Speaker 1: Keep on riding with it, says, we continue to broadcast
Speaker 1: the balance and defend the discourse from the Hip Hop
Speaker 1: Weekly Studios. Welcome back to Civic Cipher. I'm your host, Rams' joh.
Speaker 2: He is Ramsy's jah, I am q Ward. You are
Speaker 2: tuned in a Civic cipher once again.
Speaker 3: Indeed you are.
Speaker 1: And uh, it was very very nice to hear your
Speaker 1: voice just now because you seem very composed and I'm
Speaker 1: having a tough one this show, and normally or sometimes
Speaker 1: you know that's that's flip flop.
Speaker 2: But you know you're think it's it's just a difference
Speaker 2: of our emotions always right, You are feeling sadness when
Speaker 2: your brother is feeling anger, and the way that those
Speaker 2: emotions come out is very very different. It's not composure
Speaker 2: that you're noticing. It's me trying not to flip over.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, stick around because we have happier news to
Speaker 1: talk about President Kamala Harris. That's new and that gives
Speaker 1: me a little bit of hope. But before we get there,
Speaker 1: it's time to discuss Baba becoming a better ally Baba
Speaker 1: and Today's Babba sponsored by Friends of the Movement. You
Speaker 1: can sign up for the free voter while it from
Speaker 1: Fotmglobal dot com support black businesses and allied businesses as
Speaker 1: well as making impact with your spending. Again, that's Fotmglobal
Speaker 1: dot Com Today. I'm asking you to watch your film
Speaker 1: Easy Work. You can find it on Facebook. No, sorry,
Speaker 1: you can find it on YouTube. It's called Where Olive
Speaker 1: Trees Weep. I'm going to share a blurb from their website.
Speaker 1: The film gives background into the current crisis in Israel
Speaker 1: Palestine and brings to light the lives of people we
Speaker 1: met on our twenty twenty two journey in the occupied
Speaker 1: West Bank. Their universally human stories speak of intergenerational pain, trauma,
Speaker 1: and resilience. We hope they touch your hearts, stir compassion
Speaker 1: and understanding, and give rise to a pursuit for justice.
Speaker 1: But without justice, peace remains an empty slogan cine, it
Speaker 1: can be a powerful force for change. Our aim, beyond
Speaker 1: mere education is to truly move hearts and minds and
Speaker 1: inspire audiences to echo the calls for freedom, equality and
Speaker 1: dignity that have gone unanswered for far too long. The
Speaker 1: film is our modest contribution towards the dream of an
Speaker 1: end of the occupation in Palestine, the attainment of equal
Speaker 1: rights and pair treatment for Palestinian people, and the spreading
Speaker 1: of healing for all intergenerational cycles of trauma in the region.
Speaker 1: You can find the film at where Olivetreesweep dot com. Again,
Speaker 1: you can find it on YouTube where Olive Trees Weep.
Speaker 1: And I want you to know I saw this film.
Speaker 1: It is incredibly powerful, and I'm gonna spoil the ending
Speaker 1: for you, but I just feel like it's important because
Speaker 1: I really want you to watch it.
Speaker 3: I really do.
Speaker 2: OK.
Speaker 1: The film was recorded in twenty twenty two, so it
Speaker 1: was before October seventh, and you get a chance to
Speaker 1: get a glimpse into the life of what it means
Speaker 1: to be Palestinian, and it's just magnificent. Again where Olive
Speaker 1: Trees Weep. I know that we have some some unfinished
Speaker 1: business with the first half of the show, but perhaps
Speaker 1: we will table that for a later discussion, or perhaps
Speaker 1: it will make its way into this conversation, but I
Speaker 1: do want to give this moment it's proper due. President
Speaker 1: Harris has a has a little bit of a ring
Speaker 1: to it. I like that I know that you know
Speaker 1: this already, and you know based on our recording schedule
Speaker 1: and the way we air. This is news that has
Speaker 1: been celebrated, but around here we need to talk about this.
