get purged from the votes. Yes, there's a lot of voter suppression. But there is still, even with all of that being baked into the cake, absolutely no motherfucking excuse to continue to abdicate your power in this system to actually make a change for society. So I'm kind of over the making excuses

and over for stipulating all the ways that people make it harder for us to vote. And I'm just going to look at you, dating all faces, and say, what the fuck is wrong with you? What more do you need to see before you recognize the impact that your inaction, that your apathy, that your disillusionment or whatever the hell it is that's motivating you to not give a damn is having on the rest of society. And are you going to be

satisfied with what happens when it meets you at your doorstep? If you are, then we don't have nothing to talk about. Also, another little thing here for the people who say, oh, Trump is no big deal. I'm going to go ahead and vote for him. Oh, I see some of your comments on Instagram. So student loan debt relief. He said this at a rally in Wisconsin. What's going to happen if he gets in Oval Office again? Today is an illegal, unconstitutional amnesty without approval from Congress, no approval from the courts or the American people. But he never does that. He did that with the tuition, and

that didn't work out too well. He got rebuked, and then he did it again. It's going to get rebuked again, even more so. It's an even more vile attack. But he did that with tuition just to get the publicity for the election. He doesn't care about that. He just wants to see if he can get it by the election. Trump asked the part that you didn't hear there. Trump said, oh, if I get back in, I'm revoking that $167 billion. All those folks who are talking about they're considering voting for Trump, okay. Go right ahead and see what happens.

They are going to revoke that money. Lauren? Yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, for African Americans in this country, the better choice certainly in this particular race would be Joe Biden. I'm not a particular fan, though, of criticizing Black voters who may feel a sense of apathy. When we think about Louisiana and Angola Prison, we've had, you know, we've had some Democratic governors sitting there, and Angola Prison was Angola Prison when they were in office as well. I think that part of what we see with Black voters is, we have been through a lot. We do show up. And when we do show up, what happens is, our level of showing up does not—is not

met with the political action that we put into this democracy, despite everything that this country has put us through. We're the ones who fought and died for the vote. We're the ones who set the policy that has helped other groups. And so I'm just not a big fan of giving any sort of guff to black voters. I think there are other groups that need some criticism before African-Americans in this country, because we do show up and we do vote for the things that help the greater good time and time again. And the question is, what are we getting out of it?

And I do think that a lot of Black voters have hit a level of apathy that is reflected sometimes in places like Louisiana. Greg? I agree. It's difficult. Wow. You know, we have and I don't mean

we've gone through arguably the greatest collective trauma in human memory. The fact that we're saying it all is, you know, as a collective, I think, is a triumph of the human will and spirit.

So I agree with you, Lauren. It's hard, you know, at the same time that we see what should be rational. And as you say, Reese, what the fuck are y'all doing? The explanation is clear. I mean, we are under perpetual assault. You know, I read something the other day, maybe today in USA Today, one out of every

five voters who's going to say they're going to vote say that student loans are important. 40 million people in this country owe a total of $1.77 trillion. But then when you interject class into the conversation, people who don't go to college of any form, community college, skilled college, barber college, any form of it, Johnson and Wales for culinary arts, to vote against their class interests, to vote against everything, because they feel some form of, we're going to get you, we're going to get you. And so a fool, a Conor O'Barker, a damn reality show fool can tell them something. And it's not that they believe it. It's just that it makes them feel better. And this is what the Democratic Party doesn't understand. And frankly, I don't think that anyone who thinks that we're living in a country where there are

rules understands. This man will say anything. And the people who are listening to him want to believe anything. And so as a result, we find ourselves on the horns of a dilemma. It comes back around to what you were talking about earlier

as it relates to organization. We've got to put our heads down, put these blinders on, and work like hell to stitch together as many people as possible who will fight because we're living in a shitstorm of a society where people are so beat down, as Gil Scott-Harris would say, another set of victims too whipped to choose. And so, you know, other than that, beat down, as Yoscott Heron would say, another set of victims to whip the chiefs. And so, you know, other than that, I just don't know.

Rishi, final comment? My final comment is, listen, yes, Black voters, emphasis on voters, not non-voters, Black voters carry democracy on our backs.

If you don't vote, what the fuck are you doing i will maintain that if you voting with the white nationalists what the fuck are you doing i will maintain that trump has told you that he's gonna do the same shit that we voted his ass for out for last time actually even worse but for some, it's not clicking to people. For some reason, they have this fantasy of things changing for the better, of Trump actually fighting inflation, of Trump actually helping Black people. You're delusional. You're delusional, or you're stupid. I don't know which one it is, but I'm just running out of tolerance and patience for it. So we do a lot of coddling. We do a lot of pleading and begging and trying to appeal to people's intelligence,

appeal to their rational sense of being, appeal to their humanity. And it's not clicking with enough people. And so I'm just going to try something different this one time. Wake the fuck up. Please grow up. And figure out what kind of country

you want to live in because even if you don't think things are that great right now it's only going downhill with Trump with the white Christian nationalists and all these motherfuckers who's coming for you if you don't like to hear that then guess what vote prove me wrong

alright folks that is it we're going to end the show early. I, of course, here in Los Angeles for the Beverly Hills Cop sequel. I'll be interviewing Eddie Murphy tomorrow here in Los Angeles. So got to go check the movie out. So head downstairs and go do that. So let me certainly thank Lauren, Reesey, and Greg for being on today's show. Thanks a bunch, folks.

Don't forget, support us in all that we do. You can join our Bring the Funk fan club via, of course, sending your check and money order to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal, RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

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Cause literally as soon as I finished doing the interviews, I'll be right on a plane to fly back to Washington, DC. Folks, that's it. Candace will be sitting in for me tomorrow because literally as soon as I finish doing the interviews, I'll be right on a plane to fly back to Washington, D.C. So I will see you guys on Monday right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Folks, Black Star Network is here.

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The video looks phenomenal. See this difference between black star network and black owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black owned media and be skate. It, and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Pull up a chair. Take your seat.

The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering

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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-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. 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 season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers. But we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

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