Speaker 3: First. I'm going to start with.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's decision to step down, and then Q's going
Speaker 1: to jump in with Kamala Harris's announcement that you know,
Speaker 1: she sent us an email blast to folks. So we'll
Speaker 1: do this and then we'll lean into it. This from
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, my fellow Americans. Over the past three and
Speaker 1: a half years, we have made great progress as a nation. Today,
Speaker 1: America has the strongest economy in the world. We've made
Speaker 1: historic investments in rebuilding our nation and lowering prescription drug
Speaker 1: costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable healthcare to a
Speaker 1: record number of Americans. We've provided critically needed care to
Speaker 1: a million veterans exposed to toxic substances, past the first
Speaker 1: gun safety law, and thirty years appointed the first African
Speaker 1: American woman to the Supreme Court, and passed the most
Speaker 1: significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America
Speaker 1: has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.
Speaker 1: I know none of this can have been done without you,
Speaker 1: the American people. Together we overcame a once in a
Speaker 1: century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Speaker 1: We've protected and preserved our democracy, and we've revitalized and
Speaker 1: strengthened our alliances around the world. It has been the
Speaker 1: greatest honor of my life to serve as your president.
Speaker 1: And while it has been my intention to seek re election,
Speaker 1: I believe it is in the best interest of my
Speaker 1: party and the country for me to stand down and
Speaker 1: focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the
Speaker 1: remainder of my term. For my part, my very first
Speaker 1: decision as the party nominee in twenty twenty was to
Speaker 1: pick Kamala Harris as my vice president and it's been
Speaker 1: the best decision I've made Today. I want to offer
Speaker 1: my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the
Speaker 1: nominee of our party this year. Democrats, it's time to
Speaker 1: come together and beat Trump. Fantastic good show. I was
Speaker 1: worried there was a lot of ego there. Father Time
Speaker 1: comes for all of us, uh and Father Time wins
Speaker 1: that battle one hundred percent of the time. And you know,
Speaker 1: for those of us that were we were in the
Speaker 1: media during twenty twenty that election, we had we had
Speaker 1: a whole show dedicated to, you know, Joe Biden after
Speaker 1: he won that election, and before he won, we had
Speaker 1: a couple.
Speaker 3: Of shows leading up too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So we had a differ, diferent lens in a
Speaker 1: different perspective. We had to cover it, so we had
Speaker 1: to go deep in a lot of different areas. And
Speaker 1: Joe Biden was the candidate at the time that Democrats
Speaker 1: thought could beat Trump. We around here, we were fans
Speaker 1: of Bernie's messaging, Bernie Sanders's messaging. But after the primaries,
Speaker 1: the powers that be decided that Joe Biden was more
Speaker 1: electable and appealed more to people in the middle, wasn't
Speaker 1: as polarizing as Bernie would have been, and could secure
Speaker 1: a win. And to their credit, perhaps they're right. They
Speaker 1: were right, you know, Joe Biden. Who's to say a
Speaker 1: Bernie would have won or not. I still believe in Bernie,
Speaker 1: but Joe Biden won. The thing is, people were excited
Speaker 1: about Bernie Sanders. Before Bernie Sanders, people were excited about
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. And before then, people were
Speaker 1: excited about Barack Obama. Nobody was excited about Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: People were excited to get Trump out of office and
Speaker 1: that manage vote for People were hopeful.
Speaker 2: There you go, that we could get Trump out of office.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say excited, because I remember that
Speaker 2: I wasn't and I remember that a lot of people
Speaker 2: shared my fears, right because once at a time Trump
Speaker 2: announced himself as a potential candidate, and we collectively laughed
Speaker 2: because we felt he couldn't have been serious. And as
Speaker 2: we collectively laughed, he became the president. And the way
Speaker 2: that people just kind of assumed he would lose when
Speaker 2: he ran the first time, some people brought that same
Speaker 2: energy back, cavalier apathetic approach back again. And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: so we're clearly not paying attention here, and we don't
Speaker 2: have a candidate that we're excited about on top of that.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if excitement is a word that
Speaker 2: we can use at any moment prior to those results
Speaker 2: being announced, And then it was more relieve.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you excite, but you know, to be fair,
Speaker 1: that's that. That's more or less how Joe Biden rows
Speaker 1: up in our minds and in a lot of voter's minds.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden was not polling well. I remember there were
Speaker 1: that people were speculating that he was going to drop
Speaker 1: out early on, and then when it ended up coming
Speaker 1: down to the wire, the Democratic establishment does what it
Speaker 1: did in twenty sixteen as well, and they says, hey,
Speaker 1: look it doesn't matter who has the support, we need
Speaker 1: somebody that can win the seat.
Speaker 3: And that was their strategy.
Speaker 1: So Joe Biden is now the president, Okay, And Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: The thing that stands out in my mind about Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: He's done a number of things. This is in no
Speaker 1: way a knock to Joe Biden. But the thing that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden represents in my mind is that he is
Speaker 1: the reason that we didn't have to see Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: face every day anymore. Right, So, of all the things
Speaker 1: that he did, that was the one that, on an
Speaker 1: emotional level, really changed so much and meant the most,
Speaker 1: meant the most. Yeah, but we live in interesting times. Somehow,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump getting arrested and having his mug shot shown.
Speaker 1: This was the president his.
Speaker 2: Mug shot like he was in jail, that legitimately arrested
Speaker 2: and a legitimately photographed. This was not some hurple that
Speaker 2: this was not some political scheme by the left. He
Speaker 2: did actual criminal be he did crimes, was actually convicted
Speaker 2: of said crimes, still on trial for others, so adjudicated
Speaker 2: in others.
Speaker 1: So I mean, your your your point is well made.
Speaker 1: Instead of doing what that should have done. No, we
Speaker 1: don't elect criminals to office knowingly, right.
Speaker 2: To any office, let alone the office.
Speaker 1: But we don't do that knowingly, do we. But rather
Speaker 1: than that, yeah, just qualifying causing his supporters to turn
Speaker 1: away from it galvanized them. And then you know, him
Speaker 1: being liable for sexual assault and then him getting found
Speaker 1: guilty on thirty four felony counts, all these things galvanize
Speaker 1: being a.
Speaker 2: Part of these Epstein documents that his base said they
Speaker 2: lamored for for them to be released when they thought
Speaker 2: that the names would be on the other side of
Speaker 2: the aisle. And then when his name is there repeatedly,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, forget everything that this guy
Speaker 1: did during his first term as president and campaigning.
Speaker 3: This is just in the past two years.
Speaker 2: He's doing since he's left off, show him more popular
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 1: And that's the crazy thing. Now here's the other part
Speaker 1: of it. Joe Biden had a bad debate and a
Speaker 1: bad follow up interview. I will see that entirely right,
Speaker 1: But that didn't rally Trump's base. They were kind of that.
Speaker 1: They had already painted Joe Biden as kind of passed
Speaker 1: his prime and blah blah blah, So that's maybe what
Speaker 1: they expected. They expected Donald Trump to show up and
Speaker 1: be Donald Trump, which is exactly what happened. So nothing
Speaker 1: to see here in terms of what they were seeing.
Speaker 1: Democrats were disappointed. Republicans were like, yeah, we told you,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But that assassination attempt didn't
Speaker 1: affect polling, didn't affect that the way that people thought
Speaker 1: it would. No, numbers are more or less the same
Speaker 1: as they always were, right, But that assassination attempt on
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, him getting shot in the ear, it was exciting.
Speaker 1: It made them feel like, we have to get this
Speaker 1: guy in the office. See they're try there's a plot
Speaker 1: to kill it. The guy that shot him, by the way,
Speaker 1: was a registered Republican.
Speaker 2: A registered Republican that votes Republican. That's important to say,
Speaker 2: because I saw the conspiracy theories that this guy donated
Speaker 2: one Democrats had him registered Republicans so that they can.
Speaker 3: He was twenty years old.
Speaker 2: This is a registered Republican, voted Republican tried to assassinate
Speaker 2: a man with a weapon that Democrats tried to make
Speaker 2: illegal that Republicans stood in the way of. And they
Speaker 2: are somehow still framing it as the fault.
Speaker 1: Of Republicans, posed with pictures with those guns, like it's cool,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know why you want this murder, But
Speaker 1: beyond their glamorizing it, Democratic legislators and lawmakers tried to
Speaker 1: make that an illegal gun. Yeah, and Republican legislators and
Speaker 1: lawmakers stood in the way from making that happen. So
Speaker 1: to them, try to blame Democrats for what happened. You
Speaker 1: would think it was crazy, except it's the world we
Speaker 1: live here. We are range times. But the fact of
Speaker 1: the matter is that to them Donald Trump seems somehow
Speaker 1: more exciting because he's a criminal to them, he's heroic
Speaker 1: to them.
Speaker 2: Somehow.
Speaker 1: It's a cult, man, it's a cult. They showed up
Speaker 1: with the band aids on their ears like they got
Speaker 1: shot in solidarity, Like this is weird, weirdo behavior.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, because we need on the left side of the
Speaker 1: country a candidate that feels exciting, This is kind of
Speaker 1: the narrative I'm sure in closed door conversations for Democrats,
Speaker 1: because we need balance. You know, it's a political system.
Speaker 1: There's two parties and you need you know, if one
Speaker 1: has this, the other needs that and that sort of thing. Right,
Speaker 1: So we have one on the one side, we need
Speaker 1: one on the other side, an exciting candidate, a candidate
Speaker 1: that gets people fired up, a candidate that breeds new
Speaker 1: blood into the voter base, new new oxygen into the
Speaker 1: voter base. And we have a black woman to the rescue.
Speaker 1: And if that's not the most poetic thing, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It is so cute. What does Kamala Harris have to
Speaker 1: say after Joe Biden says he's not seeking reelection.
Speaker 2: I am running to be President of the United States.
Speaker 2: It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve
Speaker 2: alongside our commander in chief, my friend, President Joe Biden,
Speaker 2: one of the finest public servants we will ever know,
Speaker 2: and I am honored to have his support and endorsement.
Speaker 2: I am eager to run on the record of what
Speaker 2: Joe and I have accomplished together. We built our country
Speaker 2: back after our predecessor, predecessor left it in shambles, making
Speaker 2: historic progress and reducing prescription drug cross cost, upgrading our
Speaker 2: nation's infrastructure, fighting climate change, and more. We are stronger
Speaker 2: today because we took action together to invest in America's future.
Speaker 2: I am excited to continue to work toward our vision
Speaker 2: for a better future for all. I am honored to
Speaker 2: have the President's endorsement, and my intention is to earn
Speaker 2: and win this nomination in the coming days as I
Speaker 2: hit the campaign trail to meet with Americans and lay
Speaker 2: out the choice in frontal voters in the fall, I
Speaker 2: cannot imagine two more starkly different visions of where we
Speaker 2: want our country to go. We can choose the dark
Speaker 2: path of Project twenty twenty five, with less freedom and
Speaker 2: more division, or we can choose to pull together and
Speaker 2: do the work for the people. That was like a
Speaker 2: president to me. I do not want to pretend like
Speaker 2: this is not exciting. I do not want to pretend
Speaker 2: like the idea of President Kamala Harris from the Alpha
Speaker 2: chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority incorporated on the campus
Speaker 2: of Howard University in Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: Shout out to the skiwez isn't.
Speaker 2: Exciting and that should have been a super exciting moment.
Speaker 2: But let me tell you, guys, where my anxiety has
Speaker 2: come from since this announcement. Our lack of ability to
Speaker 2: unify the things that divide us in this country, show
Speaker 2: their faces and make their voices heard the loudest in
Speaker 2: moments like this, because immediately the group of people in
Speaker 2: this country that feel like a woman of any color
Speaker 2: is unfit to lead, they have to speak up. And
Speaker 2: then black people who don't want people to think that
Speaker 2: they are just supporting her because she's black, have to
Speaker 2: then go the extreme opposite direction to show you all
Speaker 2: the reasons that they're not just so they don't get
Speaker 2: put in a box and want to consider themselves free thinkers,
Speaker 2: right contrarians with no real cause except for to be contrary.
Speaker 2: You know what you mean, Our gen zers, who by
Speaker 2: no fault of their own have been completely almost left
Speaker 2: out of most messaging by both parties. Just a lack
Speaker 2: of ability to reach this generation of brand new voters
Speaker 2: who are looking for someone to be excited about.
Speaker 3: Why would I go out and vote?
Speaker 2: You know, and a different sector of that contrarian base
Speaker 2: that is not out to just show that we're not
Speaker 2: just supporting her because we're black, but the Democratic Party
Speaker 2: has done nothing to earn our votes, so we're going
Speaker 2: to support Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: It's a leap, which is.
Speaker 2: The one of all of those that shines the brightest
Speaker 2: red light to me. I can understand the first part
Speaker 2: of that thought being expressed. I have been let down.
Speaker 2: I have lived through unfulfilled promises. I have donated money
Speaker 2: and time and my voice and my endorsement and my
Speaker 2: support to this party as long as I've been old
Speaker 2: enough to vote, and they've done nothing specifically for me.
Speaker 3: Can I give you a scenario please?
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I'm in Texas. I'm on my way to New York, Okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to take a train. Okay, the Red
Speaker 1: train is going to Los Angeles and the Blue train
Speaker 1: is broken. Which train am I going to get on?
Speaker 1: If I need to go to New York? Am I
Speaker 1: going to Los Angeles?
Speaker 3: No? I don't need to get on the red trick.
Speaker 2: It's a one way to Los Angeles by one way. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know what. I'm trying to painting a new scenario.
Speaker 3: I'm not going backwards.
Speaker 2: It's important to state the choice that Rams has just
Speaker 2: laid out is intentionally binary. It is intentionally zero sum.
Speaker 2: One of the trains is set taking me further away
Speaker 2: from it is set for New York but broken. The
Speaker 2: other one's going to Los Angeles. That's where it's going.
Speaker 3: Period.
Speaker 2: You have to get to New York. We got to
Speaker 2: fix the Blue train.
Speaker 3: And go to New York.
Speaker 2: This is not even a it's not a hard problem.
Speaker 2: But I can the reason I know what's happening rams
Speaker 2: because I've had these conversations with people that I know
Speaker 2: and care about. They will find a way to have
Speaker 2: a conversation about that Los Angeles training. That's somehow better.
Speaker 3: I'm going to New York.
Speaker 1: Eh.
Speaker 3: That one's not going to New York and the opposite.
Speaker 2: Direction important to say. We have people that fix trains.
Speaker 2: People that know how to fix trains are present. It's
Speaker 2: not this is this train isn't doomed to be forever broken.
Speaker 2: We have the mechanics and the tools and the source
Speaker 2: is necessary to fix it.
Speaker 3: It's been broken for a while.
Speaker 2: We can all collectively pour into that and fix it. Instead,
Speaker 2: getting on the Los Angeles train is not the solution. However,
Speaker 2: that is the decision that some people have made. So
Speaker 2: we spoke about this before Black women immediately organized, mobilized collectively,
Speaker 2: and got together as soon as this was announced. By
Speaker 2: this time yesterday, they were already thirty thousand black women
Speaker 2: on a call together, raising money, organizing, showing their support.
Speaker 1: Oh I remember that wasn't Yes, that was a few
Speaker 1: days ago.
Speaker 2: I know what's today. Yeah, So whenever you guys are
Speaker 2: hearing us. Shortly after this announcement was made, black women
Speaker 2: organized and support Arian Simona the Fearless Fun posted one
Speaker 2: band one sound the famous quote from Doctor Lee in
Speaker 2: the movie drum Line. However, every black woman that saw
Speaker 2: that knew exactly what she meant, and they got on
Speaker 2: the same page together. So very very important because everyone
Speaker 2: has a chance to do the right thing here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I know sometimes we're tired of being shouldered with
Speaker 2: the responsibility of doing the right thing, even when it
Speaker 2: doesn't feel good, even though we're not getting everything we
Speaker 2: want from it. However, we know the responsible, right thing
Speaker 2: to do, and I hope that we're about to do that.
Speaker 1: I'd also like to direct you to some conversations that
Speaker 1: you and I have had at the Black Information Network,
Speaker 1: and you can just look up Black Information Network Daily
Speaker 1: Podcast because we do go into more detail about this
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris presidency. But for now we have to leave
Speaker 1: Civic Cipher right here. So as always, i'd like to
Speaker 1: thank you very much for tuning in. I have been
Speaker 1: your host Rams' job.
Speaker 2: He is now and forever your host Rams' jah because
Speaker 2: without him there is no Civic Sipher. I have to
Speaker 2: say that to him sometimes because he'd be tripping as
Speaker 2: both of us, man I am, I can't do and
Speaker 2: if there's not both of us, it's a different show.
Speaker 2: I just gotta say that out.
Speaker 3: That's fair.
Speaker 1: But we do appreciate you listening and we would love
Speaker 1: for you to tap in with us. You can do
Speaker 1: so following us on all social media. We're at Civic Cipher.
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Speaker 1: like your support there as well.
Speaker 3: Don't forget.
Speaker 1: You can hit the website and download this show in
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Speaker 1: we'll keep doing right by you. And until next week, y'all, peace,